VZCZCXRO6204
RR RUEHGI RUEHRN RUEHROV
DE RUEHKM #1011/01 1660749
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 150749Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY KAMPALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8923
INFO RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0594
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 0410
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 3280
RHMFIUU/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KAMPALA 001011 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO USAID AND OFDA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PREF PREL MOPS ASEC CASC EAID UG SU
SUBJECT: NORTHERN UGANDA NOTES (June 4-16, 2007) 
 
REF: KAMPALA 964 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: The following Northern Uganda Notes provides 
information on the situation on the ground and USG activities aimed 
at meeting Mission's objectives in northern Uganda.  These 
objectives include promoting regional stability through peace and 
security, good governance, access to social services, economic 
growth, and humanitarian assistance.  Post appreciates feedback from 
consumers on the utility of this product and any gaps in information 
that need to be filled.  End Summary. 
 
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PEACE AND RECONCILIATION PROCESSES 
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¶2.  (U) U.N. Special Envoy Joaquim Chissano presided over the 
resumption of negotiations between the Government of Uganda and 
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) on May 31.  Chissano stated that "time 
was not in our favor."  The LRA demanded the position of vice 
president of Uganda.  The LRA also accused the GOU of unlawfully 
evicting people from their homes and forcing them into IPD camps, 
inhuman treatment, cattle theft, use of excessive force, mass 
killings, and rape.  Discussions were heated over the announcement 
of the assembly routes by the UPDF-SPLA in early May.  The GOU and 
LRA were able to work together and sign a document agreeing to a 
wider transit corridor and points for crossing the Nile River.  All 
but a few small groups of LRA have crossed the Nile, according to 
the Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team (CHMT), and were in the 
vicinity of Rikwangba and Garamba National Park. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Workshops for the parties on various justice options began 
on June 1. Acholi traditional leader Rwot Acana presented a paper on 
traditional mechanisms for reconciliation and accountability. 
Barney Afako, one of the Government of Uganda's legal advisors now 
serving as a technical advisor to the mediator, drafted a paper 
outlining the option of pursuing a national legal solution that 
could satisfy the International Criminal Court's standards. 
 
¶4.  (U) On June 13, the parties agreed to guiding principles for the 
discussion on justice and accountability.  Both sides agreed that "a 
national legal and institutional framework provides a sufficient 
basis for ensuring accountability and reconciliation in Uganda with 
respect to crimes and violations committed during the conflict." 
The parties also agreed to investigate the crimes committed during 
the conflict and to prosecute the culprits.  Penalties would be 
determined by the gravity of the crimes and the need for 
reconciliation and rehabilitation of the offenders.  The process 
would also offer special consideration for women and children and 
provides for alternative justice mechanisms and a truth and 
reconciliation commission.  The GOU will enact legislation to allow 
for the implementation of the agreement. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Both parties violated provisions of the Cessation of 
Hostilities Agreement (CHA).  LRA fighters were collecting food from 
the assembly area and taking it back to Garamba.  The SPLA and UPDF 
have kept up military pressure on the LRA in Eastern Equatoria.  The 
LRA continues to raise food issues, but donors confirm that there 
were sufficient foodstuffs and water at Rikwangba.  The CHMT was 
nearing full deployment with the arrival of the two South African 
observers and one observer from the Democratic Republic of Congo 
(DRC).  One more observer from the DRC would complete the team. 
 
¶6.  (U) On June 3, Chissano announced that his mandate was extended 
through November and that he was opening offices in Kampala and 
Juba.  Chissano stated that the U.N. Secretary General wanted him in 
the region to see through the implementation of an agreement.  An 
alleged attempt by the LRA to organize a conference to discuss 
post-conflict reconstruction and accountability is of key concern to 
Chissano. 
 
¶7.  (U) The Acholi Parliamentary Group planned to release an 
accounting of the atrocities committed in northern Uganda from 1986 
to 2006.  On June 4, Reagan Okumu, the acting chairperson of the 
APG, said the compilation of information from local and 
international organizations indicated that from 1986-1991, the LRA 
was responsible for 17 percent of the atrocities and the GOU for 83 
percent.  From 1992-2006, the LRA committed 81 percent and the GOU 
nineteen percent.  Okumu called for all sides to take responsibility 
for the atrocities committed. 
 
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HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY 
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KAMPALA 00001011  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶8.  (U) The U.N. Inter Agency Standing Committee Working Group in 
Uganda published return numbers as of May 2007.  (Reftel) According 
to the study, 53 percent of the estimated original displaced camp 
population in Pader District had moved from the camps to new sites 
closer to their places of origin.  District Chairman Peter Odok 
W'Oceng called on the Government to increase the numbers of teachers 
and classrooms to accommodate the movement of the population out of 
camps to or near their homes.  He requested that the Ministry of 
Education increase the numbers of teachers in Pader district by 
1,630 because the teacher-student ratio was now 1 teacher for 91 
students and he would like to cut this down to 1 to 45.  He also 
requested 3,066 classrooms to accommodate 161,000 pupils. 
 
¶9.  (U) The results of a nutritional and retrospective mortality 
survey in Lira, Apac, Oyam, Gulu, and Amuru Districts conducted by 
UNICEF, Action Against Hunger, and the Disaster Management 
Committees in March/April were released in May.  Seventy-nine 
percent of persons in Lira District moved directly to their home 
villages.  In Apac and Oyam, 64 percent of IDPs moved back to their 
villages.  The survey indicated that access to health, food 
security, and water and sanitation is much lower in Apac and Oyam 
than other districts.  Returnees in Lira have moved to places far 
from access to food support and nutritional centers.  Although land 
access had increased, food stocks were still at low levels and NGOs 
were concerned that this could lead to an important increase in 
malnutrition rates.  Food stocks are also low in Gulu and Amuru. 
 
¶10.  (U) Norbert Mao, Gulu District Chairperson, has accused the 
government of providing IDPs with sterile seeds in their 
resettlement packages.  Mao said that Tarsis Kabwegyere, Minister of 
Relief and Disaster Preparedness, should take full responsibility 
since his organization distributed the defective seeds. "We are not 
making wild allegations to frustrate government program. We have 
tested the seeds and found out they just do not germinate...contrary 
to what Chairman Anthony Atube, Amuru LC5, reported." Mao added that 
the sorghum seeds were meant for brewing beer and after conducting 
more tests, results showed the maize seeds were infested with 
weevils.  In response, the Government announced that it was sending 
a team of technical experts from the National Agricultural Research 
Organization (NARO) and the Office of the Prime Minister, to 
investigate what was wrong with the seeds.  In exchange for the bad 
seeds, the government delivered packages of millet, sorghum, maize, 
groundnut, hoes and axes to the IDPs. 
 
¶11.  (U) USG Activities: Paul Mpuga (World Bank) and Gerald Owachi 
(DFID) briefed the Northern Uganda Recovery and Development Group, 
which the U.S. Mission chairs, on the Northern Uganda Public 
Expenditure Review on May 24.  The public expenditure review sets 
out the financial challenges in implementing northern Uganda 
reconstruction and return.  The review was conducted from October to 
December 2006 to enhance understanding of levels and modalities of 
resources going to northern Uganda, including West Nile and 
Karamoja.  It concluded that in terms of resource flows, the wider 
north has not been neglected and that funds provided are being 
utilized by the districts and not returned to the Treasury, as had 
been alleged.  When compared on a per capita level, the total 
central government transfers to northern Uganda were equal to the 
national average for other regions.  Resources to northern Uganda 
had increased by an average of 18 percent per year since 2003/4, of 
which resources from donors and UN agencies had grown fastest.  In 
2006, the total resources going to northern Uganda were 1 trillion 
Uganda shillings or 4.3 percent of GDP. 
 
¶12.  (U) USAID's program funding for northern Uganda is expected to 
total $106.3 million in FY07.  This compares with $87.9 million in 
FY06 and $77.9 million in FY05.  Importantly, the developmental 
portion of the budget (excluding emergency food and non-food aid) 
has grown in nominal terms from $18.4 million in FY05 to $29.4 
million in FY06 and to $51.2 million in FY07.  Similarly, the 
portion of USAID's northern Uganda resources that are developmental 
in nature has grown from 24 percent in FY05 to 33 percent in FY06 to 
48% currently. 
 
¶12.  (U) Food for Peace has approved a June contribution to 
WFP/Uganda valued at $5.6 million, bringing the FY07 total FFP 
contribution to $43.1 million.  The June contribution was designed 
to allow WFP to provide three-month resettlement rations to the 
remaining 73,000 in the Lango sub-region, Lira District, still on 
general food distributions, and for 130,000 IDPs in Gulu District of 
the Acholi sub-region.  The latter are the first IDPs in the Acholi 
sub-region deemed ready for the resettlement rations.  WFP hopes to 
be able to award these resettlement rations within the next two to 
 
KAMPALA 00001011  003 OF 003 
 
 
four months.  These three-month resettlement rations mark an 
informal "milepost of sorts," in that they will signify the end of 
general relief food distribution in the Lango sub-region, and the 
beginning of the resettlement ration process in the Acholi 
sub-region.  There are approximately 1,094,000 IDPs in the Acholi 
sub-region on general relief food rations. 
 
¶13.  (U) Twenty partners attended the first Northern Uganda Partners 
Meeting in Gulu on Friday June 1, hosted by the U.S. Mission's 
Northern Uganda Advisor.  Discussion focused on how USAID can help 
improve coordination at the district and national levels with USAID 
programs and with CJTF-HOA.  Feedback on how USAID can improve its 
coordinating role included: play a "policing" role with both UN and 
NGOs to improve participation and effectiveness of coordination 
meetings; hold informal gatherings at district level to share 
information and ideas; hold partner meetings quarterly; provide 
summary documents on USAID programs and a simple matrix on who is 
working in the north; provide information on best practices in 
service delivery; help set direction; and provide written feedback 
on monitoring and assessment trips. 
 
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IN THE MEDIA AND THE WEB 
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¶14.  (U) On June 4, Chris Magezi, Uganda Peoples Defense Forces, 
replied to Olara Otunnu's editorial "Open letter to the LRA." 
Magezi accused Otunnu of failing to protect northern Uganda children 
when he was the U.N. Under Secretary General for Children and Armed 
Conflict.  Magezi defended the UPDF's role in northern Uganda, "It 
does not make sense to them that the current peace process and 
stability in northern Uganda has been due to the courage and hard 
work of the army in the face of terror, neither does the rescue of 
up to 20,000 children by the UPDF from LRA captivity since 2002." 
Magezi explained that the UPDF could not apply maximum force to the 
LRA because of the presence of children among the combatants. 
CHRITTON