There are queries on IDPs

SIR — The Government has started sending people home from IDP camps. On the surface, this is very good because that is precisely what the people yearn for day and night. But there are many unanswered questions. It was announced that IDPs “will walk home”. How about the multitudes of IDPs who have to travel very long distances? How about those who crossed from one district to another? Will the IDPs have to carry whatever remaining property they may have, the promised food stuffs for six months and iron sheets on their heads? These people have had no source of livelihood for over three years and cannot afford transport fares back to their homes. If 10,000 people are relocated near their farms in the name of decongestion, will they really be able to farm effectively, given that some will have to walk as far as eight to 10 kilometres to their farms? After three years of displacement in Teso and Lango and up to 20 years in in Acholi, what used to be gardens of these IDPs have become bushes and the current planting season may most likely be missed by the returnees as they try to clear and reclaim their land. What happens when the six-month food supply runs out before any harvest? Are there Any guarantees for additional food supplies? What plans are there for schools and medical centres to take care of school-going children and the sick? Are iron sheets being provided to IDPs meant for the temporary shelters they will erect in the decongested camps or for construction of (semi-permanent structures in their former villages? And the big question is: how are the returnees expected to cope with security threats? Joseph Kony is still at large, and remnants of his rebel army still stray into Lango. For instance, an eye witness account by an LC chairman on a local FM in Lira on Easter Sunday reported that five rebels attacked a place called Nora, near Karuma bridge in Aber sub-county, Oyam South and killed a pregnant woman and a man. In Otuke and Moroto counties and parts of Teso, armed Karimojong warriors have been rustling cattle and terrorising wananchi. The people therefore still feel quite insecure. What are the security guarantees to the affected people? The defence ministry needs to think about all this.

Benson Obua-Ogwal
Moroto, Lira