By Joyce Namutebi
and John Odyek
Prime minister Prof. Apolo Nsibambi has said the Government has put in place measures to ensure peace returns to the north.
He said various programmes had been put in place to support the resettlement of people displaced by the war.
Nsibambi was responding to questions raised by MPs during debate on a motion on the President’s State of the Nation address.
He said a major security threat to Uganda has been terrorism spearheaded by Joseph Kony especially in the north but government had used a two-pronged approach of the military offensive and peace talks to end the terrorism.
He said the indictment of Kony and his top commanders at the International Criminal Court (ICC) notwithstanding, the Government had accepted peace proposals by the Vice President of Sudan Salva Kiir. He said should the talks be successful, government would find a diplomatic and legal solution of handling the ICC process.
He said implementation of the action plan for resettlement of IDPs was going on and that government had provided iron sheets worth sh3.5b to some of the IDPs in addition to sh18.9b to support the resettlement and re-integration exercise.
He said another sh1.5b would be spent on agricultural implements.
He said with support from UNDP, government was implementing a mine action programme to clear home areas of IDPs of landmines. Nsibambi said MPs’ complaints that the north got less grants for health and education than other regions, ignored the parameters used in determining resource allocation such as the size of the population.
He said there were programmes that benefit the north such as the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund worth US$100m.
He said districts were also given equalisation grants, based on the degree to which a local government unit was lagging behind the national average standard for a particular service. He said the north gets 43%, east 18% and central 7%.
Nsibambi refuted accusations by the Leader of Opposition, Prof. Ogenga Latigo, that government fabricated charges against Besigye. He said it was not proper for Latigo to demand that President Museveni discontinue all court proceedings against Besigye.
He said the President does not have the power to do so, adding that “government will respect the final court verdict in all cases,” the Premier said.
He accused old political parties of demonising themselves and that their leadership was not only poor but sectarian.
Ends