{UAH} THE ACHOLI VIOLENCE IN UGANDA FROM THE EYES OF USAID

A recent overview* of Uganda by author Thomas Ofcansky asserts that

 

“...the UNLA conducted its operations with little regard for the rules of

warfare. As a result, terrible human rights abuses occurred against pro-

NRA communities in the Luwero Triangle. In January 1983, Obote

launched “Operation Bonanza” in this area, during which UNLA troops

destroyed small towns, villages, and farms and killed or displaced

hundreds of thousands of civilians...After the war ended in 1986, the

International Committee of the Red Cross claimed that at least 300,000

people had died in the Luwero Triangle and that officials had failed to

account for half to a third of the region’s population.”

UNLA forces in Luwero were sometimes referred to as “the Acholis,” because of

the large number of Acholis who comprised its officer and enlisted corps.

NRA conduct, by comparison, was observed by international witnesses to be

generally disciplined and correct. Summary execution of prisoners and suspected

UNLA collaborators and other abuses almost certainly occurred. But the NRA

appeared to rely more on a program of political outreach to civilians, upon whose

support it depended.

After the Luwero conflict ended, the ghosts of Luwero continued to haunt Acholi.

By 1987, Acholiland itself was consumed by war. The Catholic Bishop of Gulu

and Kitgum, the late Msgr. Cipriano Kihangire, in his April 1987 Easter homily,

addressed the question, “What has caused this difficult situation?” Speaking to

his Acholi parishioners about Luwero, he observed:

 

“Many joined the army with the hope of getting rich overnight, and were

used by unscrupulous political leaders who sent them to carry out

‘operations’ in areas of political unrest. These operations involved

atrocious acts of violence against innocent civilians, including children and

women, who were subjected to unspeakable mistreatment. A lot of looting

was done…When the loot was brought home, parents and relatives

welcomed it in their homes, knowing that it was looted. Instead of

correcting their children and condemning their actions, many parents had

only praise for them...We can now see that these present sufferings are

the result of our own sin.”

 

At the time these atrocities were being committed, beginning in about 1983 and in

the years which followed, some Obote II spokesmen denied they were taking

place at all. Those who acknowledged them alleged that the massacres were

conducted by NRA forces disguised in UNLA uniforms. Still today, when the

subject is raised, some Acholi offer the same explanations. Moreover, those

Acholi who acknowledge that many atrocities took place dispute the estimate of

100,000 dead.

 

Is the attribution of events in Luwero exclusively to the UNLA’s Acholi elements

justified? The Acholi were only one of several ethnic groups prominently

represented in the armed forces. Acholi forces in the army appear to have been

generally subordinated to senior officers of President Obote’s Lango tribe, a

source of continual friction within the military. During some of this period, the

UNLA was rudderless, operating without a permanent Chief of Staff. Powerful

figures in the security apparatus who influenced military policy, such as National

Security Agency Director Chris Rwakasisi, were of non-Acholi backgrounds. The

army relied upon North Korean technical advisors in its Luwero operations. All of

these factors had a bearing on the UNLA’s conduct in Luwero.

Moreover, before and since Independence, abuses and indiscipline in the armed

forces had been ignored or tolerated, contributing to an increase in such

lawlessness. Amnesty International recounts one illustrative example of the

origins of what some refer to as the military’s “cultural of impunity:”

“In 1962, shortly before Uganda’s independence, Lieutenant Idi Amin of the

King’s African Rifles commanded a platoon which killed a number of

Turkana prisoners in northwest Kenya. Sir Walter Coutts, the British

Governor of Uganda, vetoed any criminal proceedings against him on the

grounds that he was one of only two black officers in the Ugandan army

and a prosecution would be politically undesirable just before

independence.”

The vast majority of Acholi civilians in Gulu and Kitgum participated in no way,

were remote from events in Luwero, and had no immediate reason to be

concerned about them at the time.

Despite all of these mitigating factors, many Ugandans hold mainly the Acholi

responsible for the Luwero atrocities because of the high proportion of Acholis in

the armed forces at that time. While almost all Acholis deny such responsibility, a

few Acholi elders nonetheless assert that the time has come for a dialogue with

Baganda leaders, with the aim of reconciling what had occurred there. In a way

which was difficult to pinpoint, they believe such a dialogue might help create

conditions to end the current war in Acholi, even though the present conflict does

not appear to directly involve the Baganda people. A few Acholi were said to

believe that the spirits of some Luwero victims – for example, of a pregnant

Baganda woman who was killed and mutilated in a particularly unspeakable way

– are exacting revenge by causing or prolonging the current Acholi war.

 

General Tito Okello Lutwa’s Government - July 1985/January 1986

During 1985, the Obote II regime appeared to be disintegrating under the

pressure of the NRA insurgency, national discontent and international

condemnation. In July 1985, Acholi elements in the UNLA, led by Lieutenant

General Basilio Olara-Okello, himself an Acholi, overthrew the Obote government.

General Tito Okello Lutwa (not related to Basilio), himself an Acholi from Namuokora

(Kitgum District), became President. President Obote and most of the

Langi in the military were expelled and a predominantly Acholi government took

power. Ambassador Olara Otunnu, also from Acholi (previously Obote’s

representative to the United Nations in New York), was appointed Foreign

Minister. According to several observers, including authoritative U.S. Government

sources, both Kampala and districts like Apac and Lira, home of the Lango

people, were the scene of widespread looting – in many cases by Acholi soldiers

– in an environment characterized by a general absence of law and order.

*

 

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"