Thursday, July 10, 2008
Northern
Uganda has enjoyed relative peace following years of clashes between
government troops and rebels, but the prevalence of illegal weapons
across the region poses a new challenge to displaced civilians
returning to their villages, officials said.
"The region has
seen a great deal of violence and so many guns are still on the loose,"
Phenihensas Arinaitwe, the regional police commander, said. "Some rogue
elements are robbing IDPs [internally displaced persons] and people in
villages."
Between January and June, 308 cases of robbery were
reported in Gulu, Kitgum, Amuru and Pader Districts, with the first two
topping the list. During these incidents, 168 IDPs were murdered as
they tried to return home.
"May was the worst month, with 67
cases of robbery," Arinaitwe added. "On average at least 30 cases of
robbery are reported monthly."
Some of the 168 suspects, who
were arrested, tried in court and found guilty, included former
fighters of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).
Capt
Ronald Kakurungu, army spokesman in the region, accused LRA
ex-combatants of illegally possessing ammunition. "We have observed
that some LRA ex-rebels who surrendered did not hand over all their
guns and we suspect they are the ones they are using in robberies," he
told IRIN.
The army, he added, had in the past three years recovered more than 500 guns from LRA ex-rebels.
"Some
civilians find guns in the bush where rebels buried them and those are
[some] that have ended up in the hands of the wrongdoers," Kakurungu
said. Other weapons, he added, were trafficked into the region from
neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo and Southern Sudan.
IDPs
told IRIN they had fallen victim to the new wave of armed robbery
sweeping villages and return sites. In Bungatira, 30km south of Gulu
town, former IDPs from Paibow village recently spent the night in the
cold during a shoot-out between robbers and the army.
"We were
sleeping and we heard a bang on our door with a man shouting that we
should open the door or be shot," said Akumu Harriet. "We were scared
and started [imagining] LRA rebels had come back. My husband told us
not to open the door and the robbers fired several bullets, then moved
to the next homestead where they robbed them."
Another IDP,
Anena Verentina, said robbers forced her door open, held them at
gunpoint and asked for money and mobile phones. "They robbed us of
400,000 shillings [US$245] and a mobile phone," she explained.
"Fortunately the [police] closed in; one of the robbers was shot dead
while three others who were armed escaped."
Last October,
police arrested the former LRA director of operations, Alfred Onen
Kamdulu, for armed robbery. One of the LRA groups that surrendered in
2004, he was arrested with a pistol and AK47 rifles at a hideout in
Maruzi, Apac District, after robbing local traders.
Egessa
Oduri, a senior police officer in the region, said the force had
instituted a new policy of sensitising the community to prevent crime.
"We have established police posts at every sub-county to detect and
prevent crime," he added.
A lull in clashes between the LRA
and the Ugandan army over the past year has allowed thousands of IDPs
to leave camps and return to their villages. Ongoing talks between the
two parties, however, hit a stalemate after LRA leader Joseph Kony
failed to sign a peace agreement in April.
Source: IRIN NEWS http://irinnews.org