Apaa community presents petition of 3,347 families demanding to remain on their land, pledging not to accept compensation
This article was First published by Apaa Monitor- Northern Uganda facebook page
Today 10 representatives of the Apaa community visited the office of the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and presented a petition which is to be given directly to the Office of the President. Families that signed the petition pledged that they would never accept any amount of government compensation for their land, and requested that the Government degazette the area in recognition of the fact that their ancestral land was unjustly turned into a wildlife reserve while they forcibly displaced into camps during the war.
The petition was signed by 3,347 families (representing over 20,000 people) who live in areas of Apaa that fall within the wildlife reserve. It was largely women who signed on behalf of their households.
This petition shows Apaa residents remains united in their refusal to accept compensation and their demand for the area to be officially degazetted for human settlement. It also shows that the government registration process to estimate the number of the households in Apaa counted only a tiny proportion of the real population. The government estimated that there are only 374 households in Apaa- this petition shows there are thousands of households.