The Monitor (Kampala)

Uganda: Activists Want LRA Victims Paid

Human Rights activists yesterday tasked government to come up with schemes and compensate the victims of the two-decade Lords Resistance Army (LRA) war in northern Uganda.

The activists, who met in Kampala, said the northern civilian population saw serious abuses and violations at the hands of both the LRA and Uganda Peoples Defence Force, and they should be compensated.

Some of the serious abuses include killing, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, abduction , slavery, forced marriage, forced recruitment, mutilation, sexual violence, serious psychological harm, forced displacement and looting.

A report on northern Uganda titled: " The dust has not yet settled", stresses that the attacks were indiscriminate as they showed no respect for certain groups not directly involved in the fighting, such as the elderly, women and children.

Basing on the above, the activists now want government to compensate the population in terms of medical, educational, housing assistance as well as cash, vouchers, pension or other benefits in monetary value.

The Minister of State for Northern Uganda, Ms Rebecca Amuge, who officiated at the meeting said the victims claim their perpetrators are currently receiving greater packages for reparation than themselves in the name of amnesty.

She said there is need to sift those perpetrators to account for their evil deeds.

The chairperson Uganda Human Rights Commission, Mr Med Kaggwa, said reparation programmes can only succeed if they are linked with other transitional justice measures particularly prosecution, truth telling and institutional reforms.

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