Trip to the north

Yesterday we visited Lango district in northern Uganda. Since 1986 (when Museveni came to power) the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have been waging a bush war against the government and against civilians, through violence, human rights abuses and the abduction of children who are then forced to be soldiers. From 1996 onwards the government strategy to defeat the LRA became to put the civilian population into 'protected villages' or Internally Displaced Person's (IDP) camps, in order to reduce the support the LRA received in the north, and to be able to separate the LRA from civilians. Uganda has a very evident north and south divide, relating to different tribes and people groups, who when in power have always oppressed the other, which is the reason the northern insurgency started when Museveni came to power. The north has been largely neglected, while the south has prospered and enjoyed peace. The government has used a primarily military strategy against the LRA, mostly unsuccessfully although they claim that the war is now almost over and people can now return home. It is very evident, though, from the information I've looked at from various agencies here, that the war is not over and the LRA are still active, if a little less than before.
In 2002 in an attempt to clamp down altogether on the LRA, the government forced the entire population of northern Uganda into IDP camps, where they remain today - 1.8 million of them.
SO - it was one of these camps that we went to visit yesterday. The districts we went to, Lira and Apac, are now relatively safe from LRA attacks, who are more active further north. However, people remain in camps due to fear, and up until recently, due to enforced curfews and restrictions imposed by the army.
The IDP camps are made up of millions of mud huts with straw roofs, built very close together, with limited access to water and sanitation as well as health and education. There is inadequate levels of aid to most camps (even more so since last week when the army stopped all escorts in most districts, which means humanitarian agencies now can't access them), and very few opportunities for people to sustain adequate livelihoods as they did before.
There has been very little international attention on this conflict, despite its horrendous nature. There may hopefully be some movement today when Jan Egeland briefs the Security Council on the situation following his visit here and the meetings he attended with the government and NGOs (see previous post..). The government is reluctant to be put on the Security Council's agenda and has been trying to convince the UN that the situation is not as bad as the humanitarian agencies say it is. While I've been here there's been a big hoo haa with the government criticising Oxfam and other NGOs for a report they released about the north, which made the headlines for quite a few days.
I hope that puts you in the picture, stay tuned for photos of the north tomorrow!
love
anna