VZCZCXRO6868
RR RUEHGI RUEHRN RUEHROV
DE RUEHKM #0589/01 0960359
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 060359Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KAMPALA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8543
INFO RUEHKH/AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM 0567
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 0394
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 3210
RHMFIUU/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KAMPALA 000589 
 
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 (March 23-April 6, 2007) 
 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: Post presents the seventeenth edition of Northern 
Uganda Notes to provide 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.  (SBU) Uganda's Minister for Internal Affairs Ruhakana Rugunda 
announced that the peace talks would resume in Juba on April 13.  A 
GOU team, which will include parliamentarians and local officials 
from northern Uganda, plans to travel to Rikwangba to meet with 
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leaders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti on 
April 11-12, presumably in advance of the resumption of the talks. 
Given previous logistical delays, we anticipate the GOU-Kony meeting 
and the resumption date will slip.  The composition of the GOU's 
delegation for the upcoming round of talks has changed.  Two 
members, the Director of the Internal Security Organization and the 
Chief of Military Intelligence have been withdrawn.  Christine Aporu 
from the Amnesty Commission and Major Felix Kulayigye, the Uganda 
Peoples' Defense Forces Spokesman, will join the team.  Discussion 
on the Juba Initiative Fund continues, with donors deciding on the 
amount of allowance to be paid, in addition to satellite telephone 
air-time, for the LRA delegation. 
 
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SECURITY UPDATE 
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¶3.  (U) Twelve High Court judges have been working to clear over 500 
backlogged cases in Gulu, Lira, Kitgum, Pader, Soroti, and Kumi 
Districts.  Four judges are handling 170 cases in Gulu and one judge 
will hear 15 cases in Lira.  According to the Principal Judge, James 
Ogoola, sixty percent of the cases are for defilement of minor girls 
and forty percent are murder.  During the sessions in Gulu, six 
individuals, including an LRA collaborator, were sentenced to death 
in murder cases, some for crimes committed as far back as 2001. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The behavior of local defense units (LDUs) in Lira is a 
growing concern.  The LDUs are locally recruited militias that are 
used to provide security throughout the north.  They are under the 
command of the UPDF, but are administratively (including for pay 
purposes) the responsibility of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 
The LDUs are reportedly responsible for numerous human rights abuses 
and are vulnerable to misuse by local politicians.  In Lira, one of 
the militias held a district-level Mdecins Sans Frontiers staffer 
while he was beaten, allegedly on the orders of a local leader. 
Special Police Constables are being deployed, but receive little 
support and have been seen setting up inappropriate roadblocks in 
Amuru District.  The incidents highlight the need for the deployment 
of well-trained and supplied police to replace the military and LDUs 
in northern Uganda. 
 
¶5.  (U) USG Activities: A U.S. Department of Justice team visited 
Uganda from March 26-31 to discuss an upcoming community policing 
program for northern Uganda.  The team traveled to Lira District and 
met with the Deputy Inspector General of Police, who is coordinating 
the deployment of police in northern Uganda, and other police 
officials.  In Kampala, the team met with the Inspector General of 
Police, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, the Justice, Law, 
and Order Secretariat (JLOS), and donors.  The DOJ team concluded 
that the new pilot activity should aim at achieving an integrated 
administration of justice that would involve community policing, 
prosecution, community courts, and possibly corrections.  USAID/DOJ 
support would provide training and technical assistance for a 
holistic, "chain-linking" approach to justice within the JLOS 
framework and in conjunction with other Ugandan government and 
development partner initiatives for recruitment of personnel and 
provision of facilities, transport, and communications for the 
police. 
 
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HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE AND ECONOMIC RECOVERY 
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¶6.  (U) The Northern Uganda Advisor reported that in Lira District, 
over 250,000 internally-displaced persons have returned voluntarily 
to their home areas.  It is estimated that 96,702 IDPs remain in 13 
 
KAMPALA 00000589  002 OF 002 
 
 
camps.  The District Management Committee is de-gazetting camps. 
Many of the camps were trading centers, which means that IDPs are 
being encouraged to destroy their huts and fill latrines as they 
depart.  UNHCR notes that the process has been uneven, with some 
NGOs providing incentives, such as soap, to those IDPs that properly 
clean up their areas as they depart.  Some land owners are beginning 
to pressure the IDPs to move out of the camps and off their land. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) In Gulu District, UNHCR reports that approximately 4,400 
IDPs returned directly to their homes.  The majority of IDPs are 
moving to land access sites.  Over the past two months, the movement 
out of the camps has slowed due to fears about the peace process, 
rumors of LRA sightings in Sudan, and lack of services in the return 
areas.  Lack of consistent messages from local officials in Kitgum 
remains a problem. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) There has been only limited IDP reaction to the cuts in 
World Food Program (WFP) rations, and the cut in resettlement 
distributions from three months to one month.  The Northern Uganda 
Advisor reports that the primary concern is to avoid an abrupt 
cut-off in distributions. 
 
¶9.  (U) At the Joint Monitoring Commission (JMC) meeting on March 
30, Minister of State for Relief and Disaster Preparedness Musa 
Ecweru announced that the Government would assess the performance of 
non-governmental organizations in northern Uganda and suspend the 
operational licenses of those that were not performing tasks related 
to their stated objectives.  Ecweru alleged that few of the 
registered 600 NGOs would have their licenses renewed because "they 
have moved away from their original work objectives, with no work 
done on the ground."  Ecweru complained that NGO employees were 
staying at "expensive hotels at the expense of the suffering people" 
and that they could be found "swimming and boozing, ignoring work; 
yet at the end of the day, they claim money from the donors."  He 
stated that the Government would not accept the NGOs playing with 
donor funds.  World Vision, Save the Children, and the International 
Committee of the Red Cross were praised for their activities. 
Comment: The immediate target of the Government's assessment appears 
to be NGOs that exist on paper and are not providing needed 
services, not larger organizations with international affiliations. 
Nonetheless, Mission personnel will keep in close contact with our 
NGO partners as the assessment proceeds. 
 
¶10.  (U) USG Activities: The HELP Commission (Helping to Enhance the 
Livelihood of People Around the Globe) Commission, a bipartisan 
commission appointed by Congress and the President, chaired by Mary 
¶K. Bush, visited Uganda from March 26 - 28.  In Uganda, the team 
members traveled from the eastern border with Kenya to Kampala and 
then up to Lira in northern Uganda.  The Commission visited USAID, 
CDC, and CJTF-HOA project sites, discussed the MCC Threshold Country 
Program with the Ministry of Finance, met Parliamentarians and 
examined the impact of numerous Presidential initiatives in Uganda 
implemented through local (including faith-based organizations), as 
well as US implementing partners. 
 
¶11.  (U) WFP has 600 acres of improved cassava ready for 
distribution through a USAID/OFDA-funded project. 
 
¶12.  (U) A USAID/EGAT team working with the National Water and 
Sewage Corporation (NWSC) visited the Gulu municipal reservoir and 
treatment plant, motorized boreholes, and hand pumps in IDP camps in 
the north. 
 
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FROM THE MEDIA AND THE WEB 
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¶13.  (U) The work of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa 
(CJTF-HOA) was highlighted in the major daily newspapers over the 
past week.  On April 3, the Daily Monitor featured a photograph of 
CJTF-HOA personnel performing a water quality test at one of the 
repaired boreholes in Pader District.  CJTF-HOA plans to repair 50 
more boreholes in northern Lira and southern Pader districts. 
Resident District Commissioner for Pader, Santos Okot Lapolo, while 
praising the work of the CJTF-HOA team, requested continued support, 
and not to be left "in the middle of the road."  The article also 
noted that the team gave out clothes and shoes to patients at the 
Awere Health Centre and that the team's mission was humanitarian in 
nature. 
BROWNING