UN official calls for greater effort on abductees

NAIROBI, 24 October (IRIN) - UNICEF regional representative Thomas
McDermott has called on the Sudanese government to increase efforts to
repatriate Ugandan children abducted by the Ugandan rebel Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) and held captive inside Sudan.

"It appears Sudan is committed to this project, but the government needs
to speed up the process so that the thousands of children in abusive
situations can be back with their families as soon as possible," said
McDermott, UNICEF representative for the Middle East and North Africa.

According to UNICEF, a total of 323 LRA abductees who escaped in southern
Sudan during 2000-01 have become part of a programme of repatriation to
Uganda via Khartoum, under the auspices of UNICEF, the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the governments of Uganda and Sudan.

During a visit to Sudan last week, McDermott also urged the government to
use oil revenues to increase access to the Sudanese education system. He
said that although the government had "made progress" on higher education,
more effort was needed to improve basic primary education and for a
special curriculum on HIV/AIDS to be integrated into the school system.

"It is clear that there are new opportunities for Sudan - oil revenue and
strong hopes for peace being the primary ones," he added.

McDermott praised the government for establishing a unit in the education
ministry to deal with the education of girls, and for guaranteeing the
salaries of primary school teachers.

"I was pleased to learn from the education authorities that the government
has agreed to pay the salaries of all primary school teachers from the
federal budget, thereby ensuring that poorer states will be in a better
position to retain trained teachers - a key factor to improved quality
education," he said.

In a separate statement last week, UNICEF said that 18 former LRA
abductees returning from LRA captivity in Sudan would be transported to
their homes in Gulu, Kitgum and Apac districts in northern Uganda. The
agency estimated that, of the 30,839 people registered abductees between
1986 and 2001, 79 percent originated in Gulu and Kitgum.

Led by the self-proclaimed mystic, Joseph Kony, the LRA has been fighting
a guerilla-style war against Ugandan government forces since the late
1980s, ostensibly in a desire to have Uganda ruled according to the Ten
Commandments of the Bible.

The militia frequently attacks camps for internally displaced persons,
looting goods and abducting people to carry them or serve as fighters or
commanders' sex slaves.

The LRA has become increasingly isolated in recent months, as
Ugandan-Sudanese relations have taken important steps forward - including
the exchange of envoys by Kampala and Khartoum, according to humanitarian
sources.

The Sudanese government said in August that it has withdrawn all support
from the LRA and, for the first time, it has pledged to take military
measures against the rebel group.

In addition, the Sudanese charge d'affaires in Uganda, Siraj al-Din
Muhammad, said on Saturday, 20 October, that Sudanese government forces
were working to locate Kony and to extradite him to Uganda.

"Our government is fighting them [the LRA], because they have started
terrorising our people and forcefully recruiting them into their ranks,"
the Ugandan government-owned daily New Vision quoted him as saying.

In agreeing to halt its support to the LRA, the Sudanese government also
called on Uganda to sever ties with the rebel Sudan People's Liberation
Army (SPLA). However, Sudanese presidential adviser on political affairs,
Qutbi al-Mahdi, said on Tuesday that Uganda was not abiding by the Nairobi
agreement, and was continuing to support the SPLM/A.

It was not true that Uganda was still backing the SPLA, Reuters quoted
Ugandan army spokesman Phinehas Katirimina as saying on Wednesday. "We are
not offering the SPLA any support. They have posted a charge d'affaires
here to let them verify this," Katirimina added.

[ENDS]

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