190,000 IDPs are still waiting to return – Land conflicts are escalating

More than three years after the end of the civil war in Northern Uganda

190,000 IDPs and expelled Acholi are still waiting to return to their home villages. The Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV) drew attention on Wednesday to the difficult situation of these forgotten refugees from the war. "Urgent action is required of the Ugandan government and the international community to ensure a safe return of the Acholi, a tribe of northern Uganda, who were forced to move,” said the STP Africa consultant, Ulrich Delius. Land conflicts are preventing the Acholi from going back to their old villages.

"Without justice for the Acholi there will be no reconciliation and no lasting peace in northern Uganda”, warned Delius. The Acholi have no written titles of ownership because they have always tilled the land communally. Solutions in court for the settlement of the land conflicts are not possible since they have no money for the fees. Arson, murder and violence are the consequence of many unresolved conflicts between old and new inhabitants and former soldiers. Local human rights organizations like the "Human Rights Focus” group charge senior officers of using the expulsion of the civilian population to secure the control of hundreds of hectares of land.

Uganda’s government rejects all charges as unsubstantiated and emphasizes that 1.8 million refugees from the war have already made a successful return. "However figures like this give a false picture of normality, which for many IDPs can certainly not be taken for granted”, emphasized Delius. Many of those returning have no access to farming-land and have no idea as to how they are to provide for themselves. It is above all war widows who are often prevented from tilling the fields. It is true that more than 120 of the former 243 refugee camps have now been closed, but in the district of Gulu, for example, which was right in the middle of the fighting, 20,000 of the 32,000 displaced persons have not been able to return to their old villages.

Some two million civilians were driven out of their villages by Ugandan security forces during the 20-year war against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and interned in camps. Instead of finding protection in the camps the civilians were constantly exposed to terror both from the regular soldiers as well as from the LRA. Recently published studies show that about 97 percent of all deaths among civilians were caused by inhuman conditions in the camps and only three percent by attacks from the LRA. In September 2006 the Ugandan government and the LRA signed a cease-fire. In October 2007 the authorities set up a reconstruction programme for northern Uganda.