Peter Wamboga-Mugirya, a science and technology journalist in Kampala, has told Voice of America today that if a peace agreement is reached between the Ugandan government and LRA, the northern region and entire country could see vast improvements in its economy. He says the north is a fertile plateau, a part of the Nile River valley, and a former contributor of cassava and of grains like maize, sorghum and millet. Wamboga-Mugirya says its cotton could contribute to the country’s textile industry, which has received an export boost with the US Africa Growth and Opportunity Act. The north is also a large producer of oil seeds, like sunflower, sesame, groundnuts and soybeans. Northern Uganda also benefits by its proximity to southern Sudan, which is very rich in resources. Wamboga-Mugirya says there’s a potential for a China-financed railway line between the northwestern town of Packwach in Uganda and Juba, Sudan. "Remember," Wamboga-Mugirya says, "that southern Sudan is three times bigger than Uganda but depends on Uganda for consumer goods like petroleum products and for sugar, salt and soap." Listen to the full interview at Voice of America.

President Museveni has said the resolution of the DR Congo presidential contest will open doors for a military assault on the LRA, whose leaders are reportedly holed up in Garamba National Park. Museveni, in a statement over the weekend, said DRC President Joseph Kabila and his challenger and Vice President Pierre Bemba had consented to Kampala's request for the UPDF to hunt LRA insurgents across the border. The Congolese today voted in a run-off election that the UN has called the most important in Africa since a 1994 ballot ended the apartheid regime in South Africa. Meanwhile the peace talks in Juba still continue, though there are disagreements between the parties over assembly points for the LRA rebels. Read more at The Monitor.

Uganda-CAN urges President Museveni and the Ugandan government to use caution in planning any military assault. Though the Juba talks have stumbled at times, there have been almost no abductions or attacks on civilians in northern Uganda since they began. The number of child “night commuters” has decreased substantially to only a few thousand. This security has allowed some 300,000 internally displaced peoples to begin returning home and farming. If continued, UNHCR estimates 500,000 IDPs can begin returning home by the end of the year. Up to now, President Museveni has shown great leadership in engaging talks and working with northern Ugandan leaders. It would be a sad mistake to see the gains of recent months lost by military action. Past military assaults by the UPDF (Operation North in 1991 and Operation Iron Fist in 2002 for example) have led to increased violence against civilians and mass displacement.

President Museveni has issued a public statement about the prospects for durable peace in Uganda. Museveni first criticizes the "English newspapers, The New Vision and Daily Monitor, who assault the hope of the people of Uganda for stability by misinforming, through screaming negative headlines, about the prospects for durable peace." Museveni writes that the "shield of the nation, the UPDF is almost complete," and this will ensure peace throughout the country. Museveni assures the people that the government is doing everything to stop the "LRA terrorist campaign." Read the full statement at The Monitor.

President Museveni has said the 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda has never been a civil war, but a "terrorism campaign fuelled by the foolish government of Sudan." "This is not a civil war. Who is fighting who? If the local people are not involved and are being killed, it cannot be a civil war but terrorism. God works in mysterious ways," Museveni said at a fundraising dinner for the Uganda Red Cross Society. He said the "so-called civil war" in the region is a creation of the "useless" Daily Monitor and The New Vision newspapers. "They are really very useless, the type of characters in those two institutions have no contribution to this country," Museveni said. "Since 2002, the remaining problem is to collect guns from Kony rebels who are no longer receiving support from Sudan. Whether the ongoing Juba peace talks succeed or not, peace has returned to Uganda," Museveni concluded. Read more at The Monitor.

Just one week after the string of attacks killing nearly 40 civilians in southern Sudan, two more civilians were killed in ambushes on Juba-Nisitu road in southern Sudan. The criminals reportedly also set ablaze three civilian vehicles. Three civilians are still missing. The northern army spokesman Lt. Chris Magezi blamed the LRA for the attacks. However, UPDF accusations of LRA guilt in last week's attacks came into question when northern Sudanese men were arrested earlier this week. Given that experience, Uganda-CAN urges the parties to show caution in making accusations. Read more at The New Vision.

The UPDF has stepped up patrols at the border with the DR Congo. The army has termed its operation as "immunisation against any security threats" from the presence in Ituri district of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Allied Democratic Forces (ADF). Uganda’s move follows intelligence reports that LRA, ADF and the People’s Redemption Army (PRA) have allied in Congo to fight the government. Read more at The New Vision.

South Sudan’s military has arrested 15 suspected north Sudanese troops in connection with a string of attacks last week that killed at least 38 civilians, a top south Sudanese general said Saturday. "All were Sudanese attempting to attack a village near Juba. It is not established whether it was they who did the ambush, but we are investigating," Major-General Wilson Deng Kuoirot said. The LRA were previously accused by both the Ugandan government and chief mediator Riek Machar for the attacks. Deng said he suspected the men arrested were "elements of (Arabic-speaking northern) Sudan Armed Forces." He further said, "They were speaking Arabic. My belief is they were pretending to be LRA to attack and loot civilians." Deng said that if true that Sudanese forces were behind the ambushes, "that would clear the LRA." Read more at The New Vision.

After the gruesome massacres of about 40 civilians in southern Sudan on Wednesday, the LRA's second-in-command Vincent Otti has ordered his fighters to shoot at the UPDF on sight. "I have consulted with my boss Joseph Kony and we have resolved that our forces should shoot at the UPDF as soon as they attempt to shoot at them and even see them [UPDF]. I have told them to fight for their lives," Otti said on Saturday. Otti, said his forces had on several occasions been attacked and that the LRA would not tolerate the provocation. Earlier in the week Otti was threatening to block all roads to the southern Sudan town of Juba in protest to the UPDF presence and operations against the rebels inside Sudan. Read more at The Monitor.

The LRA denied on Friday killing at least 38 civilians in a string of attacks in southern Sudan and accused Uganda's military of trying to frame them. Uganda's army blamed the LRA, but the rebels' top commander in the area said his fighters were blameless. "No LRA has attacked civilians in southern Sudan," Caesar Acelam said by satellite telephone. "If attacks took place, it is more likely UPDF (Uganda People's Defence Forces) who are deployed around Juba. They do this, then accuse LRA," he said. Uganda's army spokesman was not immediately available for comment. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

Unknown gunmen have killed at least 38 civilians in a string of attacks in southern Sudan, regional government officials reported today. The Uganda military has said it suspects LRA rebels launched the attacks; however the LRA delegation in Juba has denied it. Southern Sudan's Interior Minister Paul Mayom Akec told a news conference that armed men killed 38 people, including women and children, and burned cars in several attacks on roads between the southern capital Juba and the eastern banks of the Nile. "It is not my immediate desire to talk about the identity of the attackers ... no matter whoever they can be, in order for us not to jeopardise the ongoing peace talks," Akec said. South Sudanese Major-General Wilson Deng Kuoirot said witnesses told him the attacks were carried out by young, dreadlocked men and women in "shabby-looking" fatigues. "Our forces are doing everything possible to find out who is behind these killings," he said. Uganda-CAN will report the latest news on these attacks as we receive it. Read more now at Reuters AlertNet.

Gladys Oroma, Uganda-CAN news correspondent, reports that over 11 people were killed Wednesday and six trucks burned in southern Sudan. The northern army spokesman Lt. Chris Magezi blamed LRA rebels for the road ambushes. Several other people are still missing after the attacks. Magezi said this was a clear violation of the cessation of hostilities agreement by the LRA. "We are not surprised by these. We have always firmly known and told the world that the LRA are none but vicious terrorists," he said. However, he also noted that peace talks in Juba continue despite the attacks.

The LRA's second-in-command Vincent Otti said yesterday that there are LRA fighters still trapped in northern Uganda, contradicting the government's recent assurance that there is no rebel presence anywhere in the north. Otti said he wants LRA rebels languishing in Gulu, Pader and Lira districts to be given safe passage "because they have to be with others (fighters)." Otti, who last week insisted he wants all his fighters to cross the Nile and head to Western Equatoria (in south Sudan), said yesterday his fighters should stay put and avoid provocation. "I know they are still afraid of coming out because they might be engaged by the UPDF, but I ask them to stay there in hiding and should not fight," he said. The government has said it still expects the rebels to assemble as dictated by the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement. Read more at The Monitor.

The north is the most optimistic region, believing that the situation is getting rosier in Uganda according to an opinion poll commissioned by The Daily Monitor. When asked, "On the whole, are things in Uganda improving, worsening or have remained the same?" respondents from the north returned the highest percentage (41%) saying that the situation was getting better today. The perception that the situation is getting better is most likely related to the peace efforts, which many believe are the best opportunity in over a decade to end the 20-year war. Read more at The Monitor.

Despite the slow progress of the peace talks in Juba, at least 96% of Ugandans are opposed to any other means of ending the conflict than peace negotiations, according to a new survey by the Daily Monitor. In other words, only 4% of Ugandans want the military option as the means to end the war. Despite an overwhelming desire for a peaceful end to the conflict, an equally high percentage of Ugandans are worried that any of the two parties involved in the talks could break any peace agreement reached. 46% think that the government will break any peace agreement reached, while 44% think the LRA will do so. Read more at The Monitor.

The LRA has put a figure to its current strength and said it has over 10,000 fighters spread in the DR Congo and southern Sudan. The LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayo said at least 1,379 fighters are scattered in areas around Owiny-ki-Bul, a remote village in south Sudan, while nearly 10,000 are still in the Congolese forest of Garamba with LRA boss Joseph Kony. However, the government said yesterday that it would not "engage" in "speculation" about the LRA strength and insisted that the rebels should simply honour the August 26th truce and assemble at the two south Sudan assembly points. The government in the past has put the rebel strength between 400-500 fighters. Negotiations between the parties' delegations in Juba continue. Read more at The Monitor.

While peace talks between the Ugandan government and LRA rebels continue, lawlessness and violence is flaring up in the east almost unnoticed. Per Engebak, director of Unicef for east and southern Africa, said even if a peace deal is signed, violence in Uganda's eastern Karamoja region threatens to spill over into the war-weary north. "People up there are armed to the teeth and the security situation is getting worse and worse," Engebak said. "Any long-term recovery in northern Uganda will depend on (ending) the conflict in Karamoja because you have the spillover into other parts of northern Uganda," he said. Engebak said a flood of cheap, easily available semi-automatic weapons was fuelling the violence. "The export of small arms comes across the border from Sudan. There's no (way) to track them down." Read more at Reuters.

The Ugandan army yesterday denied press reports that it had resumed hostilities against the LRA after the rebels vanished from the two South Sudan assembly points. Army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye said yesterday, "There is no war with the LRA. We have simply resumed our normal military duty of protecting our people. I am here with my commanders looking at a copy of my statement. I never mentioned anywhere in it that we had resumed war against the LRA." Read more at The Monitor.

The UPDF yesterday said it had resumed operations against the LRA after local and international observers established that the rebels were not at the assembly points in Owiny-Kibul and Ri-Kwangba. Army spokesperson Maj. Felix Kulayigye said the army had forthwith closed all the safe routes to the assembling points and declared a fresh war on the LRA. He said, "It is because of the development that we have resumed operations against the LRA." An army source said communication had been passed on to the commanding officers in the north and eastern regions to be on high alert and capture the rebels. Kulayigye, however, said this did not mean that the Juba peace process had ended. "Ours is to protect the citizens and that is what we are doing,” he said.

However, if the UPDF does commence military operations, this will likely derail any trust needed for the peace talks to succeed. And if so, this will rekindle the brutal war and put civilians in northern Uganda once again into webs of insecurity. We thus urge the Ugandan government and UPDF, if they are truly committed to protecting the people of northern Uganda, to use caution and seek first to work out problems with the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement at the negotiations table. In the news below, it is clear that there is progress being made in Juba that could truly lead to a final comprehensive peace agreement. The Government would be unwise to put such hope at risk.

In the month of September, the security situation in northern Uganda has continued to improve, attributable to the peace talks and cessation of hostilities truce. In the month, there were no reported raids, abductions or killings of civilians by LRA rebels. There were also no reported confrontations between the LRA and UPDF. While criminal activity has increased some, the situation for people in northern Uganda is dramatically better. If this security remains and a comprehensive peace agreement is reached, people will finally be able to leave the squalid camps and return home. Uganda-CAN urges the parties in Juba to not lose sight of this reality and the stakes for the victims of this brutal war.

The Refugee Law Project, one of the best and most insightful local NGOs in Uganda, has launched a new web site, which features many of its reports on the situation in northern Uganda. Visit www.refugeelawproject.org to see more.