Stuck in the camps with no where to go

Gulu

Among the many tragic episodes of contemporary world history, is the depressing tale of the ‘Boat People’, a term that was used to describe the Vietnamese refugees who used small, rickety boats to flee repressive Communist rule at the height of Vietnam War in 1975.

More than one million people became refugees. Many perished. It was estimated that up to 25 per cent of those who left Vietnam perished on the stormy seas. Thousands died when their boats were attacked and then sank by Thai pirates.

Women and young girls were raped then murdered. Their story shocks human conscience, for a few, luck came their way when the United States, Canada, and other nations accepted them as refugees in the late 1970s and the 1980s. However, thousands remained stranded with no place to call home.

Back home
The devastating conflict waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda has spawned a community of stranded people not dissimilar from Vietnam’s boat people. Having fled persecution and lived in appalling conditions for over 20 years in camps, thousands of Acholi’s displaced families are now requested by the government and land owners to return home.

Owing to the new found peace, over 60 per cent of the population in the region is now attempting to resettle. But many are still stuck in the camps with no place to go. For many this is simply because they do not know where home is.

Ms Rose Apalo, 70, cannot trace her origin. Some 9,000 displaced persons once lived with her at Unyama camp until 2006.Today, the camp that was once situated 10 kilometres north of Gulu town is a desolate place.
More than 60 per cent of the population who once were neighbours with Ms Apalo have either moved to satellite villages or resettled in their original homes. But this is only a distant wish for the elderly woman. Apalo only recalls that her immediate family once lived in Atiak Sub-county of present day Amuru District. That’s all. Her husband died 20 years ago before she was displaced to Unyama camp in Gulu.

As a widow, Ms Apalo prayed to God to protect her two sons and one daughter; they were the only reason she would live for. But the LRA killed the two sons in the 1990s and she is left with her daughter who unfortunately got infected with HIV and has developed Aids. “My daughter is too poor to even afford Shs50. She is also struggling with two of her own children who also tested positive,” Ms Apalo explains.

Her dilemma is made worse by her multiple disabilities brought about by old age and a paralysed leg. Ms Apalo is tired of camp life and believes things can only get tougher as her other colleagues who have where to go, continue to leave.

Dry tears
“I want to leave but where to go?” she asked. “If there is anyone who can take me I can go and stay, after all am left with few years to die,” she says in Luo. In the camp, landowners now demand Shs3,000 from her every month as rent, an amount she considers prohibitive. Ms Apalo sells dried greens (Boo) and cow peas, a business she started with a capital of Shs2,500 received as payment for winnowing a neighbour’s millet.

There are thousands of people like her scattered across northern Uganda; hapless, stranded and sadly waiting to die, if nothing is done. Visit one of the camps like Bar Lonyo in Lango sub-region where the LRA massacred over 250 people in one night, and the living ghosts will besiege you with their pleading eyes as they try to tell you their stories. The world has turned upside down, they will tell you, during the years they have been here.

Similar tales
Ms Apalo is not alone in this camp; youth are also facing similar challenges. Ms Beatrice Alianga entered the camp at the age of seven. Both her parents died and were buried in the camp. “I do not have anybody; we grew up from here. As majority are returning home we are pleading with the land owner to let us stay. Our parents who died in 2002 talked of originating from the boarder of Kitgum and Karamoja but we cannot trace our home or relatives,” she narrates with strength in her voice, but the tears rolling down her cheeks betray her inner pain and weakness.

Ms Alianga discloses that she contracted HIV/Aids in the camp, and has been so sickly because she is too poor to feed well. Yet she has the responsibility of taking care of her three orphans. Her husband died several years ago but she did not know his origin.

Parents buried
“Our parents were buried in the camp but if we die we do not know where our remains will be buried even for our children,” she breaks down again and needs close to half an hour to recover.

The landlord collects Shs5,000 per month from her for the rent of a small hut they live in. Ms Alianga washes people’s clothes and does menial tasks at Unyama Market to make ends meet. “Three of my children have reached school age but they cannot attend school because Unyama and Pakwelo primary schools charge Shs10,000 a year which is a big sum for me to afford,” she explains. However, Unyama Parish Chief Alex Ojera said there are some communities who are giving their land to help these people because most of them are not expected to live for more than five years.

UN intervention
UNHCR official, Mr God Bourdin, during the camp closure in Awoo late last year, requested land owners to give people time to prepare for return.
The UN agency also constructed about 515 huts and 510 pit latrines to help the vulnerable persons that are still in the camps. But that is for those who know where to go after camp. Unyama camp by the peak of the insurgency had a population of 9,000 people but as of December last year 50 per cent had gone home and plans are underway for the camp to be decommissioned along with the few remaining such facilities in Gulu.

Thousands of these IDPs are likely to continue to be exposed to disease and malnutrition, after having suffered displacement, exploitation and abuse throughout their lives, both before camp life and while in the camp.

Out of a total of 20,000 formerly displaced persons that are still in the camps, 1,800 are extremely vulnerable persons, among which are people over 60-years-old, and the sick, Sunday Monitor established.

Mr Jack Byaruhanga of the Prime Minister’s Office in Gulu, said other than those who are stranded in the camps, the rest have not made up their mind to return while others still have conflicts on their land. The prime minister’s Office is coordinated the return process. “Some have not made up their minds, while others have land-related issues,” Mr Byaruhanga noted. He says Lalogi Sub-county has a big number of people still in camps, which stands at 4,000 with a total of 186 extremely vulnerable individuals (EVIs), while Ongako Sub-county has 3,300 with about 100 EVIs.

Mr Byaruhanga adds that about 1,000 will still be supported by the WFP with food items up to June this year. Initially there were a total of over 32,000 IDPs displaced in Gulu district in all the 11 sub-counties dispersed in 31 camps of which 16 have since been decommissioned after meeting the criteria of the 50 per cent of the persons that have either returned to their original homes and those who are in transit camps.

As of December 2009, there were a total of 16 camps that met the criteria and they include, Awo, Opit, St Thomas Minakulu, Bobi, Lalogi, Awach, Coope, Bungatira Alokolum, Lugole, Palaro, Omel-pe, Odek, Dino, Awere and Okwi. Other camps that are pending closure after the assessment which is to be done late this month include Cwero, Oto hills, Ajul, Unyama, Orok, Palenga, Bobi, Tetug, Koro-Abili, Lukodi, Cet-kana, Acet, Kona-Gura, Adak and Monorak.

Land conflicts
According to the government’s IDP policy, displaced persons should be given time to make up their minds to return without any threat or land owners’ intimidation and there is no time frame because return is voluntary.

Some former IDPs say they are still waiting for social services to reach their former homes before they can return but the government urges them to return first, then basic services will follow.
Meanwhile, some land owners are getting increasingly bitter especially in the areas where camps have already been decommissioned but the IDPs are still around.

In Oroko in Palaro were land owners have now issued a deadline of February15 for all the people to leave. “We need a token of appreciation from the government, as our colleagues are returning to fertile soils, we have to wait for years for our land to regain fertility yet the government emphasises the issue of prosperity for all,” Mr Yafesi Ojo in Madi-Opei camp in Kitgum says. But even for those who have returned home, the conditions in the villages are much worse than in the camps.

The villages along with whatever life-supporting infrastructure were destroyed when the people fled to the camps, so they are returning to a place with no homes, no food, no clean water, no roads and far from the reach of the humanitarian aid they have barely survived on these past two decades.

It will take time for the people to build houses, plant and harvest crops. In the mean time hunger and starvation are widespread as witnessed in Acholi and Lango last year.