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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 30 August 2006

UGANDA: Rebels expected to release captives as army pulls back

KAMPALA, 30 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - Aid agencies are preparing to receive women and children who have been held in captivity by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and are expected to be released after a truce in the 20-year war between the rebels and the Uganda government.

The preparations were announced as Ugandan troops started to pull back from their battle positions in northern Uganda, silencing the guns in fighting that has killed thousands and displaced almost two million people across the region.

Lt Chris Magezi, an army spokesman, told IRIN on Wednesday that the troops were pulling back after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s order that they stop fighting the rebels.

"Our mobile squads that have been in the bush are being pulled back to either detaches or to IDP camps to provide security there," Magezi said via telephone from a remote area in Olamunyung, Gulu District, where he had gone to witness the withdrawal.

Chulho Hyun, spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Kampala, said that aid agencies were making arrangements to receive up to 1,500 children and women believed to be held in captivity.

"The whole operation will be based on the capacity of the reception centres and coordinated through relief agencies, community-based organisations and local governments," Hyun said.

Arrangements, he added, were being made for cross-border coordination to ensure the returnees’ evacuation, including ground and air transport. "Eventually some will have to leave the reception centres to go to their communities and we are prepared for that too. We are ready for the children to come home and will help them re-unite with the communities they were separated from for too long," Hyun added.

In Gulu town, thousands of flag-waving demonstrators marched on the streets in support of the peace process, with one young girl wrapping a white cloth to the barrel of a gun carried by a government soldier.

"We held a white flag parade in Gulu and marched to the gates of the fourth army division to hand over a white flag to the commander of the ground forces," Gulu chairman, Nobert Mao, said. "We wanted everybody who may try to frustrate the peace process to know that there is a big price to pay."

In an earlier statement, the UNICEF Executive Director, Ann Veneman, acclaimed the truce, but urged the rebels to promptly release all the women and children who had been separated from their communities by the conflict.

In a separate statement, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hailed the agreement as a "step in the right direction [that] could pave the way for a comprehensive settlement after decades of violence".

There were no immediate reports of LRA rebels starting to move to two areas where they are required to assemble in accordance with a truce agreement but Mao said a group of rebels had been sighted in Atiak, 65 km north of Gulu town. Magezi said the army had seen signs that the rebels had started moving.

According to the Ugandan military, 11 safe corridors have been developed that will be used by the LRA fighters. Under the terms of the agreement, the Ugandan government has to guarantee the rebels - who according to sources number anywhere between 500 and 5,000 - safe passage to two assembly points in autonomous southern Sudan.

The rebels will stay there for the duration of the talks under the protection of the government of southern Sudan, which is mediating the negotiations at its regional capital, Juba.

The Gulu District Commissioner, Walter Ochola, said the LRA’s second-in-command, Vincent Otti, was expected to address residents of northern Uganda and his fighters on radio. "Otti is about to talk on MEGA FM any time and that is when we shall know the progress they have made," he told IRIN.

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This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006