Myth 5: Government keeps people in the camps to grab their land

MANY truths and many lies have been told about the war in Northern Uganda. The fact that the conflict has become deeply politicised, and that the parties involved have become parties of interest, has complicated the understanding of the conflict, and thus made it difficult to agree on a solution. The New Vision travelled to the region, visiting the biggest camps and interviewing camp leaders as well as displaced people, to distinguish truths from lies, facts from myths. Camps visited included: Pabbo, Amuru and Atiak in Gulu district; Padibe, Mucwini and Kitgum Matidi in Kitgum district; Patongo, Rackoko and Lapul in Pader District; Barr, Erute, Aloi and Agweng in Lira District; Minakulu and Otwal in Apac District, Okude and Orungo in Amuria District, Teso. Els De Temmerman and Chris Ochowun write.

It has become a familiar sight all over Acholiland. By 9:00am, the roadblocks around the IDP camps open, like flood gates. People, armed with hoes and pangas, swarm the roads and surrounding fields. Some take their cows grazing. Soldiers can be seen patrolling the countryside and guarding cattle.

“The soldiers go first,” explains camp leader Fidensio Nokrach. “They leave at 7:00am to secure the area. Then, the people follow. They cultivate the whole day, in a radius of 3km and go back to the camp by 4:00pm. The soldiers return at 5:00pm. This security arrangement works. Our only problem is land.”
Land is probably the most sensitive and the most politicised aspect of the conflict in northern Uganda. The myth that the government keeps people in camps — and the war going — in order to grab their land, has been persistent and a great source of fear.

During the election campaigns, the land issue was greatly exploited by opposition politicians. Reagan Okumu was seen at a rally in Gulu municipality, waving a document, claiming the government had sold Aswa Ranch to the Libyans. The government has refuted the allegation. “The ranch still belongs to the government and is meant for lifestock,” says Mary Mugenyi, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry. “Which investor would be interested in buying a farm in an area where there is war?”

Nevertheless, some observers believe the land allegations were the main reason for the Movement’s dismal performance in the north. Even NGOs and churches have bought the argument.
“Everywhere one goes in Acholiland, one encounters fear that the Acholi’s land will be stolen from them,” is written in a report, titled Land Matters in Displacement by the Coalition of Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda of December 2004.
“A few individual senior army officers have taken possession of privately owned land and have been farming it for their own personal benefit. No permission was offered or payment made,” the report claims.

“There are widespread and detailed reports of logging being undertaken by military personnel in both Gulu and Kitgum districts. These are areas which the army has told people to vacate and to which it denies them access. The result is to confirm in people’s minds that they were expelled from their homes for the purpose of enabling senior military officers to grow rich by stealing their natural resources.”

“The constant talk of bringing investors to Northern Uganda has also created fear,” the report continues. “It is believed that the central government brought investors directly to see land that the IDPs have been told they cannot access. In such a climate, even the construction of security roads can create fear. Many believe that the only reason to construct roads is to enable the army to open up farms on their land.”

The panic these kind of reports generate is understandable. People in the north are well aware that land is their key productive asset and that, without it, they are destitute. Most land in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader is held under customary tenure. People own land simply because they have always lived on it and therefore have been regarded as the owners of the land. They have no official papers proving that they own the land.

As one observer put it: “Title deeds are a foreign concept in Acholiland. Imagine being confined to a camp, deprived of your land, hearing rumours of people occupying your land and there are no documents to prove that that land is yours!”

Senior army officers in Gulu react with astonishment to the allegations. “Maybe they are referring to my plot in Purongo, along the Gulu-Pakwach road,” says Colonel Charles Otema, Intelligence Coordinator for Northern Uganda. “But that is my ancestral land! My grand father is buried there! Let anybody come and claim that land belongs to him.”

The commander of the fourth Division, Colonel Nathan Mugisha, is equally surprised. “I don’t have any knowledge of farming or logging by the army,” he says. “Our soldiers don’t have time for that. Maybe they mean the slashing of the roadsides, which is done to avoid ambushes. Or maybe they are referring to the two acres on Otema’s land, where I tried to grow rice once, but it failed.”
During our week-long journey all over northern Uganda, we could not find any evidence or report of land grabbing by either government officials, army officers or foreign investors. However hard we tried, we did not spot any soldiers farming or logging, or meet anybody who could confirm the claims.

In Gulu district, where we visited Atiak, Pabbo and Amuru IDP camps, none of the camp leaders we interviewed had heard of any land being illegally occupied.

“No land has been grabbed around here,” said William George Odong, the LC3 Chairman of Atiak. “Neither by the government, the army or foreign investors. Only an NGO is trying to grow some crops here after an arrangement with the community.”

“In Pabbo area no land has been taken by outsiders,” said LC2 Chairman of Bira, Alfred Ojera. “People who go to their villages find their gardens intact. All their trees are still there.”

Mzee Benson Pajob in Amuru, too, had not heard of any case of land grabbing. “The only land disputes here are among us, mainly about land boundaries, between people of Amuru and Pabbo,” he said.

In Kitgum, where we interviewed the camp leaders of Padibe, Mucwini and Kitgum Matidi, no farming or logging by outsiders had been reported. “Nobody came to take or buy land here,” Livingstone Kole, the camp leader of Mucwini, assured us. “I have not heard of any piece of land occupied by strangers,” also confirmed Martin Opiyo, a youth leader in Kitgum Matidi.

The camp leaders of Lapul, Patongo and Rackoko gave similar responses. “There is no farming being done by outsiders on people’s land. The only thing that happens is that some people rent out their land to IDPs to cultivate,” Celestino Okello of Patongo told us. “What I know is that no land has been taken around here,” Terece Ottika Kanyum of Lapul IDP camp also asserted.

The reality is that most people in Northern Uganda are displaced only a short distance, thus enabling them to check on their gardens regularly. The above report found that three quarters of the IDPs interviewed in Acholiland were less than six kilometres away from their land.

A study of September 2005, carried out by the Prime Minister’s Office together with UNDP, confirmed this: “Very few — only 5% — of the camp population live in another district today than when they were born. One of four people lives in the same place as they were born and an additional 40% live in the same sub-county.”

The reality is that the government has been urging people to go home in the Lango and Teso regions, even providing them with iron sheets to rebuild their homes. The President himself ordered the camps to be closed by the end of March 2006. In Acholiland, the big camps are being decongested into many smaller camps, so as to take people closer to their fields.

One particular story is telling for the general atmosphere in the North. The army distributed meat rations in the form of cows to its barracks. As the mobile forces in Gulu were moving around, the supplier dropped the cows at a farm in Laminatoo, Koch Goma sub-county, from where they were taken to the mobile troops to be slaughtered.

The brief presence of the cows at the group farm caused so much commotion, that a mission of land owners had to be organised by the local councillor, combing out the entire area, to confirm that the cows had indeed been taken to the mobile forces, and had not been brought to stay.

Such is the climate of suspicion and fear that surrounds the land issue in Northern Uganda. Giving people land titles could take away some of those fears. But the traditional leaders and clan elders are opposed to that. They fear it will lead to the individualisation of ownership and a sell-out of their land.