Victims mutilated by rebels to be compensated

More than 5,000 people whose lips and ears were cut off by rebels who have waged a more than 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda will receive compensation from the government, a presidential adviser said today.

Victims of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have already begun signing up with the government, Richard Todwong said.

“So far 5,000 have been registered but we expect many more,” Mr Todwong said. “Some of those reporting for registration have wounds that have not yet got completely healed. We send such people to hospitals for treatment.”

Mr Todwong could not specify when compensation payments would start being distributed, but said that funds are now available.

The Lord’s Resistance Army has been waging one of Africa’s longest and most brutal rebellions, and its leaders are the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant.

The rebels are accused of cutting off people’s lips and ears as warnings to other survivors. Human rights groups say the rebels have also attacked civilians in Congo, Central African Republic and Sudan.

Human Rights Watch said in a report over the weekend that the Lord’s Resistance Army rampaged through at least 10 villages in Congo late last year, hacking people to death with machetes. The report said children abducted by the rebels were even forced to execute other children.

LRA official David Matsanga said on Monday that there are no LRA rebels in Congo and blamed the massacres on Ugandan troops. A Ugandan army spokesman denied that allegation.