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

Friends

When this series was started, I did not expect to go this far with it, but the more I thought about the suffering of Ugandans in the past, present and possibly in the future, the more I got bothered by one particular aspect of this suffering, the untold stories of atrocities committed by our fellow Ugandans from Acholi. My work here, again as I have said again and again, is not that of hatred as has been said by those who are happy to keep this very serious side of our history secret for best reasons known to themselves. For ten years 1971-1980 all eyes and attention were on Iddi Amin and the Nubians...true massive atrocities were committed during that period. Anyone who denies that must belong to another planet. What has not been acknowledged, however, is that it takes two to tangle. The tangles in this regard were mainly Acholi who turned Nubians and people from West Nile and Madi Districts into their enemies as exhibited by what they did after their return from exile...What made me focus on Acholi is the open refusal to accept the atrocities they committed in West Nile to be followed in Uganda because of Buganda's support for NRA which itself was bent on murder, rape and torture.

The series has focused on West Nile for a while, the next few ones are on what Exactly happened in the Luweero Triangle and it begins with this one below! As we continue to follow the tragedy Acholi's and Langis have committed in our country, at this point we are going to take a closer look at what they did inside Luwero and what the Luwerorians that have managed to speak up have actually stated. The information below is pulled out of a study that was done in Luwero and Nakasongola districts, by ISIS-Women's International Cross Cultural Exchange {ISIS-WICCE} in 1998,   funded by the courtesy of Heinrich Boll Foundation. These are parts of the report that refer to the soldiers that Lt. Colonel John Ogole commanded inside The Luwero triangle. We are starting from page 22 of the report. Please hold a cloth on your mouth as you read some of what they did to our people in Luwero for you might easily puke.

 

This is the last known photograph of Lt Col John Ogole the man that commanded these goons as they were going after Baganda in Luwero.

 

Actions by government troops in Luwero war

 

Torture was perceived as a deterrent to people from joining the adversary side. The majority of respondents 79% {73/92} reported their relatives and themselves having been verbally physically and sexually abused and tortured. Torture by government troops took very many forms such as opening up women pregnancies allegedly to verify the sex of a child, shooting, hanging, mutilating, banging on stones, burning using melted jerry cans, beating, cutting, making people lift heavy loads, starving, imprisonment, abduction and throwing children in rivers, People were also subjected to more subtle immoral forms of  torture like making people walk naked before their families and villages members. Generally, there were no major differences between the torture exerted on women or men. Below are a few extracts of testimonies thematically organized according to forms of torture committed by government troops.

Rape leading to death

"The government soldiers became very wild in our village. They raped a girl but we do not know how many they were. After raping her, they cut he private parts and she later died. Again they brought some woman from Kalangala and after raping her, they pierced her private parts with a bayonet. She was taken to a health center but later died." {Kikyuusa Female discussion Group}

 Humiliation

"At around 10.00am we were attacked while in a market with my family, they told me to remove all my clothes, and told me to go back where I came from. This was in front of my mother, wife children and grandchildren, stark-naked. –He nearly shade tears"  {Makulubita male discussion group}

 Death

"The soldiers would do whatever they wanted. One time they disagreed on who would take a girl. They therefore shot her but we could not tell The Red Cross people that  a person had been shot for fear of being killed also." {Makulubita female discussion group}

 Lifting heavy loads

"We were forced to lift very heavy loads which the soldiers had looted from the villages, if we failed to lift, they would beat us. I was beaten nearly to death because I failed to lift iron sheets. I failed to carry because they were too heavy." {Makulubita female discussion group}

 Flogging

"I was punished because I was caught eating a sugar cane in the barracks. I was put in a ditch full of water and I got 20 strokes of the cane and stayed in the ditch for two days. Another time I was given 80 strokes for alleged misconduct" {Kikyuusa female discussion group}

 Imprisonment and carrying dead bodies

"I was imprisoned in two barracks in Bombo and Makindye, I was arrested  for my secret mobilization of the people for the rebels. I was flogged to near death and I went into comma. I was put in a cell. They would come for people at night and take them for killing. Once I was selected with 5 other people but they killed only one. We were ordered to lift the dead bodies. There was a time when we were told to lift a dead body side by side and they shot it. Imagine a dead body being shot again to be sure that it is really dead. That time I was almost shot…" Makulubita female discussion groups}

Slaughter

We were 7 and the soldiers were 11. Each soldier had one to kill while the rest were on guard. In their slaughter place, you could see blood stains. This was in Bukomero. Their RP then ordered them to start their work and I was cut 3 times right in the head with a panger and I fell down. Fortunately the coat I was putting on fell on my head and instead of cutting me the panger was stopping at the coat. He cut several times and blood started spilling from my body. You would hear the sound of pangers and you would think you were in an abattoir. Voices of people calling for help and others wailing filled the whole place. He turned and touched my back to prove that I was dead. He thought I was dead and he threw me away…" {Makulubita male discussion group}

Raiding homes

"……The government forces were more rough than the rebels. The moment they entered one's house, they could do thorough checking. Those who had interest in women could do the raping while their husbands and fathers would be looking on. The government soldiers were mostly fond of women, chicken, cows, and other material things like clothe and mattresses. The girls would be taken s wives and boys would be accused of fighting against the government. On the other hand the rebels were really our friends and never mistreated us…." {Makulubita female discussion group}

4.5 Sexual abuse during the war.

Sexual abuse is one of the major atrocities committed against women and girls during the war. Out of the 92 respondents (88%) reported having been sexually abused or knowing somebody who was sexually abused. Of the 81 respondents who reported knowing someone who was sexually abused 27% reported their daughters having been abused while 23% reporting having been themselves abused. Fourteen percent reported their sisters having been abused. While all people were potentially at risk of being sexually abused, the majority victims were girls and women. The actual proportion of respondents the respondents who were actually sexually abused could not be ascertained because of the sensitivity of the issue. However, in the focus group discussion, it could be estimated that about between 50% -70% could have been sexually abused during the war. The forms sexual abuse took varied with gender and age.  Marital status was not protective factor against harassment. The married and un married, the young and old, were all vulnerable to sexual abuse. People abused included wives, sisters, sons, daughters, mothers, nieces, granddaughters, sons, fathers, grandsons, cousins, and nephews, in-laws, co-wives and friends. Sexual abuse took many forms. These included rape, defilement, forced marriages, sexual comforting, forced surrendering, forced intercourse with relatives such s daughters, sons, mothers and fathers, being forced to play sex with objects, especially for the men, tying objects on reproductive organs of the men and  sexual mutilation.

The rape ordeal

Rape is a sexual assault. It can be homosexual or heterosexual. It is a crime of violence committed against women, men, boys and girls {Medical dictionary definition}  The victim is frightened and feels vulnerable, humiliated and personally violated. Physical examination may reveal cuts, bruises and other injuries. Of the 81 respondents who responded to this question, 56% indicated having been raped or known someone who was raped. All the rape cases reported, were heterosexual and were committed against women and girls. An analysis of cases of rape, indicate that in most cases, women were raped by more than one person at a time, over several times. Of all cases reported,  the maximum number of soldiers, raping an individual woman, was 21 on different occasion. The maximum number of soldiers reported to have raped a woman at one time was 15 soldiers. The incidence of gang raping, was high during the war, and this was done to girls and women, of all age group. Children were also reported to have been defiled. Women who were gang raped, reported seeing soldiers, lining up and raping them in turn. During this study, some instances of gang rape, were reported to have lasted up to three hours at a time. Women were raped from various places, these included in the public, in gardens, in bushes and shrubs, as well as bedrooms and check points, with some  being raped in front of their family members, including spouses, children and parents.

Narration of a woman that was gang raped

"I was 30 years old and married when I was gang raped. I had temporarily separated from my husband amidst fleeing and insecurity when the village was attacked by government soldiers. I together with a friend and my young sister, ran into eh bush where I met my fist ordeal. Six soldiers found me hiding and raped me one after another starting with the one who seems to be their commander. This lasted for about three hours. The last one closed my legs barking at me in Kiswahili "we mushenzi lala hapo" meaning you fool lie there. I could not even talk. My relatives discovered me later soaked in blood, urine, feaces and men's semen. I was torn everywhere, and developed backache, before I had recovered, I was again gang raped at a military checkpoint {road-block} This time I was raped by 15 soldiers. This left me shattered. I was once again torn to an extent that I could not control my biological function. The cervix was dislocated and the uterus started hanging out. Whenever I am bathing I have to push it back in. My vaginal parts and anus is separated by just a thread of flesh, such that when I get diarrhea, I defecate from both behind and the front. I was oozing water and blood. The oozing of water and blood, has continued up to today, despite the medical treatment I obtained. The fluid is white, and sometimes mixed with pus. The one with pus is smelly. When the fluid comes, I have to use a small pad. The men say I do not fit them, hence I do not satisfy them sexually. I  equally do not get satisfied. Although I can still conceive, I cannot deliver without professional assistance" {Kikamulo individual respondent}

Forced marriages

Many women and girls, were forced into marriages which were not of their own liking. Of the 66 women that responded to question on sexual abuse, 48% indicated knowing some  woman who was married forcefully. These women and girls were captured from spouses, parents and from hiding places. They were taken to barracks near and far, and in homes of soldiers in other districts of the country. In Kikyusa, one woman said that her daughters were always troubled by the soldiers who wanted to make them their wives. The girls always had to be in hiding and many were forced to marry when they were still very young. They were forced into submission for the sake of their security and that of their husbands and parents. Those who were forced into marriage got calturalised within their new homes and carried out all expected gender roles. After the war the majority of those women ran away from their captors back to their original homes. Some of the men are reported to have accepted their wives back, because they were considered to be the victims of circumstances. The children the women came back with from the forced marriages were also reported to have been integrated within the marital family. However some of those children were reported to be ostracized and labeled by community as foreigners.

Experience of forced marriages

I was 29 years old with a four months old baby when I was captured by a government soldier who found me hiding me in the bush with my husband in the bush. The soldier who forcefully told me to abandon my baby and go with him. The captor who was about 25 years old,  four years younger than me, a Langi by tribe took me as a wife to Katuugo detach. On arrival to the barracks my breasts started swallowing because I had left behind my sucking baby. The military commander of the captor husband ordered him to take me back to collect the baby where I had left it. On arrival, my husband was excited and even thanked the soldier for bringing me back, In response, the soldier attacked him and cut his arm with a bayonet. The Langi soldier got the baby from my real husband, gave me the gun with magazines to carry while he carried the baby enroute, the soldier stopped picked a cow from around, and took it to my real husband as dowry. I stayed with the Langi captor husband for four years, during which we moved from barracks to barracks, from Katugo detach we moved to Nakasongola barracks where we spent two years. In the third year there was a military coup detat lead by Lutwa, which forced us to trek to Lango, my captor's home. On arrival I found out that Langi captor had another wife. My father and mother in-law welcomed me and I was tattooed in the face, to initiate me into the Langi culture. This was of course in  centrally to my Kiganda cultural practices. My co-wife was not happy with my being accepted in the family together with my child. I was admitted into Lacor hospital where I stayed for one year. Despite eth reaction of my co-wife, my captor husband loved me with my child to an extent that he lied to his parents that my child was his child, however because of the poverty in the North, the Langi captor husband sold this woman Uganda  shillings 1,000/- {equivalent to 1 US dollar, then to another soldier where she became a commoner for a second time. Likewise the soldier was also transferred. He also sold her for 1,000/- to another soldier, and she became a comforter for the third time. Although this young woman eventually got married, and had two children, she has failed to sustain a permanent relationship with any man. Given her low level of education and absence of a steady partner to depend on economically, she lives in abject poverty.

This is another poor Muganda woman that was forced into marriage to an Acholi at the age of 12,  she returns with one child after 8 years. At present she lives with her widowed mother.

 

 

Stay in the forum for Series twenty one 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"