UGANDA:Rebel commander's defection “a boon” to peace

The reported defection of a senior rebel commander could revive hopes of a peaceful end to a regional conflict in which hundreds have recently died and thousands fled their homes, a leading cleric in northern Uganda said.
Okot Odhiambo, second-in-command of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), contacted the International Organization for Migration to announce his defection."We are coordinating with the Ugandan government and the UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Force]; I can confirm that he has defected," Jeremy Haslam, IOM's head of office in Uganda.
The IOM, he added, was now negotiating Odhiambo's safe passage from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Uganda."I have heard about the intended surrender; the treatment he gets will play a big role for similar moves by [other] rebel commanders in future," Gulu Catholic Archbishop, John Baptist Odama, told IRIN on 30 January."This must be the time where mercy triumphs over other convictions to build true reconciliation. Let him be handled like someone who has surrendered," said the cleric, who has been involved in various efforts to peacefully end more than two decades of war between the LRA and the Ugandan government. Odama said he hoped the surrender would lead to the conclusion of a peace process through a signed agreement, and ease an ongoing military offensive in eastern DRC.

"When he comes out, he should convince his boss [LRA leader, Joseph Kony] to come and sign [a peace agreement] instead of resorting to war," Odama told IRIN. "War generates hatred, revenge and other evils. We think that it will be of no use for the government to go on with an outright military offensive with its consequent loss of lives."
The LRA have been flushed out of their bases in the Garamba National Park, north-eastern DRC, but have split into smaller groups. These are now accused of mass murder, rape and pillage in DRC and Southern Sudan. They have also abducted children and driven tens of thousands of people from their homes. On 27 January, the UN reported an attack by 13 suspected LRA rebels on the remote village of Tora in which at least 100 civilians were killed. The LRA have been particularly vicious since December when Uganda launched an offensive against them, with the support of the DRC and Southern Sudan armies. This "poorly executed" offensive provoked a wave of "retaliatory" massacres, according to Enough Project, an international think-tank.

Mixed reactions
The Ugandan army said military pressure from the three armies had started yielding results and that the surrender would weaken the LRA military command. "If he surrenders, Kony will be isolated because Odhiambo was one of his field men who were running around," spokesman Maj Felix Kulaigye said. Walter Ochora, Gulu district commissioner, said the surrender "would mean the LRA has been surprisingly weakened and that it is on its death bed, which can only be good news for the people of northern Uganda". Others had different opinions, however. "[The defection] will be the only obvious positive contribution of ‘Operation Lightning Thunder’ instead of what we have heard since it was launched," said Kalule Kawooya, a lawyer in Kampala. Opposition leader Ogenga Latigo doubted reports of Odhiambo's defection. "If he really comes out, it will mean there are some dissenting voices [developing] in the LRA, opposed to the strategy of Kony, and it will signal the beginning of the end to the LRA. I still have my doubts that this is true."
Odhiambo is one of five LRA commanders indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in 2005. Two have since died, including Vincent Otti, Odhiambo’s predecessor, who was reportedly killed on the orders of Kony in 2008.
The rebels agreed to a truce with the government in 2006 and entered into peace negotiations, but the process has been stalled, with Kony insisting the ICC warrants must be dropped before he signs a final agreement.

Uganda to get sh750b from World Bank

THE World Bank will invest sh750b in Uganda for the next five years to increase productivity of enterprises, access to secondary education and basic health services. The projects to benefit from the funds are Energy for Rural Transformation (sh135b), Universal Secondary Education (sh270b), Health projects (sh180b) and the Northern Uganda Social Action Fund (sh180b).
Speaking at the bank's head office in Kampala yesterday, the country manager, Kundhavi Kadiresan, said the projects were yet to be approved by the bank and Parliament. Kadiresan said the bank hoped that investing in energy would improve access to electricity, adding that only 7% of Ugandans were connected to the national power grid.
Under the project, he said, the bank would also put emphasis on renewable energy for the general population and solar power for schools. Kadiresan said the bank would fund the construction of a 10MW power plant on River Kagera and the Kasese Transmission Line. He said part of the money allocated to the free secondary education programme would be used to buy text books and build more classrooms. The bank plans to reduce the text book student ratio from one to 11 down to one to four, he said, adding that it also wanted to reduce the students from 100 per class to 60.
Under the health plan, clinics and hospitals will be constructed across the country, Kadiresan said.
Peter Okwero, the senior health specialist of the bank, said part of the money would go towards strengthening management of hospitals and the training of personnel.
The Northern Uganda Social Action Fund Project, one of the bank's most controversial projects, was slated to end this month, but the bank injected another sh180b, which it said would increase household income and improve standards of living in the war-ravaged region.
The project will help the poor to form business organisations to enhance their household incomes. It will also support the rehabilitation of socio-economic infrastructure in the underserved communities, Okwero said.