{UAH} IDDI AMIN NEVER TARGETED LANGIs/ACHOLIs, THEY TARGETED HIM {---Series One-Hundred and sixty-six}

Friends

 

"We confirmed 192 people (were) killed, and many of the casualties died from the flames as the rebels rounded up people and forced them into grass-thatched houses before they set them on fire," Angiro told AFP by telephone. "Children were not spared and many of the bodies we saw were of children," he added. A soldier and five government militiamen also died. Ugandan military, church and hospital officials gave varying tolls from the horrific attack.

It is imperative that we take a moment  and understand the strength at which Acholi feed on violence. The moment they were pushed out of Kampala and no longer able to feed the violence on Uganda wananchi, they decided to go to Acholi and throw such a terrible violence to their very own people. Vincent Mayanja followed the Acholi carnage and wrote a piece entitled Rebels massacre more than 190 in Ugandan camp for displaced, that was published by Agence France-Presse. On record, on this very single attack, Acholi murdered 190 Acholi.

Ugandans we need to discuss Acholi violence but candidly.

Rebels massacre more than 190 in Ugandan camp for displaced

from Agence France-Presse    By Vicent Mayanja

KAMPALA, Feb 22 (AFP) - Ugandan rebels massacred more than 190 civilians at a displaced people's camp in northern Uganda, mowing down fleeing civilians and burning them alive in one of the deadliest attacks in years, officials said Sunday.

The raiders from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) late Saturday forced many people into their huts and torched them in the camp near the town of Lira in a three-hour assault, a local legislator said.

Charles Angiro said after visiting the scene that 192 civilians -- many of them children -- had died in the attack some 360 kilometers (220 miles) north of Kampala.

The killings call into question repeated assertions by President Yoweri Museveni that his troops had a nearly 17-year-old insurgency by the LRA under control.

"We confirmed 192 people (were) killed, and many of the casualties died from the flames as the rebels rounded up people and forced them into grass-thatched houses before they set them on fire," Angiro told AFP by telephone.

"Children were not spared and many of the bodies we saw were of children," he added. A soldier and five government militiamen also died.

Ugandan military, church and hospital officials gave varying tolls from the horrific attack.

Army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza did not provide a specific death toll, but said: "I can confirm that there was a massacre in a displaced people's camp and people were burnt in their houses".

Roman Catholic missionary Sebat Ayala quoted the military commander of the camp as saying that he could not identify the "sophisticated weaponry" responsible for shrapnel wounds among many of the 56 injured.

"I have just been there, and I have managed to confirm that 173 people were killed of which 57 had already been buried while others were still burning in their houses," Ayala told AFP.

Earlier this month at another camp near Lira, LRA rebels disguised as Ugandan soldiers killed about 50 people after infiltrating the facility.

In 1995, at least 400 people were killed when the LRA raided a trading centre in the north, according to military sources.

The rebel war in northern Uganda pits the LRA against government troops. It has displaced over 1.2 million people, who live in squalid conditions cramped together in camps set up by the army.

Angiro said the rebels first engaged the local militia Saturday in a firefight before they raided the camp.

He said nearly 500 huts were set ablaze, leaving almost 5,000 people without shelter.

According to the head of Lira government hospital Jane Achieng, 35 women, 15 men and six children were admitted for burns, gunshot and shrapnel wounds. Four of the children lost both their parents.

Journalist Joe Wacha, based in Lira, described the scene of the massacre as "terrible".

"I saw 57 bodies being buried while over 400 huts were burnt to ashes. Smoke still billowed from some of the houses and from some of the bodies," Wacha said.

The LRA took up arms against Museveni's government in 1988.

The group is infamous for its atrocities against civilians and abductions of thousands of children, forced to serve as soldiers or concubines, and has been condemned by human rights groups and UN aid agencies.

In its first case, the International Criminal Court is to investigate the LRA.

Each time Museveni claims the LRA has been defeated, the group strikes back with another attack.

The army claims that by housing the displaced in the camps, it is able to guard them against rebel abductions conducted by the LRA to fill its fighting ranks.

bur-vm/tm/mkh AFP 222006 GMT 02 04

Copyright (c) 2004 Agence France-Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 02/22/2004 15:07:11

Agence France-Presse:

©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.

 

Stay in the forum for Series One hundred and sixty-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"