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Uganda: Lack of Services, Not Kony Preventing IDP Return
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The Monitor (Kampala)
17 May 2008
Posted to the web 16 May 2008
Gladys Oroma
Gulu
Some internally displaced people interviewed by Saturday Monitor say they will not go back to their originalhomes, but not because of the fear of brutal rebel attacks, but because of the lack of roads, schools and hospitals.
The most affected districts in the two-decade long Northern Uganda conflict have been relatively safe since rebel attacks ceased over 22 months ago.
A peace process has not been concluded yet between the Lord's Resistance Army [LRA] and the government but for people like Mr Isaac Okello living in an IDP camp is still better than heading back home because of comparatively advanced social services there.
Mr Okello, 32, a father of six is worried that his children will have no schools to attend and have no access to a health center if he takes them back to his family home.
"There is a high chance that I will lose a family member in case they fall sick since there is nothing like a dispensary and the nearest health center is 15 miles from my village", he told Saturday Monitor .
A US$ 600 million government fund to rebuild the north known as the Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) has not gone beyond its planning phases.
Gulu LC 5 chairman Norbert Mao says most of the schools, health centers are concentrated within the camps where people have lived for the last 15years.
"If you go to the villages where these people once lived, you will find nothing like any social service for the people yet they are expected to leave the places where they can access these services", he said.
According to Mr Mao, villagers are in a dilemma where they are caught up between going back to their villages and getting their children out of school or remaining in the camp and not being able to farm so that their children can access education from nearby schools.
Gulu District local government has earmarked 1.5 billion shilling for the construction of 80 bore holes, 40 new class rooms, 120 teachers' quarters and 30 health centers as part of the rebuilding effort to bring services to the eleven sub-counties in the district.
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In the meantime the fear of bad schools not rebels will keep many parents from starting a new life in their old homes.
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