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

Friends

 

As the series continue to raise the violence of Acholi, this time around we are going to focus on the LRA war that was in  the North when Acholi population, under command of Konny, were fighting with Uganda government.  So this is not about the violence that NRA did in Acholi land but to focus solely, on how Acholi community was treating its fellow Acholi. And if you want to understand how brutal our friends are there is a very extensive writing that has been done out there. The writing we are going to post this morning is a part of a large report written by The Refugee Law Project working paper series, an organization based in Makerere University, and this particular study was funded by USAID { U.S. Agency for International Development} We are quoting from Refugee Law Project Working Paper No.11. The topic of the paper is "Behind the violence: Causes, Consequences and the Search for Solutions to the war in Northern Uganda" We are posting from page 33 under a sub heading Rebels or Children?   Fellow Ugandans, these are not atrocities committed by Uganda government, these are not atrocities committed by NRA, but these are atrocities committed by Acholi against Acholi. These are the atrocities committed by Acholi to their very own Acholi children. If this is how they treat their very own children, why would they be good to you on a road block in Kampala? What do you as a Ugandan expect to do with these children when they become adults and they get a God damn gun in their own hand?

 

Again I am repeating myself over and over, we as Ugandans have a huge problem with Acholi violence and we need to discuss it very candidly.

 

Rebels or Children?

Nearly every one of the over 900 people RLP interviewed unequivocally condemned Joseph Kony.s

LRA, particularly civilians living in the midst of the conflict. The group clearly does not receive

popular support in northern Uganda, possibly with the exception of a few alleged collaborators.

However, civilians are also confronted with two dilemmas regarding their attitude towards the

rebels. First, despite their hatred for the LRA, they know the civilian-directed atrocities will

increase dramatically if they actively confront the group. When the community defence .Bow and

Arrow. groups were organised in 1991 and 1992, the result was a new LRA retaliation strategy to

cut off people.s lips, ears, mouths and limbs. As one local government official said, .The Arrow

group started here in Acholi, and that is why we even have an orthopaedic workshop to make

artificial limbs for injured civilians..194 Furthermore, the self-defence units received very few guns

from the government, and so most civilians in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader have become highly

cautious in actively resisting the LRA.

The second dilemma is the result of the LRA.s deliberate use of child soldiers. On the one hand is

the horrific brutality meted out by the LRA, and on the other is the knowledge that those atrocities

have often been carried out by their own children who have been forcibly recruited. As one exrebel

girl said, .We were all given guns. I was taught how to shoot by the rebels. I was so scared

to begin with, looting and killing people..195 In a war in which the LRA views 9 to 12 year olds as

the most desirable combatant age-group, and in which young girls run away leaving their children,

fathered by rebel commanders, lying in the bush, there is little doubt in people.s minds as to the

level of brutal force being applied in making children use violence. One nine-year-old boy who had

recently escaped described this process graphically:

 

There is nothing that I liked there. They collect all the children together and make you beat someone

to death. Once there were about seven who tried to escape, including two girls. The commander

decided not to kill the girls. He picked one boy to be killed. He placed his head on a piece of wood.

He told one of the girls to come and chop this boy into small pieces. She started trying to cut his

head off, but was not doing a good job. The other boys were told to help. When they had almost

taken the head off, they had to chop the body into small pieces. Then they were told to play with the

dead person.s head. The boys had to throw it in the air four times, and the girls three times. The girls

were bare-chested. After that, they commanded the girls to smear blood of the dead boy on their

chest. After that, they put the head of the boy in a central place, put clubs all over it covering the

head, and informed us that anyone who tries to escape will have the same thing.

 

A young girl spoke of the horrific prevalence of rape: .My mother was raped. I was also beaten

and defiled. The girls and sisters were raped. Some could not walk properly because of the wounds

in their private parts.. These comments show the brutality inflicted upon those who are abducted,

many of whom become the same individuals who are then forced to carry out atrocities.

The shocking, brutal reality of this war is that those who have been forcibly recruited, and those

who are killed, raped, or themselves abducted, all come from within the same communities. It is

the same actors being recycled by the non-abducted minority within the LRA who are carefully

orchestrating a self-perpetuating conflict that enters people.s homes at the most personal of levels.

One informant expressed this dilemma: .The people like Kony as their son, but they don.t like

what he is doing. You can.t reject what is yours, but we don.t like what he is doing. He should not

fight us because now there.s nobody who is not affected by the war..197

Thus while there is tangible horror at the activities of the LRA, the lack of distinction between the

.rebels. and .abductees. generates intense confusion. As one informant said, .A .rebel. who is

killed in battle may have only just been abducted one hour ago. If you are killed you are a rebel, if

you are abandoned or escaped you are an abductee..198 Thus, while civilians clearly abhor the

actions of the LRA, they cannot simply wish for them to be obliterated militarily, as that would

mean killing their own children.

 

Stay in the forum for Series thirty eight 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"