Presentation on behalf of IDPs

By Stephen Ogik (Camp Leader, Opit ‘Protected Village’)
(Summarised translation by: Patrick Oguru Otto)

Thank you Mr. Chairman, government delegations and other delegates.

In my presentation, I will relate the difficulties that we, camp residents, are experiencing.

Before I do that, I will draw your attention to the peace talks that Betty Bigombe initiated in an effort to resolve the conflict. We had hoped that the initiative would bring peace but when the government refused to accept it, the situation got progressively worse. The result was that we ended up in the camps. This mainly happened in 1996.

The following are some of our experiences:

1. The camps are overcrowded with very large numbers of people cramped in very small areas.
2. The camps are regularly attacked by the LRA who kill, abduct and burn houses. There is very little protection from these attacks.

Furthermore, there are two sides to the suffering that we experience:

3. First of all, when the LRA attacks the camps, we the camp dwellers who are supposed to be protected from danger find ourselves caught in the crossfire between the LRA and the UPDF.
4. Secondly, the government army, the UPDF has also killed people in the camps. For example, a grenade was recently thrown into a crowd in Opit.
5. Landmines have also been deployed near the camps, and many camp dwellers have been injured as a result.
6. Another serious problem that we experience is the shortage of food. You may have heard that the World Food programme is supplying the camps and therefore assumed that we are well fed. That is not the case. We actually refer to the organisation as ‘World Food Problems’! Some time back they supplied food that was contaminated with broken glass. Many who ate it suffered horrific injuries.
7. Diseases of various types are rampant in the camps, including, syphilis, AIDS and many others.
8. Abductions are common, even from within the camps, these are still going on. This has caused such desperation and people feel so helpless. The IDPs have asked me to come and say that if they cannot be protected in the camps, they would rather go back to their homes – and face whatever awaits them.
9. Another serious problem is that of sexual abuse of under age girls. This goes on and many girls become pregnant and are lucky if they survive childbirth.
10. Recruitment into the army is another issue and we would like to know why this is still going on in the camps. Are we Acholis the only tribe that can defend Uganda?
11. On the education front, we have virtually no education for our children. The facilities are inadequate with very large class sizes. In fact we are not benefiting from the so-called Universal Primary Education (UPE).

The final messages that I was asked to convey to the conference are as follows:

1. We do not want to live in the camps any longer! We want to return to our villages.
2. If we must stay in the camps, as a temporary arrangement, while avenues to restore peace are being sought, then please, please help to improve our living conditions and also increase the level and quality of humanitarian assistance to the camps.