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

Friends

 

In as many as studies that have been done on Acholi violence, Human rights Watch decided to dedicate a specific study on how violent Acholi are to fellow Acholi. They dedicated that study in a document called "Uprooted and Forgotten –Impunity and human rights abuses in Northern Uganda" It is dated September 2005 Vol. 17, No. 12{A} If you have a question on a term "…..with impunity", read this report to understand how important we all as Ugandans must stand up and front this violence monster we have in our country. Fellow Ugandans this information is very important if you will ever stand to the violence of Acholi, listen to this, an Acholi woman had a baby that kept on crying, they told her to hand over the baby and they kill it for it is yapping. She refused to do so, the woman ended up throwing the baby on the ground and she bolted. Her fellow Acholi ran after her and beat her to death for bolting. Guess what they did to the child. They came back, got a stick and pierced it through the head of the baby, it died. This is how brutal and barbaric are Acholi.      We are posting from page 15.

 

Friends we need to start discussing Acholi violence but candidly.

 

 

Willful killing of civilians

The LRA continues to commit mass killing of civilians in northern Uganda, keeping the

population—and its own combatants, mostly forcibly recruited during childhood—in a

constant state of terror. Since February 2005, rebel attacks on camps and settlements

have increased. In March, seven civilians were beaten to death with hoes in Adjumani in

an attack on Dzaipi trading center.34 In May, ten civilians were killed in a raid near Koch

Goma camp in Gulu district.35 In July, the LRA killed fourteen civilians in an ambush on

a pickup in Kitgum district; several of them were burned inside the vehicle.36

 

The LRA abducts children and adults to serve as soldiers, and girls to serve as sex slaves

to its commanders—and brutalizes all abductees to deter their escape. Those abducted

persons attempting to escape are killed or seriously wounded as an example to other

abductees. One woman, abducted by the LRA on August 9, 2004 told Human Rights

Watch how a girl, a fellow abductee, tried to escape. When she was captured the rebels

 

"beat her until she died. They used traditional tools, used to make sculpture, to beat

her—they hit her on her neck, her hands and her legs until she died."37

 

Some LRA killings appear to be the result of simple annoyance and the LRA attitude of

callous disregard for human life. The LRA abducted a group of women going to fetch

water on February 24, 2005. According to several eyewitnesses interviewed by Human

Rights Watch, one of the women had a baby with her who was crying.

[The five LRA fighters] told the woman they wanted the baby—they

were going to kill it. After some minutes the woman threw the baby

down and ran. The rebels grabbed the woman and beat her to death

with a gun. When the woman was killed one rebel got a stick and

pierced through the child's head. The child was two weeks old.38

The LRA does not hesitate to execute those who do not obey the rebels' orders to

perform certain tasks, even if the person is physically incapable of carrying out the task.

One woman described how the rebels beat to death Malone Okwir, a man of about

sixty, after he threw down the large load of food he was carrying on his back. He was

unable to transport it further than the three miles he had already traveled—"so they beat

him to death with a hoe and cut him with a panga [farming implement with a long

blade]."39 Local officials are commonly targeted by the LRA.

 

A relative of this parish-level local

councilor40 (LC2) recalls how he was killed while performing his duties:

Okello Saul was killed on May 20, 2004. He was going from Paicho

camp to Cwero to supervise the building of the hospital. On his way

back he was ambushed by the LRA. He was on his motorcycle. And

they shot him dead. Then they burned his motorcycle and took his

belongings. They undressed him, leaving him in his underwear. He was

shot with eight bullets.41

The victim left behind a wife and four children.

 

Several LRA deliberate killings have been committed under duress by abductees, often

children. One twelve-year-old boy interviewed by Human Rights Watch killed a civilian

by beating him with a stick. This occurred one week after the youngster was roused from

his sleep and abducted by the LRA in June 2004 at a village outside the camp. At first he

refused the order to kill the civilian but the LRA abductors beat him until he agreed. He

escaped two months later.42 A similar case involving a twenty-four-year-old farmer took

place in 2003: the farmer witnessed and under duress participated in the deliberate

killings of nine civilians during the two months he was held by the LRA.43

Others are killed, or left for dead, because the LRA fighters simply want to rob them.

One thirty-eight-year-old man was on his bicycle in January 2005 when he saw five LRA

fighters coming toward him on the road; he threw down his bicycle and ran. They

pursued him and when he tired they shot him through the cheek from a distance of less

than two meters. He lost consciousness. When he awoke hours later he found they had

stolen his bicycle and the clothes he was wearing. He was hospitalized for three weeks.44

 

Torture and Other Mistreatment

Civilians in northern Uganda continue to suffer gross abuse at the hands of the LRA.

The LRA beats and otherwise mistreats civilians as a part of a campaign intended to

instill terror in the population. It severely punishes anyone who does not do what it

demands, even if that person lacks the physical capacity to comply.

One woman was abducted by a group of LRA rebels who were interested in

surrendering to the UPDF. The commander of the rebels asked her to ensure that the

soldiers would not attack them if they went to surrender, then when she failed to comply

sufficiently, beat her unconscious and left her for dead.

According to the woman:

When I tried to answer the questions they [the rebels] got four young

boys to go and get sticks. They returned with many sticks. Some were

tied in a bundle. They began to beat me seriously. I tried to cry and

reached a position where I kept quiet. They beat me on the head and the

leg. I don't know what happened—I was unconscious. While they beat

me they told me I would be beaten to death because I was tricking them.

They said, "You women like to make false statements in order that we

release you."

When they left me I was unaware. It was dark. I tried to wake up. I

looked around and didn't see rebels. I couldn't walk. I was very thirsty,

very hungry and very very weak. I started to crawl following the way

back. I crawled looking for water at the river. I crawled into the water

and got water. I tried to cry but I couldn't.

When I came out of the water I tried to walk with grass as a support. I

was dizzy, fell down, rested a bit. I began to crawl and heard vehicles. I

tried to crawl in their direction and came abruptly to the road. The road

was too hard to crawl on and I fell to the roadside. I met a man coming

from Namkara and he took me to Kitgum Matidi, to the barracks. The

Intelligence officer took a brief statement then they took me to the

hospital.45 Another woman described her temporary abduction in January 2004 by a unit of the

LRA under the command of Lagony Otti. She was pregnant at the time, and had gone

with a group of ten women to harvest their fields. The rebels intercepted the women,

who "were beaten through Saturday and Sunday. The rebels kept hitting my chest and

waist. They hit my chest with the butt of a gun while at the same time using tree

branches to hit me." The baby she was pregnant with survived but was born "very

weak," which she attributed to the beating. "Up to now I feel chest pain. I was beaten

until I was unconscious. I don't know how they set me free—I was rescued by

friends."46

A nineteen-year-old woman said that she lives in fear of the LRA. In 2003, her father

and two brothers were abducted from their camp and beaten to death with sticks by the

LRA the same day; her sister was abducted one week later by the LRA and killed that

same day. She said:

I stopped school in 2003 when I was in P.6. My father died and I was

heartbroken and stopped going. There was no one paying the school

fees. I live with my mother and one brother and two sisters.47

In December 2004 she went with another woman to a garden five miles from the camp,

where seven LRA fighters found them at 10 a.m.

The rebels ordered us to go with them to the bush. They beat us. One

of the rebels said they should kill me, but another said let her go back

home. They were boys and men. I was undressed, they took everything,

I was naked. They told me to hurry back home. None of them defiled

me.

I found some lady with a child who gave me a headscarf to wear home. I

still go and work in the garden. I get scared. Sometimes I don't even

reach the gardens and come back home. I fear the rebels the most.48

Other attacks seem motivated by the need for supplies following cutbacks by the

Sudanese government. One farmer, on his way back from harvesting simsim (sesame) with his wife in Pipei parish near Agoro camp on September 5, 2004, encountered rebels

who "began beating me and my wife using sticks." The couple dropped their bundles

and escaped: "I started running—they went off, they were contented with the simsim,"

he said.49

 

Mutilations

Since February 2005 there has been an upsurge in attacks in which the LRA has brutally

disfigured civilians. The LRA first started mutilating civilians in the early 1990s as a

response to the government's attempts to form local militias in northern Uganda.

Victims' hands, feet, noses, ears, lips and breasts were cut off, often as punishment,

causing widespread panic amongst the population. These brutal tactics have been

extremely effective in promoting fear and deterring cooperation with the government:

mutilations symbolically cut off the allegedly offending part, i.e., the ears that hear, the

lips that kiss, according to what the LRA fighters tell the victims.50

As with other methods, a surge in mutilations may follow quickly on the heels of

government statements the LRA wishes to disprove. President Museveni declared on

February 17, 2005 following the surrender of lead LRA peace negotiator Sam Kolo that

the military conflict in northern Uganda was "finished—those remaining fugitive

commanders can't fight anymore."51

Just a few days after the publication of this and similar statements, eleven women were

briefly abducted by the LRA near Ngomoromo, Kitgum. One of the women was beaten

to death with her baby because the baby was making too much noise. The other women

were herded into an abandoned hut, made to strip naked, and then mutilated.52

One woman told Human Rights Watch:

After discussing with his colleagues he [the rebel] came in and started

chopping off our lips. When he was cutting he ordered us not to make

any noise otherwise he would kill us—so we persevered. The rebels cut our lips because they said we "loved the soldiers at Ngomoromo

barracks."53

In the ensuing weeks the LRA conducted several more brutal attacks on civilians. Thirty

women who had gone out to collect firewood were attacked by the LRA in Agoro subcounty,

Kitgum on March 20, 2005. The rebels cut the lips and ears off one woman and

the breasts off another. Then the rebels left, abducting others among the group of thirty

women and leaving the disfigured victims to find a way home.

One man's four children were abducted by the LRA on May 24, 2004 and his finger was

cut off as punishment for farming. He said:

It was at eight in the night. A group of LRA came to my house. I was

living there with my wife and children. The rebels looted my

household…. They beat me with pangas on my back and rear three

times. They burned all of our huts. Then they put my hand down. They

cut off my finger with a panga. The rebel who cut off my finger was a

young boy in his early teens. I pleaded with them not to hurt my hand,

but they said since they found me farming at home they would have to

kill me…. Then they left with my children.54

 

Rape

In general, the LRA has not been implicated in acts of rape during attacks on displaced

persons camps or even when encountering women in rural areas. On this mission,

Human Rights Watch did not document any cases of rape by the LRA in the camps, or

when rebels encountered women or girls in the fields.

Rape, on many occasions gang rape, has been committed after the young women and

adolescent girls were taken back to the LRA camp. The lack of rape in the field and the

gang rape after returning to base suggests that these crimes are sanctioned if committed

according to orders. A woman told Human Rights Watch how she was abducted with

her sister in January 2004 by a group of one hundred rebels near Agoro camp in Kitgum.

They were taken back to a rebel encampment "and distributed to the top commanders

who raped us during the night."55 One community leader told Human Rights Watch that the reason LRA fighters did not

rape captured women and girls before taking them to the LRA stronghold was Kony's

hold over the LRA combatants: "They are superstitious that Kony knows everything

they do. Kony doesn't want them to 'contaminate' women because Kony picks the

women and then shares the rest among the others."56

The LRA has abducted thousands of women and girls who are still being held by the

LRA and have given birth to children in captivity. Others have escaped, with or without

their children.

Over the years, many caretakers and community leaders have surmised that this behavior

was due to a perverse awareness of HIV/AIDS. LRA fighters have sometimes accused

older married women they have captured and then released of being wives of UPDF

soldiers and therefore of being infected with the HIV virus.57 The LRA abducts younger

girls who are more likely to be virgins and therefore not exposed to the HIV virus.

 

 

Stay in the forum for Series seventy seven 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"