Reuters AlertNet reports that the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda's main opposition party, has announced it will challenge the results of last week's presidential election in the Ugandan Supreme Court. Kizza Besigye, the FDC candidate, said, "The main thrust of the petition is that our supporters were disenfranchised; the falsification of results, of which we have a lot of evidence; and bribery."

The Ugandan electoral commission announced Saturday that incumbent Yoweri Museveni won 59 percent of the vote, while Besigye won 37 percent. FDC supporters protesting the alleged election irregularities have been driven off the streets by riot policemen firing water cannons and tear gas.

A report released yesterday by Refugees International states that the international humanitarian response to the crisis in northern Ugandan IDP camps has been woefully inadequate. It points to failures by both the Ugandan government and the UN to protect civilians from attack and provide for basic needs. According to the report, efforts by humanitarian agencies are often uncoordinated, while access to healthcare and education is severely limited. To read the full report, click here.

Catholic News Service reports that several Catholic-run radio stations in northern Uganda were illegally ordered to halt election coverage in the days leading up to last week's presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda by armed policemen and representatives of the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

Also, the Mail and Guardian reports that the online edition of Uganda's largest independent newspaper, the Monitor, and its sister radio station, KFM, were disabled last week as election results began to trickle in, temporarily preventing independent reporting of the partial election results. Although the Monitor did not directly accuse the Ugandan government of disabling their operations, they did say the government warned them to stop reporting the results.

Uganda's Electoral Commission has declared incumbent Yoweri Museveni the winner of the presidential elections, and the "overall results" have been endorsed by the EU and US. However, Kizza Besigye, the runner-up, and at least one other election monitoring group have declared the election a fraud due to voter intimidation and other widespread irregularities.

The Daily Monitor reports that Adrian Bradbury and Kieran Hayward, founders of GuluWalk, will visit Uganda in March to continue their mission of raising awareness on the suffering of children affected by the 19-year-long insurgency. "Making this trip to meet the children, families and communities who have been most affected, just seemed like the natural next step," said Bradbury. "More than anything we want to listen. We want to make certain that we’re telling the right stories and that we are truly an authentic voice for northern Uganda."

In response to CNN reporter Jeff Koinage's blog about northern Uganda, hundreds of people have responded about their concern for the children. Please take 3 minutes to visit the blog and add a comment, asking CNN to continue its coverage of northern Uganda and encouraging concerned people to join the advocacy movement of Uganda-CAN.

CNN is currently featuring a powerful video of northern Uganda's child "night commuters;" up to 40,000 children are forced nightly to leave their rural homes and walk miles to sleep on town streets to avoid kidnapping. Jeff Koinage reports from northern Uganda: check it out now!

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN news correspondent, reports from Gulu town -

The army in northern Uganda has refuted claims made by some members of the general public that the UPDF stands poised to punish the people of northern Uganda for not voting for the NRM-O party in the recently concluded presidential and parliamentary elections. Speaking to Uganda-CAN this afternoon, the northern UPDF spokesman Lieutenant Chris Magezi said the army’s roles and responsibility does not hinge on any party, but rather to provide security to the nationals of this country and its guests.

He further said the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) no longer have any capacity to challenge the UPDF because they have been weakened. He said they are now on an upward trend to bring this long conflict to an end. However, the general public believes the re-election of President Yoweri Museveni will lead to increased attacks by the LRA on civilians for the next five years.

The plight and misery of children in northern Uganda was the object of a message sent 23 February by World Council of Churches (WCC) general secretary, Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, to the Church of Uganda and the Uganda Joint Christian Council.

"It may not be right to draw up a hierarchy of suffering among the many ongoing conflicts in the region [...] but some are horrendous and tend to be ignored by the international community and the media," the message said. It calls on WCC member churches to "unequivocally denounce those responsible for committing these crimes against humanity with such impunity," and to "urge the international community to remain seized of the situation in northern Uganda and take all action needed to stop the human rights violations."

CNN's famous Anderson Cooper has featured northern Uganda in his 360 degrees blog on CNN.com. Reporter Jeff Koinage writes, "I've covered horror stories across the African continent, and every time, I tell myself I've seen it all. But nothing could have prepared me for the scenes I witnessed in the tiny dusty town of Gulu in northern Uganda."

Rosa Brooks, columnist for The Los Angeles Times, has published an Op/Ed on northern Uganda, titled "Stopping Uganda's War on Children." She writes, "On the international side, the U.N. Security Council — with U.S. leadership — should recognize the conflict as a threat to international peace and security and develop a plan that, if necessary, authorizes third-party states to use force to apprehend the indicted rebel leaders. If top rebel leaders can be removed, all indications are that the insurgency might melt away rapidly." Click here to read the article.

The Council on Foreign Relations has published a brief on the Ugandan presidential elections, published on The New York Times Web site, which talks about the war in northern Uganda. They write, Although Museveni has been credited with reform during his term, the ongoing conflict in Uganda's north between the government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has undermined his reputation. Museveni said at a CFR meeting last September that 'we have actually ended that conflict. We have defeated that terrorist group.' But most human rights experts disagree. Since about 1986, more than one million of Uganda's ethnic Acholi people have been forced into refugee camps across the north and thousands more have been killed, injured, kidnapped, or forced to become child soldiers serving LRA leader Joseph Kony.

"Many experts say Kampala could do more to quell the violence. Still others allege the government is using the conflict to justify the government's defense budget--which is protected from external audits--and maintain Museveni's status in Ugandan politics. 'If the Ugandan army wanted to wipe out the LRA it would have happened by now,' says the Africa correspondent for National Public Radio, Jason Beaubien."

The UN Mission in DR Congo reports that some sixty Ugandan rebels of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) have been for some days in the extreme north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. MISNA received the report from humanitarian sources on the scene, specifying that the Ugandan rebels entered the territory from South Sudan, where they have training camps, and that after crossing the border settled in some small rural villages near Duru.

The Presbyterian News Service reports Olara Otunnu, former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, said that the world's churches are "missing in action" while 1,000 children die each week in squalid camps in northern Uganda. He said this during a global meeting of church leaders, the ninth Assembly of the World Council of churches in Brazil. "The worst place in the world today to be a child is in northern Uganda," said Otunnu. "Where is the church?"

Long lines marked a landmark multiparty election today in Uganda as voters turned out in huge numbers. The more than 20,000 polling stations across the country have been reporting peaceful voting despite fears of violence. Some opposition was reported in Kampala when voters in the Gogonya Zone 1, Nsambya district found their names missing from the register's list while students at Makerere were missing voter cards. In many northern and eastern districts, voting was delayed by early morning rain, however polling stations remained open as lines of voters waited to cast their ballots. Click here to see Uganda's Landmark Poll in Pictures.

Ugandans head to the polls tomorrow to vote in what looks to be the country's closest election in recent history. To learn more about the election, visit The Daily Monitor, Uganda's largest independent newspaper, or click here to read the BBC News' latest reports.

Uganda-CAN shares the worry of Human Rights Watch and others that violence and intimidation could scar a hopeful exercise in democracy. We call on all political parties and activists to use the ballot, not the bullet in working toward change.

The Liu Institute for Global Issues and the Gulu District NGO Forum have jointly launched the Northern Uganda Justice and Reconciliation Project, which will work to promote reconciliation through traditional cultural practices. JRP works directly with victims of conflict in some of the 100 internally-displaced people's camps in northern Uganda, while also disseminating findings to national and international stakeholders through reports, dialogues and workshops. Learn more at the JRP Web site.

Betty Bigombe, chief peace negotiator in northern Uganda, and John Prendergast have today published an Op/Ed in The Philadelphia Inquirer, titled "Stop the Crisis in Northern Uganda." They write, "Despite a more than 20-1 advantage in manpower over the LRA, Uganda's army has been unable to defeat the rebels, and the violence is spreading. The LRA's recent incursion into Congo, the killing of international peacekeepers, and an intensified terror campaign against southern Sudanese civilians threaten each country's fragile transition to peace. The situation is grim, and it requires policy makers with political imagination and moral courage to put forward a comprehensive military and political strategy."

The further write, "United Nations Security Council, with U.S. leadership, must promptly put northern Uganda on its agenda. It must appoint a U.N. envoy to support peace negotiations. The council, working with the Ugandan government, also should investigate external backing for the LRA and impose sanctions on those providing aid." Uganda-CAN supports this call for action, and hopes it will not fall on deaf ears in New York and Washington.

The UN secretary general representative in the Great Lakes region, Ibrahima Fall, Monday called on the international community to create "a second Marshall Plan" to salvage countries of the region. Speaking at the opening of the 3rd inter-ministerial regional committee meeting of the Great Lakes region, Fall said his appeal was based on the need to "help countries of the region rediscover the path to stability and development."

While Uganda-CAN welcomes such attention and aid to the war-torn Great Lakes region, we believe that engagement must begin by addressing the volatile war that continues to rage in northern Uganda, southern Sudan and northeastern DRC. Protracted conflicts threaten peace and security throughout the region and will hinder development initiatives.

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN correspondent in Gulu, reports -

Uganda's former child soldiers, haunted by exposure to violence at a young age, often find little solace when reintegrated into their home communities. Abducted as youth into the throes of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), children are forced to commit acts of violence against the country's northern population until they escape or are captured by the Ugandan military. But when they return home, the nightmare continues, as they face stigmatization from their family and peers.

Today, a woman who identified herself only as Akello and who is the chairperson of a formerly-abducted child mothers association told Uganda-CAN that she went with a friend--who is also a former combatant--to seek enrollment at a nursing school. But her friend was refused entry after admitting that she was formerly in the rebel ranks.

Akello, on hearing and witnessing what happened, lied about her past experiences as a rebel and was offered admission to the school. She told Uganda-CAN that former combatants are perceived as unproductive members of society, even though most are eager to return to studies and to live normal lives.

The Ugandan government has not implemented a comprehensive program to help reintegrate former soldiers and to reconcile communities at odds over how to deal with the returning combatants. For Uganda's children, who are the primary victims of this war, the future is uncertain.

William Bionx Akena, Uganda-CAN correspondent in Gulu, reports -

The hundreds of thousands of people living in the displaced-persons camps of Uganda's northern district of Gulu are daily growing more desperate, as the effects of a twenty-year war overwhelm their capacity to respond.

In Koro Abili camp, about eight miles south of Gulu town on the Gulu Kampala highway, a population of 10,300 live in cramped conditions and lack basic necessities for survival. Many women in the camp have resorted to prostitution as a means of survival.

One woman, Grace, told Uganda-CAN, "There is nothing I can do to survive. My husband has nothing to do within the camp, and we don’t have any piece of land since we left our original home miles away and are now stuck in the camp. I end up cheating on my husband with the military so as to earn something for my children to eat.”

The camp's commandant, Mr. Ojok Nekanori, expressed similar woes, observing that the war has forced many into immoral behaviors, and that the future of children in the camps are at stake, with no education and losing touch with the traditions of their forebears.

"They don’t have respect for their elders. Having been born in the camp setup, they have even gotten involved in lots of very bad acts like smoking as early as 7 years, something that was almost impossible before the war," he said.

No one knows when the war will end, and most are wary to assume that next week's presidential elections will change anything. With recent mortality surveys estimating that 1000 people die weekly due to the effects of the war, the situation appears bleak if no serious international response is galvanized.

Today's Sudan Tribune reports that Salva Kiir - the Sudanese VP, president of southern Sudan, and head of the SPLM - has accused elements of the Sudanese army of still supporting the LRA rebellion. A recent report by the International Crisis Group also cited evidence that elements of the Sudanese military still support the LRA, which began aiding the LRA in 1994 but supposedly stopped under the terms of a 2001 agreement between Sudan and Uganda.

In light of recent claims that the Government of Uganda (GoU) is guilty of genocide by its neglect in northern Uganda, the Uganda Conflict Action Network is commissioning a legal study to determine the nature of abuses. Uganda-CAN will consult with various legal experts in the United States and Uganda to determine if the GoU is guilty of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. Each of these legal categories mandate specific punitive action by the global community.

The war in northern Uganda is the second worst humanitarian crisis in the world with more than 1,000 excess deaths each week. The 20-year-old war, now Africa’s longest running conflict, has displaced more than 1.7 million people in the most squalid camps. Yet, the most horrifying part of the war is that children have been the primary victims. More than 30,000 of them, as young as seven, have been abducted and forced into child soldiering and sexual slavery. In the IDP camps, 50% of the people are children under 15 years. 48% of the children in northern Uganda are stunted from chronic malnutrition. 737 schools, 60% of total in the region, are not functioning as a result of the war. Finally, each night, up to 40,000 of these children, some as young as toddler, are forced to leave their rural homes and walk up to twelve kilometers to sleep on streets and avoid kidnapping.

Uganda-CAN hopes to soon report on the findings of this legal study.

Ten local Los Angeles high schools are organizing Share the Love, a concert to benefit the children of northern Uganda. The concert will take place on Saturday, March 4th, from 4:30–8:30 at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.

Organized by students from One Global Tribe, the kids will raise funds for the rehabilitation of child soldiers at the Rachele Rehabilitation Center in Lira, Uganda through ticket sales, a silent auction, and the promotion of Name Campaign dog tags each engraved with the name of a child affected by the war. Ryan Devlin (host of ET on MTV) will host SHARE THE LOVE. Three high school bands will be featured. SHARE THE LOVE hopes to bring together youth from both the east and west side of Los Angeles to take a stand on the theme of war and violence, a topic that has local and global relevance.

The evening will launch The Name Campaign, dedicated to raising awareness of the l9-year old conflict and its effect on thousands of children.

Members of the Wonewoc, LaValle and Ironton United Methodist churches in Wisconsin have sent signed petitions to their representatives and President Bush, declaring that the United States take stronger action to help end the long-running war in northern Uganda. The pastor of these three congregations, Laverne Larson, traveled to Uganda in 2003 and 2005 and was deeply moved by the suffering as a result of the war.

Pastor Larson writes, "As Christians, we have a responsibility to give voice to the oppressed, going back not just to the teachings of Jesus, but back to the time when God first gave the commandments to the Israelites through Moses (Deuteronomy 10:12-19). We lift our voices on behalf of the people of northern Uganda, especially the children, calling upon you, our elected officials, to use the power of the United States to bring justice and peace to a country that has tried hard to rebuild itself as a democracy after the decimation and destruction of AIDS and Idi Amin."

Uganda-CAN thanks Rev. Larson and the members of his churches for standing with the people of northern Uganda. We hope other faith countries around the country will follow this courageous lead.

Reuters AlertNet reports that police in the capital city of Kampala fired tear gas and a water cannon at an opposition rally in the latest example of violence before this Thursday's presidential and parliamentary elections. Although the police said the action was prompted by the crowd's "hooliganism", foreign journalists denied having seen any provocation on the part of the opposition supporters.

Two opposition supporters were killed and four others wounded when an unidentified gunman opened fire on an opposition rally in Kampala ago three days. Read more here.

The Monitor reports that Reagan Okumu, a Ugandan parliamentarian from Aswa County in Gulu district, is under police investigation for allegedly saying "seditious statements". The comments that have provoked the investigation reportedly accused Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni of wanting to sell Acholi land, citing this as the reason he had "kept [the Acholi] in internally displaced people's camps".

Uganda-CAN condemns the Ugandan government's investigation and the accusations leveled at Okumu. Just last month Okumu, a member of the opposition FDC party, and two others were acquitted on charges of murder that many international observers called an example of political persecution. Furthermore, Okumu's statements concerning Acholi land - far from being unjustified falsifications - reflect the sentiments of many Acholi people. Fears that the government is going to steal the land of displaced persons in northern Uganda stem from an insensitive government land policy and frequent remarks from President Museveni that land should be given to foreign investors.

For more information about land security issues in northern Uganda, visit Uganda-CAN's resource page. Also, stay tuned later this week and read about Uganda-CAN's interview with Ugandan land rights activist Judy Adoko of the Land and Equity Movement in Uganda.

Speaking at Duke University last week, Bishop Ochola - a retired Bishop of the Diocese in Kitgum, Uganda - gave a powerful speech about the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda. Ochola, a long-time and tireless advocate for peace in the region, mentioned the oft-ignored plight of women in IDP camps, relating the lament of one northern Ugandan woman, who said, "When the battlefield now turns to the women’s bodies, where will the women turn? The rebels kill them and our own sons in the UPDF rape them. Where should we go?"

Throughout the speech Ochola renewed his call for the international community to declare the conflict in northern Uganda a genocide, saying, " Can this kind of the situation be allowed to exist, even for a moment, in Washington, in New York, or in London, or in Paris? Not at all, it is inhuman treatment against the people, and at best, it is genocide against humanity with impunity."

In a recent public appearance in Tampa, Florida, an audience member posed a question to President Bush about the war in northern Uganda. President Bush, for his part, showed an awareness of the problem but a shallowness in his understanding, preferring to focus instead on Sudan for most of his answer. While the crisis in Uganda ranks as the second worst in the world according to mortality surveys conducted by the International Rescue Committee (with mortality rates three times those in Darfur, a crisis the Bush Administration has laudably payed more attention to), the scale of the emergency in Uganda remains lost on U.S. government officials and the broader public. Uganda-CAN thanks the person who posed the question and urges the Bush Administration to dedicate higher-level political resources to resolution of the crisis. The transcript of the question and answer is below.

Q: It's a small part of the world, but it's very important to me -- I'm concerned about the children in northern Uganda who are the victims of the rebel Joseph Kony. And I'm wondering if you can bring any pressure to bear on President Museveni to stop that 20-year war and free those children from the bondage that they're under.

THE PRESIDENT: Really interesting question. She's talking about the -- northern Uganda, there's a group called the Lord's Group that has been terrorizing both northern Uganda and southern Sudan. I talked to Mrs. Garang, John Garang's widow. John Garang was the head of the Sudanese in the southern part of the country that, by the way, became adopted by a church in Midland, Texas, my old home town, interestingly enough. And early in my administration I got Jack Danforth, a former United States senator, to go and negotiate an agreement between northern Sudan and southern Sudan. And John Garang was a partner in peace. Unfortunately, he died in a helicopter accident about a year ago, I think. And the reason I bring this up is that there's no doubt it would be easier to deal with the Lord's Group if we were able to achieve peace between north and south Sudan. They take advantage of instability.

I have talked to this -- I've talked about this issue with Mrs. Garang, as well as -- now, there are peacekeepers in the region, by the way, U.N. peacekeepers on the north-south accord. I hope they're effective at helping the people of southern Sudan. I have talked to Museveni, President Museveni, about the issue, as well, and I've been with him, I think, two or three times. I know on two occasions we've talked about this -- and will continue to talk to him about it. I'm very aware of the issue.

My hope is that by having a southern Sudanese -- having the peace agreement negotiated between north and south so that the southern Sudanese can begin to get their lives back in order, get the oil money moving that's guaranteed to them, will help provide -- help drive them out of any safe haven in the south, which will make it easier for all of us to deal. It's kind of a roundabout answer, but I'm aware of the problem, first of all. And secondly, I'm surprised that anybody in this audience would bring it up, and I thank you for that.

We also have got a major issue in Darfur, Sudan. I presume if you're worried about northern Uganda, you're also worried about western Sudan, as am I. The strategy there was to encourage African Union troops to try to bring some sense of security to these poor people that are being herded out of their villages and just terribly mistreated. We need more troops. The effort was noble, but it didn't achieve the objective.

And so I'm in the process now of working with a variety of folks to encourage there to be more troops, probably under the United Nations. I talked to Kofi Annan about this very subject this week. But it's going to require a -- I think a NATO stewardship, planning, facilitating, organizing, probably double the number of peacekeepers that are there now, in order to start bringing some sense of security. There has to be a consequence for people abusing their fellow citizens.

At the same time, part of the issue in the Darfur region is that the rebel groups are not united in their objectives. And so politically, or diplomatically, we have to work to make sure there's one voice from which to speak, so that we can then create kind of the same agreement between government in Darfur that was created between north and south. A lot of talk, but we've got a strategy, and it's of concern, to the point where our country was the first country to call what was taking place a genocide, which matters -- words matter.

And so, thank you for bringing up that part of the world. That's very interesting that you would have that on your mind. You're a decent soul, a decent soul. (Applause.)

Today's Monitor reports that thousands of civilians in Apac district have fled to Alito trading center after suspected LRA rebels killed six civilians on Monday night. One of the victims was a 15 year old girl.

Local officials said that the LRA has been active in Alito sub-county throughout the year, abducting 18 people in January and killing three more last week. Many are beginning to construct temporary huts in Alito trading center, demonstrating that local people do not see the Monday attack as an isolated event. Along with recent reports of LRA attacks and abductions from Lira and Gulu districts, these horrific attacks defy triumphalist claims by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and UPDF officials that the LRA is on the verge of military defeat.

A UN OCHA report released this week reveals that twenty people were abducted by the LRA between February 4th and February 12th of this year. The LRA - apparently defying government claims that it is nearly defeated - abducted civilians as far south as Lira district and also abducted ten civilians in Gulu municipality. The report also notes three civilian deaths and four clashes between the UPDF and LRA during the first two weeks of February. For the full report, visit the ReliefWeb website.

The United Nations IRIN reports that at least 131 people die every day in northern Uganda as a result of violence and poor conditions in camps for people displaced by war in the region, a coalition of nongovernmental organizations said on Thursday. "There are 918 excess deaths each week," the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU) said. "Each month almost 25,000 people in Uganda die from easily preventable diseases."

"Nearly half of all children in Kitgum, northern Uganda are stunted from chronic malnutrition," it said. "Three times more children under five years die in northern Uganda than in the rest of the country." A quarter of a million children in the region had never received any education, while some classrooms had as many as 300 students for every teacher.

The region - once know as the breadbasket of Uganda - has also suffered the total destruction of its economy. "Nearly 70 percent of displaced people have no monetary income," the group noted. "95 percent of people in northern Ugandan districts live in absolute poverty." The annual cost of the war to Uganda - an estimated US $85 million - could provide clean drinking water for up to 3.5 million people per year.

The Washington Post has published a story that the people of northern Uganda desire change as elections approach next week. President Museveni's rivals in the February 23 vote -- the first multi-party polls in two decades -- have toured the north's squalid camps, promising to end what the United Nations says is one of the world's most neglected humanitarian disasters. The rest of Uganda has largely prospered under Museveni but in the last poll in 2001, he only won 18 percent of the vote in parts of Acholiland, one of the worst affected northern areas. This time, support for the opposition, particularly Kizza Besigye's Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), is again running high in the North, although opinion polls put Museveni -- once a darling of Western donors but now accused by critics of becoming more autocratic -- firmly in the lead in a countrywide count. Read more here.

Today's New Vision reports that the UPDF attacked Kony-led LRA rebels in southern Sudan on Tuesday. Kony has been on the run from a UPDF offensive for over a week, and is reportedly fleeing towards the DR Congo or the Central African Republic.

However, the New Vision also reported that Betty Bigombe, a former Ugandan minister and the government's chief mediator to the LRA, has warned the LRA presence in northern Uganda and the surrounding region is still significant. Bigombe's statement contradicts a spate of recent claims by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Ugandan military officials that the LRA is nearly defeated.

Gathered near the center of Kampala, a crowd welcoming Dr. Besigye was fired into by a soldier who witnesses claim was trying to drive through the crowd when a stone was thrown at his vehicle. With elections a week away, today's shooting left four wounded and two dead as well as a cloud of tear gas looming over the city. Read more here, at Reuters.

Today's Sudan Tribune reports that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has called for the removal of the LRA from southern Sudan within one month. LRA attacks in southern Sudan have hurt efforts to implement a peace deal signed there in January 2004 that ended a 20-year civil war between southern Sudanese rebels and the central Sudanese government.

The central Sudanese government has historically been the LRA's primary benefactor, but has agreed in recent years to stop supporting it. However, a report released last month from the International Crisis Group states that some elements of the Sudanese military still support the LRA.

Reuters AlertNet reports today on the atmosphere in northern Uganda leading up to the Feb. 23rd presidential and parliamentary elections. The story captures the dissatisfaction many northerners feel with incumbent President Yoweri Museveni, who they see as largely responsible for the two decades of conflict that have plagued the region. However, even as northern Ugandans hope for change, evidence is accumulating that the elections will not be free and fair. Opposition candidates have been harassed throughout the campaign, and a report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch states that voters in northern Uganda are especially susceptible to fraud and intimidation.

Human Rights Watch today released a report saying that the ruling NRM government in Uganda has created an atmosphere in which upcoming elections are unlikely to be free and fair. The international human rights organization said that harassment of opposition candidates and party members, misuse of government resources, military interference in the judiciary, and unfair access to media outlets have all favored incumbent presidential candidate Yoweri Museveni and other NRM candidates.

The report also states that northern Uganda is especially vulnerable for irregularities, saying, "voting for many in northern Uganda will likely be a trying, dangerous and ultimately impossible task." In some cases, residents are 'caught between two fires' - the LRA has reportedly threatened violence against those that vote for the NRM, while other reports accuse UPDF detachments of threatening to withdraw from IDP camps and leave residents at the mercy of LRA attacks if they do not vote for the NRM. Additionally, a complex pattern of migration for many IDPs, sometimes forced upon them by government decongestion programs, means that many IDPs are now far away from the places where they are registered to vote and will be unable to safely access any polling station.

To read Uganda-CAN's guide to the Feb. 23rd elections, click here.

Today's Daily Vision reports that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has ordered the Ugandan military to step up operations against the LRA in order to speed up the decongestion of IDP camps in northern Uganda.

Today's Daily Monitor reports that a UPDF officer in northern Uganda has told IDPs in Lira and Teso districts that they can go home because the LRA has been removed from those regions. Although many IDPs wish to return home - especially after tens of thousands have been left homeless in recent weeks from fires in the crowded camps - recent UN reports state that the security situation in northern Uganda is actually deteriorating.

A military spokesman also said that the military had killed on LRA rebel, captured two more, and accepted the surrender of another three in the past week.

The New Vision reports that British lawmakers have called on the international community, including the UN Security Council, to intervene to end the conflict in northern Uganda. "Pressure from the West and the UN needs to be brought to bear on Kampala — the humanitarian and security situation in northern Uganda cannot go on a day longer," said lawmaker David Drew of Britain’s All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention.

The Daily Monitor reports that former UN Under-Secretary-General, Olara Otunnu, has presented an "eleven-point agenda for action" on the war in northern Uganda to at least three political parties in the run up to the February 23 presidential poll.

Otunnu wrote to presidential candidates Kizza Besigye, Ssebaana Kizito, and Miria Obote a week before he appeared on K FM's Tonight with Andrew Mwenda talk show. According to a summary of the letter availed to Daily Monitor, Otunnu said,"The enormity and nature of what is unfolding in northern Uganda calls for a bold, prophetic voice--- a moral voice of witness and action. We look particularly to the new leaders of the democracy-seeking parties to prophetic voice in leadership."

On February 8th, the Daily Vision reported Pres. Museveni's remarks to IDPs in northern Uganda concerning fears that the government is stealing land vacated by displaced persons. He claimed that the fears were caused by lies spread by opposition parties and said, “we have been in power for the last 20 years, how many acres of land have we grabbed from you and giving them to who?".

Sadly, the reality on the ground tells a different story. Land security studies carried out in northern Uganda show that senior military officers have been allowed to farm land that IDPs have been told is 'too dangerous' to farm due to LRA rebel activity. Other government policies, ignorant of the sensitivity of land issues in northern Uganda, have fueled legitimate fears in northern Uganda that the government does not prioritize IDP land rights, and even has plans to subvert them. These include proposals to make IDP camps permanent, strict enforcement of rules preventing IDPs from visiting their land, and proposals to extend the government's power of eminent domain to include giving land to private investors.

Additionally, the government has ignored the inadquecy of existing land laws in protecting women's and children's land rights in northern Uganda. Under existing laws, women and children who own land but do not have adult males to secure their claims are vulnerable to losing their land through encroachment and physical intimidation. Also, the government has not adequately planned for the potential of post-conflict land disputes once IDPs begin returning to their homes.

Click here for Uganda-CAN's analysis of the land issues in northern Uganda, links to land security reports, and information about Ugandan land advocacy organizations.

The Uganda Conflict Action Network is making a push to get more than 3,000 signatories on our online petition, at which point it will be delivered to President Bush, the U.S. Senate and Congress. Sign the petition today and get your friends to sign!

Reuters AlertNet reports that Britain's All Party Parliamentary Group on the Great Lakes Region and Genocide Prevention has called for immediate international intervention in northern Uganda and other areas affected by the LRA rebellion in the Great Lakes region. The group called for more effort to arrest the five LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court last October, and said that UN peacekeeping forces in the DR Congo and Sudan should be given the mandate to engage the LRA.

The parliamentarians also urged the world to put more pressure on the Ugandan government to address the humanitarian catastrophe in displaced camps in northern Uganda, as well as the deteriorating security situation there. They also called on elements of the Sudanese government who are still supporting the LRA to cooperate in ending the rebellion.

Wisconsin NPR's show Here on Earth has named Sunday's feature on northern Uganda its podcast of the week. The show includes an interview with Uganda-CAN director Peter Quaranto about the need for U.S. engagement to help end the 20-year old war. Click here to listen to the podcast.

Today's New Vision reports that LRA leader Joseph Kony, who fled from southern Sudan to the northeastern DR Congo last week, has changed direction and is headed towards the Central African Republic. Kony fled southern Sudan under pressure from an intense UPDF offensive and was thought to be joining his second-in-command, Vincent Otti, who is currently in the DR Congo.

For more information about the Central African Republic, visit the BBC website.

Ugandan army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye and Minister for Internal Affairs Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda have responded to the advocacy letter endorsed recently by Uganda-CAN and 33 other organizations in an article in Uganda's Daily Monitor.

"The war is ending. Anybody talking about a petition to the US is idle and not a friend of northern Uganda," said Kulayigye.

Uganda-CAN begs to differ: recent reports have noted that the month of January witnessed more abductions of people in northern Uganda than killings, surrenders, or captures of LRA soldiers, implying that the LRA maintains its capacity to repopulate itself. Moreover, the population remains trapped in camps with deplorable conditions due to the war. Read the Monitor's article here.

The United States Senate last week passed a resolution calling for increased attention to the crisis in northern Uganda. Introduced by Senator Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, the resolution gained 43 co-sponsors before it was introduced and passed unanimously on the same day. Because it does not mandate any specific action from the U.S. government, the resolution will not go to the House for consideration.

Among other things, the resolution calls for action from the U.S., Sudanese, and Ugandan governments for an end to the war. It further designates this week as a National Week of Prayer and Reflection for the People of Northern Uganda. Read the full text of the resolution by clicking below.

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McLeod Ochola, Retired Anglican Archbishop of Gulu, has written to Uganda-CAN advocacy staff in response to the letter recently endorsed by Uganda-CAN and sent to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"It is true that there has been a slow, but sure genocide, going on in Northern Uganda for the last 20 years, while the whole world continues to turn a blind eye to it. It is equally true that this conflict has involved both the LRA and the Government of Uganda... This confirms the obvious fact that the Government of Uganda is a party to the conflict that has been going on unabated," wrote the Bishop.

"The Government of Uganda has been like this father who has left his own children in the burning house and continued chasing the arsonist for the last 20 years. This means that the focus of the Government of Uganda has always been on the LRA, but not on the suffering people of Northern Uganda. Constitutionally, it is only the Government of Uganda, not the LRA, who is responsible for the entire people of Uganda, including those in Northern Uganda."

Uganda-CAN is exploring the question of whether or not the crisis constitutes genocide, and will soon be releasing a position paper on the matter. Regardless, the continuation of the Acholi people is undoubtedly being threatened; as Uganda-CAN has in the past affirmed, the LRA are guilty of intentional atrocities and the government guilty of serious neglect that has prolonged the conflict and exacerbated its consequent suffering. Read the Bishop's full statement by clicking below.

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Today’s New Vision reports that LRA leader Joseph Kony is fleeing from his hideout in southern Sudan towards the DR Congo. The UPDF refrained from validating the reports, saying it was still collecting intelligence about Kony’s whereabouts.

Kony’s second-in-command, Vincent Otti, crossed into the northeastern DR Congo in October 2005 with 300 LRA rebels. Several weeks ago rebels under Otti’s command in the DR Congo killed eight UN soldiers from Guatemala trying to arrest Otti and remove the rebels from the DR Congo, which has upped efforts in recent months to quell rebellions in the lawless eastern half of the country.

Today’s New Vision reports that a fire in a crowded suburb of Gulu Town in northern Uganda – home to civilians displaced by the LRA rebellion and government policy – has left more than 100 people homeless. Over 41 homes burned in the blaze. Fires are commonplace northern Uganda’s crowded IDP camps, and leave thousands of already-destitute civilian IDPs homeless each year.

Today, Uganda-CAN director Peter Quaranto and former child soldier and now Fulbright scholar Charles Bongomin spoke on Wisconsin Public Radio's program Here on Earth with Jean Feraca. The program focused on the plight of child soldiers in the war in northern Uganda. Quaranto advocated international action as the way to end the war. He said that, with U.S. presidency of the U.N. Security Council this month, now would be a perfect time to put forth a resolution to finally address this forgotten crisis. For more information, including the podcast of the show, click here.

WASHINGTON D.C. – A coalition of 34 American religious, humanitarian and political advocacy organizations have sent a joint letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, calling for sustained attention and action to stop atrocities in war-torn northern Uganda. The letter, sent on the eve of the February 2006 U.S. presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), calls for northern Uganda to be placed on the UNSC agenda. With the passage of UNSC Resolution 1653 to address conflicts in the Great Lakes Region, these concerned organizations hope the time has finally come for the world to act in northern Uganda.

“Further international indifference to the crisis in northern Uganda will continue to fuel widespread instability,” said Rory Anderson, World Vision Senior Policy Advisor for Africa. “We are calling for greater political engagement by the international community, led by the U.S. and the United Nations. This is the only way the crisis will end.”

Beyond Security Council action, the letter calls for direct U.S. support for mediation and protection for civilians and humanitarian workers. The two-page letter reads, “Establishing a secure environment requires urgent leadership from the U.S. Government to put in place a comprehensive regional approach that addresses LRA cross-border movements and prioritizes a resolution to the conflict, while simultaneously ensuring civilian protection, humanitarian access, and the reintegration of former combatants.”

The letter particularly requests that the U.S. State Department appoint a senior level advisor to support the mediation efforts of Betty Bigombe. “International support for political resolution and reconciliation is critical, especially with the Ugandan government’s clear lack of investment in such initiatives,” said Michael Poffenberger, advocacy director for the Uganda Conflict Action Network. “It must be part of a comprehensive strategy that integrates negotiation, civilian protection and humanitarian relief.” The concerned organizations argue that sustained and greater U.S. engagement is a necessity to enact such a comprehensive strategy.

The signing of this joint letter by 34 organizations shows remarkable unity among American organizations involved with northern Uganda. Signatories include Christian Children’s Fund, Human Rights Watch, International Rescue Committee, Oxfam America, Save the Children and World Vision among others. Poffenberger said, “The signing of this letter by such a wide and diverse group of organizations shows a united commitment and vision to greater international action to end this war. We believe this unity will send a message to Secretary of State Rice, the State Department and the White House.”

For copies of the letter, visit http://www.ugandacan.org/riceletter.pdf.

Reuters AlertNet reports that France's foreign minister said today that Uganda's government should boost security at camps for the 1.6 million people uprooted by war in the remote north of the country. Philippe Douste-Blazy was visiting displaced communities in northern Uganda. "I would like the Ugandan authorities to maximise security at the camps, and to make efforts for the education and reintegration of these children," he told reporters.

France will chair a U.N. Security Council working group meeting on children in war zones on Feb. 21 in New York. He said he wanted to see the "tragedy" of the child soldiers first hand before reporting to the Security Council.

With the general elections less than three weeks away, the Uganda Conflict Action Network has created a Election Guide Web page. This special feature not only presents the stated positions of the presidential candidates toward the war in northern Uganda, but also provides links to Uganda-CAN's 2006 platform for peace in northern Uganda. Click here to visit this page.

Today's Daily Vision reports that Steven Browning, the new US ambassador to Uganda, said last week during his nomination that he will urge the Ugandan government to end the LRA rebellion in northern Uganda. Browning also expressed concern about the state of democracy in Uganda, citing the November arrest of opposition leader Col. Kizza Besigye.

Uganda-CAN urges Ambassador Browning to advocate a more engaged US role in the peace process and to fully commit US resources in the region to a peaceful resolution to the conflict. To see our recommendations to the US government on how it can support peace in northern Uganda, click here.

The Uganda Conflict Action Network has released its "platform for peace" in an Op/Ed published in today's Daily Monitor. In the editorial, written by conflict analyst Paul Ronan, Uganda-CAN responds to critics that contend we do not have a substantive plan for ameliorating the crisis in northrn Uganda. The editorial reads, "We do not shy away from this challenge for two reasons. First, we believe that the status quo is simply unacceptable. At present, over 1.7 million people remain confined in internally displaced persons' camps and there are more than 1,000 excess deaths each week related to the war. Second, our investigation and research shows that better policy by the government can expedite a resolution to this war and relief for the people of northern Uganda."

The editorial then lays out our policy proposal to the Government of Uganda for how we believe it can better promote peace and reconciliation. The plan calls for implementing a more effective security strategy that prioritizes civilian protection, supporting the work of Betty Bigombe to vitalize a peace process and welcoming action by the international community, particularly the United Nations Security Council. The article concludes, "True commitment to ending the war in northern Uganda will require a substantive and sustained plan towards conflict transformation and reconciliation. Let's hope and demand that the future leaders of Uganda finally bring such robust commitment to bear."

Read the full text here.

Or, read the text of the article and Uganda-CAN's guide to the upcoming presidential elections in Uganda by clicking here.