Today's Daily Vision reports that the Ugandan military killed six LRA rebels in southern Sudan last Friday. Eight women and children that were with the LRA rebels were captured.

A powerful op/ed in today's Christian Science Monitor decry's the plight of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world today. There are over 25 million IDPs in 50 countries worldwide, and these numbers are steadily increasing. At least seven countries have over one million - including Uganda, in which over 1.6 million IDPs live in squalid and crowded camps in northern part of the country.

Because IDPs do not cross international borders, they often do not receive the same legal rights or assistance that international refugees do. They are often forgotten by the international community - witness the two decades of war and displacement in northern Uganda.

In the words of the author, "We must build a permanent constituency to assist and defend the rights of IDPs, and to solve the root causes of the conflicts that create the displacement in the first place."

Reuters AlertNet reports that the Ugandan military is ready to "deal with" Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in neighbouring Congo who killed eight U.N. soldiers this week, President Yoweri Museveni said on Thursday.

LRA guerrillas moved into eastern Democratic Republic of Congo last year, and in September Museveni accused the United Nations and the transitional Congolese government of sponsoring terrorism by failing to disarm them and other Ugandan rebels. "We told the U.N. they should allow us to go and deal with them in Congo, because we know how to fight those criminals," Museveni said during celebrations at an airfield marking two decades since his National Resistance Movement seized power.

"The other day I saw (the LRA) had killed some of their people ... We are ready, if the Congolese government and the U.N. want us to deal with that issue, we shall deal with it."

Uganda-CAN questions President Museveni's statement that the Ugandan army "knows how to fight these criminals." First, the "criminals" are the majority children whom have been abducted and forced to fight in the rebel army. Second, the Ugandan army has failed for the last 20 years to defeat the insurgency and end this awful war. Uganda-CAN calls for the international community, led by the UN Security Council, to step up and engage this conflict that now affects three countries.

Sister Fernanda Pellizzer of the Comboni Missionary Sisters has sent Uganda-CAN a powerful reflection that she wrote in Gulu during the Christmas season. She writes, "Once again, more than 1.6 million people have celebrated Christmas in internally-displaced people's camps. It's the 19th straight Christmas of fear and suffering...In the Acholi district, there are 143 camps. In one of these called Lalogi, on Chistmas night, a youth was walking around the camps, ignoring the curfew. He was shot down and killed by the soldiers. The people rose in anger and moved towards the military headquarters. They carried stones in their hands, but the military had guns and opened fire. Four people were killed and sixteen seriously injured. What is there to say? What does the Child God, the Prince of Peace, have to think of all this?"

The letter continues, "It comes so natural for us to compare the Child God with those thousands of boys and girls who, every evening, come to sleep under the windows of Gulu shops, or in the hospital compound, or in school and church buildings, so as to be safe and protected from the cruel LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), which, paradoxically, is made up 80% by children...At night, temperatures go down to 10-12 degrees and these child "night commuters" shiver in the cold with no blankets. They have no safe place to stay, just like the Child God who found no room in Bethelem. It seems there is no room for the Acholi displaced people in the hearts of the international community, in mass media centers, and perhaps in the hearts of the believing community. Their lives of endless misery, of untold fears, of pent-up anger for being refugees in their own land just make no headlines anywhere. There is growing sense of desperation for no one seems to care for them or to do something to put an end to their sufferings."

AllAfrica.com reports that Uganda's Senior Presidential Advisor on Security, Gen. David Tinyefuza, has refuted recent claims by Olara Otunnu that the Ugandan government is committing a genocide in northern Uganda. Otunnu, a native of northern Uganda and the former UN Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, has drawn a barrage of condemnation in recent months for his criticism the government's handling of the war.

In his column for the Daily Monitor, Charles Onyango Obbo has written that the love affair of the West with Uganda is ending. He writes, "The troubled transition in Uganda has also led to a fresh look at the rebellion in the north. The cause has now been adopted by Norwegian musicians and celebrities, and at the end of the week they are having a symposium on what is now referred to in international-speak as 'easily the worst humanitarian crisis' in the world."

The article continues, "The primary blame for the crisis in northern Uganda must be placed on Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army. But the failure to end it is by and large, the result in the deficit in the leadership of the president. He could have either defeated Kony militarily, in the phase when he was dead set against a political settlement, or put on the table a comprehensive negotiated peace arrangement once the government failed to decidely snuff out the LRA after nearly 20 years of war now, making it the longest-running conflict in Africa after the just-ended political settlement in southern Sudan."

The Daily Monitor reports that Senior Presidential Advisor on Security, Gen. David Tinyefuza, has dismissed claims that the 19-year-old war in northern Uganda is a genocide. Tinyefuza was on 99.3 KFM's Tonight with Andrew Mwenda Live, discussing with the former UN-Under Secretary General and Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, Mr Olara Otunnu, whether the war in north is a genocide or just a humanitarian disaster.

Olara, who was speaking on phone from New York, USA, described the situation in northern Uganda as genocide. But Tinyefuza dismissed his claims saying: "I find it strange that Otunnu looks at the government as perpetrators of genocide. What is happening in northern Uganda is an incidental insurgency."

Otunnu responded, "The human rights and humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in northern Uganda is a methodical and comprehensive genocide, conceived and being carried out by the government." Read more here.

The New Vision reports that the Chief of Defence Forces, General Aronda Nyakairima, has said that Lord’s Resistance Army chief, Joseph Kony, will never enter Uganda again. Aronda said Kony had been greatly weakened and had crossed 70km northeast of Juba. He was on Thursday addressing senior UPDF officers at the Nakasongola Air Division military base after commissioning the Nakasongola Military hospital. He said should Kony try to enter Uganda again, he would be killed.

“We have been spending a lot on war and doing less concerning the welfare of our officers all because we believe in priorities first. Now that the priorities are almost over, with the savings, we shall definitely do a lot on welfare,” he said. He said the officers who have been fighting the LRA would soon return.

The Refugee Law Project, one of Uganda-CAN's partner organizations in Uganda, has released the summary of its most recent monthly seminar, War and Humanitarianism, held December 15, 2005.

On December 15th, the RLP hosted a discussion with Dr Sverker Finnström (University of Uppsala, and an affiliate of Gulu University) and Mr Zachary Lomo (Director, the Refugee Law Project) on War and Humanitarianism. This final seminar of the 2005 series examined the often complex relation between conflict and humanitarianism, and the implications of the latter to the people who bear the brunt of conflict, and indeed the hitherto stalled processes of resolving the conflict.

The seminar summary is available on the RLP’s website in HTML and in PDF formats.

The Daily Monitor reports that the Ugandan government has instituted a strict new set of rules for foreign journalists and has given the newly-formed Media Centre responsibility for their accreditation. Several foreign journalists have complained that their accreditation has been delayed, while a those of a Canadian journalist and the BBC’s Uganda correspondent have been restricted.

The move comes at a time when the international press is growing increasingly critical of Uganda’s rocky transition to multipartyism, the government's arrest of opposition politicians, and current president Yoweri Museveni, who is campaigning to enter his third decade of rule.

The BBC’s Uganda correspondent, Will Ross, said that officials at the Media Centre informed him that the restriction on his accreditation was tied directly to his unfavorable portrayal of Uganda in his news dispatches. To read the entire article, click below.

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Today’s Sunday Vision reports that the LRA abducted eight civilians and killed three Friday in an early morning raid on Apac district in the Lango sub-region.

Five days ago President Museveni assured the people of Lango that the LRA was too weak to attack there, saying, “The people of Lango and Teso should go back home. Kony can not come back here.”

IRIN news agency, a UN body, has today released a report that says Uganda has been suffered badly from the LRA rebellion and political upheaval in 2005. The report notes the spread of the LRA rebellion into southern Sudan and the DR Congo, as well as the increasing misery in IDP camps that relief organizations have been unable to access due to the deteriorating security situation in northern Uganda.

The IRIN report also describes the rocky transition to multiparty politics in Uganda in 2005, including the arrest of opposition party leader Col. Kizza Besigye on charges of treason and rape. Besigye was recently released and is currently campaigning for president along with several other candidates, including incumbent Yoweri Museveni. Elections are scheduled for mid-February.

The International Crisis Group has today released a report entitled “A Strategy for Ending Northern Uganda’s Crisis.” The report notes the decreasing security situation in the region – increasing LRA activity in the DR Congo, Sudan, and the northern Uganda – and states that elements of the Sudanese government are still supporting the LRA. The increase in LRA attacks has also reduced the access of UN and other relief organizations into IDP camps, worsening the already miserable conditions there.

The ICG report calls for the international community and the UN Security Council to assist the governments of Sudan, the DR Congo, and Uganda in developing joint strategies for ending the rebellion. It advocates a combination of renewed peace talks, efforts to apprehend LRA commanders indicted by the ICC, and better incentives to rank-and-file rebels to surrender as the best strategy to end the conflict. To read the entire report, visit the ICG website.

AllAfrica.com reports that hopes for peace in Darfur and southern Sudan are increasingly being threatened by violence. LRA rebels continue to disrupt reconstruction and refugee return efforts in southern Sudan by terrorizing the population with killings and abductions. Meanwhile, renewed violence in Darfur (western Sudan) since September 2005 has signaled a deteriorating security situation there.

Better prospects for peace in Sudan, northern Uganda, and the entire Great Lakes region in 2006 will require a greater effort from the international community and UN to commit resources and attention to ongoing conflicts. Get involved today!

An op/ed in today’s Daily Monitor argues that soldiers in northern Uganda are inadequately trained and paid, leading to outbreaks of violence against civilians. The article highlights Local Defense Units (LDUs) - local militias that serve as auxiliary forces to the national military (UPDF) - as especially underpaid and prone to stress. LDUs and UPDF regulars often receive little training in political and human rights issues, and are often deployed after only basic training in how to operate a gun. Read more here.

Today’s Daily Monitor has published the second half of Olara Otunnu’s Sydney Peace Prize lecture about northern Uganda given last November. Otunnu, the former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, has been an outspoken advocate for peace in the region.

Otunnu’s speech mentions the “Responsibility to Protect” declaration passed by the UN last September, which committs the UN to protecting civilian populations ravaged by war and violence. He laments that the UN has yet to act decisively on northern Uganda, despite the millions of civilians at risk of brutal violence and abduction each day.

In his speech, Otunnu also issues a moving call to action to the international community, saying, “I ask you to join in the campaign to break this conspiracy of silence and to end the genocide. I urge you to petition the leaders of the western democracies and the Secretary General of the United Nations to break their silence and act to end this genocide. I request you to engage your members of parliament, your places of worship, your friends and neighbours. This is genocide happening on our watch.”

To read the entire transcript of the speech, visit the Daily Monitor or click below.

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News24 in South Africa reports that at least three people were killed and 12 seriously wounded when Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels stormed a crowded discotheque in northern Uganda at the weekend and opened fire on dancers with automatic weapons, the army said on Monday. A group of about 15 heavily armed attackers burst into the dance hall near the town of Adjumani near the Sudanese border early on Sunday morning and began indiscriminately spraying bullets, said Lieutenant Chris Magezi, the army spokesperson for northern Uganda.

"They started shooting at the revelers on the dance floor and killed three of them, injuring 12 others whom we rushed to Ajdumani hospital in critical condition," he told AFP from the regional military headquarters in Gulu, about 130km southeast of where the attack took place. Magezi said the army pursued the group after the attack and killed two of them, including the man believed to be their leader, in a firefight early on Monday.

Today’s Daily Monitor has published the first half of Olara Otunnu’s Sydney Peace Prize lecture about northern Uganda given last November. Otunnu, the former UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Representative for Children in Armed Conflict, has been an outspoken advocate for peace in the region. His powerful speech begins “As we meet here today to focus on the fate of children being destroyed in situations of war, I must draw your attention to the worst place on earth to be a child today. That place is the northern region of the Republic of Uganda.”

To read the full text, visit the Daily Monitor or click below.

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

Five bodies of civilians killed by suspected Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been found in various places in Gulu district. Yesterday a combined effort by relatives of those abducted from Pece-Pawel pa Odyek and UPDF mobile troops recovered two bodies near Ogul primary school in Omoro County. The victims were abducted on the 29th and 30th of last month.

The search for more bodies continues today because there are reports emerging that many recent abductees have been killed. The army northern region spokesman Lt. Chris Magezi said it is on record that LRA rebels are killing whoever they abducted these days.

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

A Sudanese bishop has apologized to the people of northern Uganda for the Sudanese government's support of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the past. Retired Bishop Emeritus Taban Paride of Torid Diocese was speaking during the prayer organized by thousands of Christians from Gulu, Lira, Nebbi, Arua and southern Sudan. The bishop further urged all Christians to focus on the needed reintegration of ex-combatants, which must include truth-telling mechanisms and reconciliation. He called upon the LRA, Ugandan government and Sudanese government to trust one another and work to help end the long suffering of the people in northern Uganda.

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

The Ugandan army has reported that it killed four LRA rebels in the districts of Kitgum and Pader yesterday afternoon. The Northern region Army spokesman Lt. Chris Magezi confirmed this to Uganda-CAN this morning, saying three rebels were killed at Bolo when the UPDF soldiers attacked them. Magezi said an officer identified as Lt. Otto Orebe was killed north west of Bolo in Awere sub-county, Pader district.

Magezi has appealed to the civilian population to be very careful with these rebels who are now moving in smaller groups. He also urged the rebels to take advantage of the amnesty law that remains in effect. He said resolving this war is long overdue and that the rebels should take it upon themselves as a new year's resolution to surrender for peace to prevail.

In today's Daily Monitor, Patrick Kiwanuka Mwanje has published a column, titled "It is Government and Not Donors Alienating the Northern Region." This column is a response to claims from Minister of State for Security Betty Akech that the war in northern Uganda persists because of donor mistakes.

He writes, "Can Betty Akech remind herself if a government which deports and holds firmly 1.7 million of its citizens in concentration camps under the most degrading human conditions possible; imprisons its opponents on trumped up charges; or bribes MPs (including herself); whose security agencies operate safe houses and subjects its citizens' private parts to be gnawed away by nyarwino (not Museveni) ants and crocodiles; a government paying billions of shillings for the killing and violation of its own citizen's rights; whose army's actions are described by its High Court's top judge as "a despicable act" and a "rape of the judiciary" reminiscent of the dark days of Idi Amin; whose ministers pour wines at diplomats without remorse and still continue to hold office; whose ministers and security officials steal the Global Funds meant for Aids control without remorse still get elected to high party off ices and are nominated for elections; a government whose tribal army continues to plunder and commit with impunity war crimes and crimes against humanity against its own people and against its neighbours; is a democratic government!" Read more here.

Rtd. Col. Kizza Besigye, the presidential candidate for the Forum of Democratic Change, was released from jail yesterday. Read more here. Besigye is one of five presidential candidates for the full Ugandan elections set for February 28. In the coming weeks, Uganda-CAN will be highlighting the platforms of the different candidates, particularly hghlighting their policy proposals towards the war in northern Uganda.

In the next two months, the standing parties will tour the country, making claims and promises while disparaging the reputation of their opponents. In this electoral battlefield, it is hopeful that a debate on the state of affairs in Uganda will surface. And in that debate, Uganda-CAN believes it is vital that the most pressing issue facing contemporary Uganda, the longstanding war and consequent humanitarian crisis in the north, be put at the forefront.

The war in northern Uganda has persisted for nearly 20 years with few prospects for resolution or relief. UNICEF reported earlier this year that crude mortality rates and under-five mortality rates for displaced children are far above emergency levels. More than 300,000 children under the age of five suffer from malaria, pneumonia, diarrhea and preventable diseases. Further, the Ugandan Ministry of Health and research partners concluded that there are 1,000 excess deaths every week related to the war. Over 1.7 million people remain confined in internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and more than 30,000 children have been abducted by the LRA. To ignore these numbers and the faces they represent is an abrogation of the most basic responsibility of government.

In light of this hellish reality, the most important question facing Uganda today is how the country moves from being home to “the world’s most neglected humanitarian crisis” toward a more hopeful and humane future. Given the inadequacy of the status quo, how will future political leaders make the necessary changes to expedite the resolution of this war and end the suffering of the people? This may be no easy answer, but there is no debate more worthy of the time and urgency of the Ugandan nation.

Some claim that bringing the issue of the war into the political fray is anti-government and misguided. We wholeheartedly disagree. Advocating that the war in northern Uganda be a central issue in electoral debate does not presume any particular policy stance. If those in power can argue that their policies are suitable and adequate, they should. Otherwise they should explain how they will use different approaches and strategies to build positive change. The people of Uganda deserve answers from their potential leaders on how their policies will empower the national government to meet the basic responsibility to protect its civilians.

Finally, we want to propose a framework for the four questions or topics to frame the debate on how government can best promote peace in northern Uganda.

1.) How can the government improve civilian protection structures in the IDP camps and better guarantee humanitarian access and aid throughout the north? The daily reports of continued attacks and abuse by LRA and UPDF soldiers underlines the urgency of this question. Further, the humanitarian indicators above demand better strategies to meet the basic needs of people living in camps.

2.) How can the government facilitate a political solution to the war that creates momentum for needed national reconciliation? Even with arrests of high-level LRA leadership, it is likely that violence will continue until there are mechanisms to promote dialogue and truth-telling to foster reconciliation and reintegration.

3.) How can the government best work with Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to arrest LRA leadership and promote amnesty for mid and low-level LRA? In light of the issuing of ICC indictments and the subsequent new momentum, the government must decide how best to work regionally to end this cross-border war.

4.) How can the government best welcome the international community to provide support and assistance when it cannot meet its responsibility to protect its civilians? To date, the Government of Uganda has resisted the United Nations Security Council becoming involved in the resolution of the war and relief for the humanitarian disaster in the north. This is tenuous policy that we argue ought to be reexamined through new lens.

The Ugandan people deserve a debate from all who seek to represent them on how they plan to bring people together towards a more cohesive, prosperous national identity. That debate begins with addressing the gross atrocities and horrific suffering of the north. However, for this debate to arise, it will require the commitment and willingness of people throughout Uganda to see the suffering in northern Uganda as connected to their lives. It will require a new paradigm where the people of Uganda demand accountability and action from their leaders. Only through such participatory democracy can true peace and prosperity flow forth.

The Daily Monitor has published a look back at the year of 2005 in northern Uganda, highlighting the major headlines of the year. Unfortunately, the article does little to highlight the ongoing peace process and conflict resolution initiatives in the region.

2005 brought hopeful moments for northern Uganda, but ultimately the horror persisted as the war now enters its twentieth year, making it Africa's longest running war. The children of northern Uganda continue to face abduction and forced soldiering, while their families continue to face displacement in the most squalid conditions.

Last month, Olara Otunnu, former-United Nations special representative for children and armed conflict and long-time advocate for peace in northern Uganda, was awarded the annual Sydney Peace Prize. In his remarks, he said, "What is going on in northern Uganda is not a routine humanitarian crisis, for which an appropriate response might be the mobilization of humanitarian relief. The human rights catastrophe unfolding in northern Uganda is a methodical and comprehensive genocide. An entire society is being systematically destroyed - physically, culturally, socially, and economically - in full view of the international community." Click below to read the full text of his remarks.

Looking ahead, 2006 holds possibility. The ICC prosecutor has ensured that LRA leadership will be captured and tried by the end of the year. President Museveni has claimed the war will be over by April. There is momentum within the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution for northern Uganda that may challenge the Ugandan government on its failed responsibility to protect.

These are hopeful signs, but Uganda-CAN knows better than rely on them. They have come about because of the pressure of countless individuals in the ever-growing northern Uganda peace movement; people around the world demanding that attention and resources be brought to bear on this forgotten war. As we move into 2006, Uganda-CAN will work evermore to monitor the situation and its actors, while leading advocacy initiatives for an end to this war and the return of peace to northern Uganda. Let's hope the 20th will be the last year of this war.

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