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

Friends

 

The districts of Gulu and Kitgum together comprise an area of 28,000 square kilometers – about the size of New Jersey, Belgium or Rwanda. But in comparison with Rwanda's population of seven million, the population of Gulu and Kitgum is 700,000 – of which some 90% normally reside in rural areas. Gulu and Kitgum, both located east of the Nile at the Sudan border, comprise 14% of Uganda's land mass and 4% of the national population. Roughly 70% of its people identify themselves as Catholics, 25% as Anglicans and 5% with other faiths, including 0.5% who are Muslims. The people of Gulu and Kitgum are almost entirely ethnic Acholi, and the two districts are often referred to as "Acholi" or "Acholi land." Ethnic Acholi are also found in southern Sudan near the Uganda border. Robert Gersony wrote a report "THE ANGUISH OF NORTHERN UGANDA RESULTS OF A FIELD-BASED ASSESSMENT OF THE CIVIL CONFLICTS IN NORTHERN UGANDA, which he submitted to The United States embassy, Kampala and USAID mission, Kampala. We are posting from page 38

 

Ugandans we need to discuss Acholi violence candidly.

 

Atiak massacre - 22 April 1995

 

On April 22, 1995, eyewitness interviewees report that the LRA attacked the

trading village of Atiak in northern Gulu at about 5AM. Its first target was the local

defense unit center, said to be manned by about 75 Acholi militia. In the onehour

engagement which followed, about 15 of the soldiers were killed, the center

was overrun and the remaining soldiers fled.

In the six hours which followed, the LRA maintained unchallenged military control

of Atiak. During this period, in the absence of armed opposition, between 170

and 220 unarmed civilians were detained and killed, including

the families of the local defense unit, students from Atiak (Secondary) Technical

Institute and others. [Although it is widely believed that the army had advance warning of the Atiak

attack, the first army units arrived in the late afternoon, following the LRA's

departure.]

 

Karuma/Pakwach convoy ambush - 8 March 1996

This incident occurred a few kilometers west of Karuma on the road to Pakwach

in southeast Gulu. The convoy was passing through Gulu headed for the West

Nile region, which felt the main human and economic impact of the attack. For

this reason, it is often associated with the West Nile and not with the Gulu/Kitgum

conflict. Nonetheless, the attack took place well inside Gulu at a location remote

from the West Nile and was carried out by the LRA.

On the morning of March 8, 1996, the convoy received permission from the local

UPDF military post to proceed to Pakwach. The convoy contained four denselypacked

passenger buses, commercial trucks, church vehicles, post office and

government vehicles and was accompanied by fourteen UPDF soldiers. Shortly

after departing Karuma, it was assaulted by an overwhelming force of LRA troops.

One reliable eyewitness interviewee account states that the ambush began with

no warning. An interviewee who spoke with some survivors in the passenger

buses states that it began when a passenger bus tried to continue on its journey

after being ordered to stop.

Both accounts appear to indicate that little resistance was offered and that after it

ceased, when LRA forces were in unchallenged control, the majority of the killing

took place. Over 50 persons were estimated by some sources to have been

killed, many burned alive in the passenger buses, others executed. Wounded

survivors were estimated at over 30, many of whom were treated in Nebbi

Hospital. Additional accounts from abductees who later escaped were provided

to the author by reliable interviewees.

[According to the Arua-based newsletter The Nile Arrow of March/April 1996,

Minister of State for Defense Amama Mbabazi "apologised on behalf of

government to the people of West Nile for the insufficient protection given by the

UPDF to the convoy."]

 

Acholpi refugee camp massacre - July 1996

This camp, established under the auspices of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in about 1994, is located in southern

Kitgum east of Kilak, about one hundred miles from the Sudan border. It is home

to some 16,000 southern Sudanese refugees, principally Sudanese Acholis.

They fled reprisals in 1994 by the SPLA's predominantly Dinka faction after the

defection of minority groups. The camp extends several kilometers in an

east/west direction. It had no armed defense, the LRA had overwhelming force,

and during the three attacks which comprise this incident, no armed opposition or

challenge was reported. According to reliable and eyewitness sources:

-- On Saturday morning, July 13, on the camp's eastern wing, the first attack was

aimed principally at destruction of trucks and a health center. Two drivers (who

later returned) and two local police (at least one of whom was executed shortly

thereafter) were abducted.

-- That evening, in an attack on the camp's western wing, about 22 refugees

were killed.

-- In the final and most sustained attack on Sunday morning, July 14, some 76

civilians in the eastern wing were gathered up and systematically shot, hacked

and clubbed to death; an additional 21 were seriously wounded but survived.

Although he would have been a primary target, the Uganda Ministry of Local

Government's civilian camp administrator, Mr. Esau Berender, remained hidden

nearby with the refugees during each attack. He returned to the camp promptly

after each LRA departure. His courage was commented upon by relief workers

and refugees.

[UPDF units were reliably informed of the LRA's presence on Saturday morning

shortly after the first attack. Its forces reached the camp for the first time on

Monday morning – two days later -- at about the same time as representatives of

UNHCR/Kampala.]

LRA forces are reliably reported to have crossed through Acholpi again in

February 1997 and clubbed a refugee to death.

 

St. Mary's College, Aboke abductions - October 1996

St. Mary's College, is located near Aboke town in northern Apac District, which is

twenty miles south of the Gulu/Apac border. The private Catholic secondary

school is staffed by Catholic nuns and local teachers. The October 1996 incident,

which provoked international attention, was the third LRA attack on the school.

The first attack occurred in March 1989, when ten girls were abducted from St.

Mary's and 35 boys were abducted from a nearby school. A pregnant woman

was killed during the raid. Following that incident, the NRA stationed a few

soldiers at the school.

In January 1994, the army had just withdrawn its small protective force. Although

the school was in recess, 65 girls remained in the dormitories. The headmistress

received a tip that the arrival of LRA forces was imminent and evacuated the girls

to safe locations. The LRA's visit to the area apparently occasioned a great deal

of gunfire, though no girls were abducted. The NRA reassigned a small unit to

the school which was later replaced by local defense forces.

Just before October 1996, with school in session and 230 girls in residence, the

protective force was again withdrawn. The nuns had in the meantime taken the

precaution of equipping the dormitories with steel doors, window frames and bars.

At 2AM a force which one eyewitness estimated at 200 LRA soldiers, cut through

the school fence and assaulted the compound. They could not readily enter the

dormitories because of the steel fixtures. But from 2AM to 5AM they chiseled the

concrete around the steel windows and finally succeeded in entering two of the

dormitories. Children in another dormitory were frightened into acceding to the

LRA order to open their doors.

Having in the meantime looted the school and destroyed its vehicles, the rebels

departed, taking 152 abductee girls, aged thirteen to sixteen. At 7AM, one of the

expatriate Catholic sisters, accompanied by a guide, decided to follow the column

and try to convince the LRA commander to release the girls. After wading through

a swamp and surviving several security incidents (in which some of the abductees

managed to escape), the nun reached the advancing LRA column and persuaded

its commander to release 109 of the girls. Thirty abductees were kept by the

LRA, of whom the majority remain unaccounted at this writing.

This unusual incident attracted national, diplomatic and international attention.

Much of this attention – and the hope that the Government of Sudan may

intervene with the LRA to secure the release of the remaining St. Mary's

girls – has been due to the persistence of the abductees' families. On March 7, 1997,

President Museveni wrote to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan highlighting the

plight of the St. Mary's girls and alerting the United Nations that thousands of

other abducted children remain unaccounted.

 

Lokung/Palabek massacre - January 1997

The massacre at Lokung and Palabek constitutes the largest single massacre of

the northern war. Between the night of January 7 and January 12, 1997, LRA

units systematically assaulted villages throughout the Lamwo sub-counties of

Lokung and Palabek in northwest Kitgum. At no time was armed defense or

resistance offered against the attacking force, nor was the UPDF present in the

vicinity.

According to eyewitness interviewees, the operation began simultaneously during

the night of January 7/8 in both sub-counties with the abduction in each of a few

civilians. Beginning early in the morning of January 8 and until about January 12

these units gathered up and methodically hacked and clubbed to death a total of

about 412 men, women and children. Breast-feeding women were spared in a

few cases. Thousands of homes were looted and burned. As word of what was

occurring spread, the civilian population fled in panic. Almost no gunfire was

reported through the five-day period.

[The UPDF arrived on the fifth day, January 12. In a few cases in one of the

areas, it is reported to have engaged the LRA forces at that time.]

Between January 12 and 31, an additional twelve unarmed civilians were reported

killed in the same manner by the LRA outside Lokung and Palabek trading

centers.

According to eyewitness interviewees, in some cases the LRA gathered civilians

together, delivered short speeches, and then killed some of their victims in front of

the group. The group was then dispersed, presumably to convey the content of

the speeches to others. According to survivors, LRA soldiers expressed anger

that some Kitgum abductee youngsters had revealed to the UPDF the location of

hidden arms caches in their area. They complained that Kitgum abductees

escaped in greater proportion than the

children from Gulu. According to one eyewitness, an LRA soldier said, "You are

Banyankole [the ethnic group of President Museveni] now, since you support the

Government. Go to Kitgum or to Museveni's house, but leave here."

The LRA's allegation that escaped abductees had assisted the UPDF is accurate.

In fact, this assistance continued after the January 1997 massacres. In

February, residents led UPDF troops to two additional caches which held 165

boxes of ammunition and 58 anti-tank mines.

 

Some Acholi in Kampala attribute the particularly brutal nature of the violence to

the influence of the LRA's Sudanese sponsors. However, most of this type of

conduct pre-dates the Sudanese involvement. Sudan's influence on the West

Nile Bank Front is believed to be far greater than on the LRA. Yet the WNBF's

conduct is only somewhat similar to the LRA's, and then on a far smaller scale.

Some non-Acholi assert that much of this type of conduct had already been

demonstrated in Luwero – by some of the same individuals who

are now associated with the LRA; the difference is that these methods are now

being inflicted on the Acholi people themselves.

 

Stay in the forum for Series One hundred and forty nine 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"