{UAH} THE MULINDWA NOTES ON VIOLENCE IN UGANDA {--- Series two-Hundred but forty}

Friends

 

As the series on Acholi violence continues, we are going to go back into The Luwero triangle where Acholi started to publicly exhibit violence against the population. You see before the Luwero war, Acholi only violated people on road blocks and in urban centers, but they had not gone after villages amass, and had not attacked people in rural homes. As long as you were in a rural area, and you have not passed a road block, you survived. The Kony war had never started so Acholi had not attacked themselves either, so within the concept of only urban centers, Acholi violence had not been pin pointed let alone discussed. When The Luwero war was started that is when Acholi got a first crack of exhibiting rural violence in our country publicly. Because I have written very many times about Luwero atrocities, in this series I am going to limit myself on a very puzzling issue at what Acholi did in Luwero. The looting of building materials.

 

When you study the materials written by organizations like Amnesty International, Doctors without frontiers and (ISIS-WICCE). You realize that among the very many things Acholi looted, they loved to loot iron sheets and cement. Many of the people that were killed in Luwero district actually died for they failed to carry Iron sheets and cement. In a study done by ICIS –WICCE titled  “The political economy of violence against women during armed conflict in Uganda”, by Meredeth Tursheen, and I am going to directly quote a part of page 814:-

 

{In a study of women's experiences in armed conflict in this period, ISIS-WICCE (1998, 26), an international non-governmental organization based in Uganda, found that 97% of respondents reported having their household property looted and/or destroyed: iron sheets were removed from the roofs of houses...household property was looted as well as animals such as cows, goats, chicken and pigs. Harvested coffee, maize and other crops were taken or burnt. Women were forced to carry the loot to the government military bases. A woman in a discussion group in Mukulubita that met ten years later to discuss the war said. The moment [the government forces] entered one's house, they could do thorough checking. Those who had interest in women could do the raping while their husbands and fathers would be looking on. The government soldiers were mostly fond of women, chicken, cows and other material things like clothes and mattresses. The girls would be taken as wives (ISIS-WICCE, 1998, 24).} End quote.

 

Again the issue of looting iron sheets raises its head. Another report I read few days ago by USAID quoted a Uganda woman that lamented for Acholi beat her father to death for he crumbled under a load of iron sheets he was supposed to carry, the daughter said “They were just too  many for him to carry and he simply crumbled under them. They beat him to death. So the issue of iron sheets again raises its head among Acholi. Now since there were two fighting groups in Luwero, NRA and UNLA, NRA did not have the need to loot iron sheets for they were a running force, they never had any use for them for they did no have storages for them, let alone need. Acholi on the other hand had the IFA trucks and had stationed barracks, so they had the way and means of taking the iron sheets. As they did in West Nile and as they did in Acholi land, Acholi targeted schools and government buildings with private homes in Luwero and removed all iron sheets they so got their hands on.

 

And here comes the one million dollar question, what did Acholi do with the iron sheets? Where did these amounts of iron sheets end up? And this is a good question for when you look closely at Acholi land, all their homes are still thatched houses. Many of the former UNLA officers and soldiers that fought in Luwero but looted all of our iron sheets have thatched homes. What did they do with the massive iron sheets they looted out of Luwero district? All the effort they used, all the man power they used, all people that died in Luwero for they failed to carry this loot, what happened to our Mabaati from Luwero?

 

And I am just asking !!!!!

 

 

Stay in the forum for Series two hundred and forty one is 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"