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

Friends

Kasper Thams Olsen MA in Political Science, University of Copenhagen MSc in Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Science, went to Northern Uganda to follow but study The Acholi violence. He wrote a paper with a heading "Violence Against Civilians in Civil War – Understanding atrocities by The Lord's resistance army in Northern Uganda".  Because we have so much we need to post to wake up Ugandans on how Acholi are violent, we are not going to post the study but to pull out only the quotes as stated by Acholi that survived Acholi violence, that were interviewed in this study. It is important to realize that there is so much information countries have picked up on this violence, when we are neglecting it. Acholi violence is real and the sooner we accept it the faster we will start to worry on how we can stop it. These are the direct quotes from the study.

Ugandans we need to discuss Acholi violence candidly.

"It happened one time in Mucwini in Kitgum. […] They

[LRA] were going back [to Sudan] and the abducted

people were tied with a line. One former UPDF was in

the back of the line. There was a young man [LRA]

in front of him with a gun. So the guy [former UPDF]

jumped the young man, grabbed the gun and ran away.

The guys let him run. But [later] they came back to the

area and killed merciless. People were killed like flies.

[…] Just because of this one man who removed the

gun from them. The gun is very important to the LRA.

The whole community in Mucwini is now very bitter with

this man".

 

"When you kill it will give you time to go a very far

distance before other civilians are coming.[…] When

you ambush a vehicle, and leave others to go [spare

civilians], then the others will go and report to the

UPDF. Immediately UPDF will follow you even before

you have gone very far. So you have to kill anybody. It

will give you space to move"

 

"A person could be cut into pieces and thrown in a

tin and cooked [...]. It was just to sow a kind of

destruction. It is a kind of punishment so that all the

civilians see […] the destruction we are sowing".

 

"At times when you go for raiding the whole village

will be gathered together and will be put in a hut and

they are burned. At times younger children are hit on

the tree or put in a mortar and then pounded. At times

they give you your own child to either hit or maybe put

in the mortar and pound. […] At times they do that

after they find out that others from that place had run

away or maybe when a person from that family escaped

while in captivity. Maybe after abducting a child then

the child comes back [to civilian life]. Then after they

find out that this is the home of so and so then those

things will happen. [It is] a kind of revenge

 

"When people desert [LRA] and go back to their

area, they maybe go to Mega FM and begin making

statements: "I have come out of the bush because I

have seen that this war is a meaningless war. Kony has

committed massacres, he has got no agenda […]" In

the bush they hear this and they say: "ok, this is this

and this man." Then the big man [Kony] tells one of

his commanders to go to the area where the man on

the radio is coming from. It does not matter if he is

not there. "Go and retaliate. […] Go to the area and

kill anybody you see, so they can see that we are still

alive"".

 

"To cut peoples mouth or ear is also to send a message.

If your mouth and ear is cut then you will not be killed.

You are sent to tell others what they [the rebels] did

to you. Then it makes the other civilians or soldiers

fear. Then the civilians are afraid to cooperate with

UPDF".

 

"When a person tried to escape he was taken and tied

up. Now the abductees were put 20 meters from him.

Then they pick you one-by-one. You get maybe a big

stick in your hand. You go and hit and then you pull the

hair forcefully and you come with it. I also went. I hit,

I pulled the hair and I came with it. Each and everyone

[had to do it] to instil the fear in everybody and at the

same time to give you that courage when you know for

sure now that you have killed. You have that fear of

going back home. You say "okay now I am here. I have

already killed so why should I go back home"".

 

"it is simply because when I have already killed my

father, my mother, my sister, my brother then I will

have it in mind that if I escape, who will I come back

to when now everybody is dead and then I stay there

[with LRA]. That is their trick".

 

"A rebel is a rebel. At times you have to be hostile.

You have to show your true colour. At times you have

to show that you mean it. […] If you are too polite

they take it that you have become weak. You have to

do things by force and you will succeed".

 

"Now each and every commander wants to show Kony

that he is good. So he has to be very cruel, very harsh

so that he [Kony] does not think that you are trying to

surrender to the government side or that you are trying t

o kill him. You are obeying what he tells you. […]

There is a pressure there".74

 

Stay in the forum for Series One hundred and fifty-four 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