{UAH} IDDI AMIN NEVER TARGETED LANGIs/ACHOLIs, THEY TARGETED HIM {---Series twenty five}

Friends

 

In around 2003 Canada joined the international community to head out to Somalia and serve as a peace keeping force. Our then prime minister Brian Mulroney  responded to the George Bush's call and offered soldiers from the Canadian airborne regiment to head out as peace keepers. On reaching Somalia the situation became very complicated for our soldiers went into a war zone and a country that had no peace to be kept. Somalis became very aggressive and started to attack Red Cross and many NGOs that had headed into Somalia. Canadian soldiers responded by becoming violent and beat Somalis, sometimes to death. There were a number of several human right abuse that happened in Somalia and many were done by our soldiers. On May 22 2004 CBC {Canadian Broadcasting corporation aired a piece called "Fall out" a piece among which a soldier Mike Smith decided to out the rest of them and what they were doing in Somalia. Because this was very new to all Canadians we became out raged and heads started to roll, I remember Rex Murphy  making a statement that became a very center piece of the Somalia affair for he said " We promised them peacekeepers, and we sent them thugs" As all this was happening, we held a national election which brought The Liberal under John Chretien to power. Commissions of inquiries were carried out and witnesses of abuse from Somalia took stands. To cut the very long story short, Chretien fired the entire Canadian Airborne Regiment coast to coast, and the entire national defense budget was cut by a whopping 25%. It never mattered who you were in the regiment, it never mattered if you were deployed in Somalia or not, it never mattered if you abused any one in Somalia, if you belong to The Canadian Air borne regiment you are fired with immediate effect. We went back into the country and rehired fresh soldiers. There are two things of value in this short paragraph, a soldier saw something wrong, he documented it and reported it, but the country stood up and reacted very angrily because that is not who we are.

 

For many years Acholi have treated Ugandans with impugn and we have not taken a single step to complain about it let alone reporting it. The Acholi violence cancer has grown slowly but steadily to becoming publicly accepted. Wewe bibi toka kwa gari kuja hapa, the rest of taxi passengers remain sitting in the car when a woman is getting raped in front of them for we have accepted it. Acholi soldiers in response went on and on raping and very repeatedly. Up to today there is not a single case that has ever been raised regarding raping Uganda women, and because we allowed Acholi a free pass, rape has become very accepted that in Somalia soldiers that were under command of Paul Loketch raped Somali women over and over, yet we still have done absolutely nothing about it. We as Ugandans, have to reach a point of questioning our priority, and what are our expectations when we hire these thugs. But Acholi as well have a separate issue, they take no advice from no body. To those that were close to Uganda House, we remember very many times when  the UPC hierarchy rejected the path Acholi were taking of being abusive to the people. The Uganda House denounced the beating of people, raping of women, and all human right abuse that happened in Uganda especially in Kampala. UPC hierarchy opposed locking up of Luwero people. But you had two specific problems {a} Obote was a very weak leader that failed to stand up and go after Acholi violence, for he thought that everyone had a good intention and knew that barbarism never work. Do you remember when Iddi Amin stood up and fired but exported the Maleras? He managed to do that for he had a strong leadership that Obote never had. {b} Most of Acholi commanders and foot soldiers were just a bunch of drunkard thugs. My God an Acholi stops to drink at 1am and he starts at 4am, when exactly do you get a time to pump sense into him?

 

Now when I make a statement that broad, I get attacked for I am bullying Acholi that are sober, but let us look at the facts at hand. The British acting ambassador in Uganda at a time, complained that Acholi soldiers were drunk every time, The American ambassador complained that Acholi soldiers were drunk all the time, Amnesty International complained that Acholi soldiers were drunk every time, USAID complained that Acholi soldiers were drunk every time, EM has complained that Acholi soldiers were drunkards. To those that were in Kampala at the fall of Amin will remember how Nile Mansion was turned into a mini East African Distilleries, to a point that one of the reason The Andrew Kayiiras wanted to blow it up,  was that it failed many national decisions to be made, because those responsible to make them were sitting in Nile Mansion only drinking. Acholi women have complained that men drink a whole lot in Acholi land, and fail to come home and fulfill their conjugal responsibility. All examples I have sited are a permanent record somewhere of which I have posted as the series continue. Why is it a crime to publicly state that Acholi are drunkard thugs?

 

Friends we have a serious problem with Acholi violence that needs to be addressed, yet we continue in our denials. An example of this kind of denial can be found in the Jewish situation. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the former Iranian leader had made it a  habit of denying the holocaust at the UN General Assembly gathering whenever he was given a podium to talk. And whenever he did that  most Western leaders and diplomats would walk out. What he did not realize was that the more he denied the holocaust the stronger the case became that indeed it took place. The Arab world has played this game for half a century hoping the world would  change in its favor. Unfortunately, this denial made the Jewish state and its people stronger. had the Arab world had the courage to acknowledge this historical fact, the Middle East would be different today and co-existence would have taken place the day the Jewish people returned back to their promised land.

The 2002 Rome Statute of International Criminal Court defines the crime of apartheid as inhumane acts of a character similar to other crimes against humanity "committed in the context of an systematic oppression and domination by one racial group of any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime." After apartheid ended, the Boers very quickly accepted their role in this crime and agreed unconditionally to participate in the Peace and Reconciliation Commission. They recognized that if they wanted to be part of post-apartheid South Africa, that was the surest way to safeguard their future. Indeed that worked. This is the road Acholi need to take instead of accusing me of fueling hatred or prolonging Museveni's regime, in which they are actively participating. If I was that powerful to prolong the Museveni's regime, what the hell  am I doing in Canada?  I could have joined the likes of late Omwony Ojok, Co. Wilson Toko (both deceased), or Chris Opoka and Harold Achema both former residents of Toronto and very great friends of mine by the way.

 

Stay in the forum for Series twenty six is on the way   ------>

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 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"