Besigye Promises To Resettle Sabiny

PRESIDENTIAL candidate Col Kizza Besigye has promised to resettle hundreds of Sabiny displaced from the Mt. Elgon Forest Park in Kapchorwa district, starting March, reports Rashid Muzungyo. Besigye also urged the Sabiny to elect him president to enable him to implement the resettlement programme. He told a campaign rally at Kapchorwa Boma grounds recently that it was wrong for the government to evict forest dwellers on the pretext of conserving the environment. Besigye, accompanied by his wife, Winnie Byanyima, further promised a speedy implementation of the inter-ministerial task force report (1996) on the resettlement of families evicted from Mt. Elgon Forest Park. "I have been hearing that people were dispossessed of their land, that it's a forest reserve. How can they dispossess you of your land?" he asked. Besigye was responding to a bitter complaint raised by his district task force chairman Peter Kamuron, who said Museveni's government had delayed implementation of the inter ministerial task force recommendations. "I would like to assure you that we want to create a government which listens to people and attends to them. I would like you to be firm....don't be intimidated, stand firm and say 15 years is enough," Besigye told a cheering crowd that braved an evening downpour on Monday. The rally was attended by his political coordinator Louis Otika. Ends