KAMPALA, 8 January (IRIN) - An estimated 230,000 internally diplaced
persons (IDPs) returned to their villages in northern Uganda in 2006 as a result of improved security, but up to 1.2 million others remain in camps in a region ravaged by two decades of of conflict,
the United Nations food agency said."Improvements in overall security in Acholi and Lango sub-regions in 2006 encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to move voluntarily out of camps, seeking to
support themselves," Alix Loriston, UN World Food Programme's deputy director for Uganda, said in a statement on Friday.Some of the displaced people in the Acholi and Lango sub-regions had
established satellite camps nearer to their original villages in order to acces their farms for cultivation, he said.Relative calm has returned to northern Uganda as a result of a truce agreed in
August, 2006 between the government and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group whose violent campaign mostly against civilians forced an estimated 1.6 million people to seek shelter in squalid
and crowded camps where the government promised better protection from rebel attacks."Some of these families have spent years in the camps, and some of their children have never known a normal
life," said Loriston. "It is enormously encouraging to see people feel safe enough to go home. WFP has worked hard to provide the practical help they need in those vital first few months," he said.The gency has given out seeds worth US $ 208,000 to returnees and those still in camp in a bid to ease their dependence on food aid. Other forms of assistance include making tractors available to
families to plough their fields, food aid and privision of tools. The UN refugee agency has been helping to open up abandoned roads in Lira and Gulu districts.Talks between a government delegation
and LRA representatives resume in Juba, the capital of South Sudan later this month.The archbishop of the Roman Catholic of Gulu, John-Baptist Odama, said that many IDPs were still hesitating to
return to their homes mainly because they were uncertain fo the outcome of the Juba peace talks, which have faltered on several occasions due to an apparent lack of trust between the two sides."Many
people we have talked to do not want to move twice. What is going on in Juba is not assuring to them enough and they are waiting for a more comprehensive assurance that an agreement will be secured,"
said Odama.IDPs were also unsure that they would get social amenities once they were back in their villages, most of which had turned into thick bushes in their absence, Odama said."What social
services are going to be put in place as many, like schools and medical facilities, have been run down. They want assurance on some of these because they are non-existent in the areas they some are
returning to," he added.He said there was need for "consistent voices from the LRA, government and the international community" to show commitment to the peace process.vm/jn/
