KAMPALA, Oct 31, 2006 (Xinhua via COMTEX) - Over 1.4 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the war-torn northern Uganda will go home while the government is to close all the refugee camps by the end of this year.
Tarsis Kabwegyere, the Minister of Relief and Disaster Preparedness, who was quoted by the state-owned New Vision on Tuesday, said the government has set December 31 as the deadline by which the IDPs must vacate the camps and go home.
"The camps must be empty. Nothing will stop us from achieving this because we have everything in place. The disaster management and security committees are there. We have also recruited 29 resettlement officers to ensure that by December 31 all the camps are empty," Kabwegyere said.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on the same occasion said the government has already embarked on the process of resettling the IDPs, saying "We are in full gear to resettle you in your villages. We have mobilized some money to resettle you."
In August this year, the government announced a six months 100 million U.S. dollar emergency plan to facilitate the return of IDPs to their villages and to reinstall laws and justice in the war-affected north.
A two decade brutal rebellion of the Lord's Resistance Army ( LRA) led by Joseph Kony has left tens of thousands of people dead and over 1.4 million internally displaced in northern Uganda.
The rebels and the government are currently engaging in the peace talks in Juba, southern Sudan, since the talks started on July 14.
"The government is ready to forgive these people and help them solve their problems with the International Criminal Court (ICC). But if they continue to cause trouble the army will hunt for them, " Museveni said.
The LRA leadership, including Kony and four of his top commanders, has been indicted by the UN's court in The Hague for war crimes and crimes against humanity on the request of the Ugandan government last year.
"We prefer that they come out peacefully so we don't waste resources hunting for them in southern Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It is good for Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and the people of this area," Museveni said.
The LRA rebels have been hiding in the bush in eastern DRC following their retreat from southern Sudan under the intensified joint military operation of Ugandan army and southern Sudanese forces.