With Christmas just a few days away, and news of an extended ceasefire between the government and rebels, the inhabitants of northern Uganda might be expected to be getting into the swing of the festive season.
Instead, there is concern that starving fighters from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) will emerge from the bush in a combative mood, desperate enough to seize food wherever they can find it — or worse.
”I am happy that the president has extended the ceasefire to the end of this month. This shows some level of commitment on the part of the president to resolve peacefully the conflict in northern Uganda,” Macleord Baker Ocholla, vice-chairperson of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, said in an interview from the northern Ugandan town of Gulu.
”Our main fear is that some rebels who are not in Kony’s camp may still come to attack the people. The rebels are hungry and we do not know whether they will come looking for food now that it is the Christmas season,” he added.
Joseph Kony is leader of the LRA, a group that has been fighting to overthrow President Yoweri Museveni’s government for 18 years.
The LRA has said that it wishes to rule Uganda according to the Biblical 10 commandments. However, the group has become known more for its human rights abuses than its piety. Thousands of children have been abducted by the LRA to serve as soldiers, while others have been turned into sex slaves.
Ugandan officials have also been accused of making use of children in this conflict. A 2004 report from the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers claims the government is recruiting children who escape LRA captivity, and forcing them to take part in operations against the rebel group.
”When confronted, the government says the recruitment is being done by the local defence unit, maintaining that the unit is not part of the police force — while we know very clearly that the unit is part and parcel of the Uganda police force,” Geofferey Oyat, a programme manager in Uganda for Save the Children, noted on November 17 during the launch of the report. This event took place in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.
Conflict in northern Uganda has given rise to the emergence of so-called ”night commuters”, people who walk long distances from rural areas to spend the night in school, church or hospital compounds less at risk of being attacked by rebels.
At present, feelings of uncertainty in the region have caused the number of night commuters to spiral.
”I was in Kitgum [a northern town] last week, and the number of people sleeping in the compounds was overwhelming. In the morning from 6am to 8am, the road is flooded with people who spent the night in the streets,” Ocholla noted.
Ceasefire extension
On December 16, Museveni announced that a ceasefire with the LRA had been extended to the end of the month. The truce was initially declared on November 15 for a month, to allow the rebel leadership to discuss reaching a permanent peace settlement.
The extension was opposed by Uganda’s military, which has clashed with the LRA in areas that are not covered by the ceasefire. Sixteen rebels are said to have been killed recently in this violence.
While the LRA accuses the government of jeopardising the peace process, these arguments get short shrift from the army.
”They [the rebels] have had a month since the ceasefire was declared and there is hardly anything they have done from that time. They have even left the peace zone,” Major Shaban Bantariza, an army spokesperson, said in an interview from the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
”They have until December 31 to come up with a conclusive peace agenda to discuss with the government — not those roundabout games they have been playing. We are waiting to see; what action we shall take from the 31st will be determined by their response,” he noted.
Reports last month indicated that LRA representatives had met Betty Bigombe, a former Cabinet minister who is mediating in negotiations between the government and the rebels, to assure her of their commitment to peace.
In the past, critics have accused the government of being lethargic in its response to rebel activity in northern Uganda, which has caused thousands of people to die — and displaced about 1,6-million citizens.
But, officials vehemently refute these allegations.
”What the government has done so far is absolutely enough. How much intervention can there be, other than the ceasefire and an amnesty offered to the rebels?” asked Bantariza.
The amnesty in question, announced by the government in 2000, is awarded to any LRA combatant who renounces the rebellion.
According to Ocholla, hundreds of fighters have taken advantage of the amnesty.
”Over 400 rebels, including child soldiers, have come back in the last few months — and we are optimistic that many more will down their arms, even as Betty Bigombe continues to call for peace,” he says.
Hopes for Sudan peace
There are also hopes that a conclusion to peace talks for southern Sudan will give impetus to negotiations between Uganda’s government and the rebels.
Kampala has long accused Sudanese authorities of allowing the LRA to operate from bases in southern Sudan, which borders on Uganda. In its turn, Sudan has accused Uganda of providing support to the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army, which has fought Khartoum for more than two decades.
In terms of an agreement signed last month in the presence of the United Nations Security Council, the warring parties in southern Sudan are to conclude their peace talks by the end of the year. Stability in the region could it make it less conducive to LRA activity.
”It is good news that the government of Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army are due to sign a comprehensive peace deal by end of this year. We are looking forward to this,” Ocholla said. — IPS