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

Friends

You know we sit in these forums and discuss standards of education, we discuss Federalism, we discuss what happens with our politicians and both achievements but failures, but when you look closely at what we discuss on our country, it is Kampala based. What happens out there in the none Kampala Uganda? Is Uganda limited to what happens in Mulago hospital? Is Uganda limited to what happens at Makerere University? Is Uganda limited to what happens in UPC let alone FDC leadership but The Movement? For those are very hot topics that I see many of my friends stuck on.  As the series continue I need to stress that there is more to Uganda than Kampala, there are real people in real suffering and in real need for our attention. As Acholi violence engulfed Acholi land, these are real people that suffered but continue to suffer with Acholi violence let alone its consequences. Julia Spiegel of The Enough Project • www.enoughproject.org  | Survivors: Stories of war and perseverance, took a time to write the effects of Acholi violence towards real people and real lives. These are children in our dear country that we do not even raise a second to recognize. And somehow my head so spin when I see those raising up to pay school fees for children in Uganda when we have these people abused, molested let alone raped yet we do not even know about it for Acholi violence is such a taboo no one is supposed to raise. How can we as Ugandans allow this to happen? What happened to our moral consciousness? How and when did we go this low? But most importantly at what point will we make Acholi violence a water cooler discussion to start finding a way of combatting  it?

Vicky, age 26

 

Vicky was captured by the LRA in 1995, very early in the morning. Her village, Kitgum Palabek, had been surrounded by LRA fighters. She was the only child taken from her father's place, but four of her uncle's children were taken as well. They moved a long distance when captured. Then they were all ordered to sit down and they began introducing themselves. The LRA rebels said they were government soldiers—they were in government uniforms they had seized during a previous ambush. They asked if they knew where the LRA were. Six children said yes and criticized the LRA for the horrible things it had done to people in the area. All six were taken away and immediately killed. The rest were tied with ropes and forced to walk in a straight line toward southern Sudan. Government troops ambushed them many times along the way. After a little while, they stopped and the rebels asked the children how many of them were hungry and how many were thirsty. All of the children who said yes to being hungry or thirsty— four boys in total—were killed. They then continued their journey to Sudan. When they reached the border, a vehicle came and took them straight to an unknown destination. They then began a three-month long training to learn to fight. During that time, they only ate sim sim, or sesame seeds. One cup of seeds was split among five people to share. Some girls were given to LRA commanders as wives. Boys who had completed the training were integrated into the rebel ranks. Vicky was given to a commander. She stayed with him for eight years and bore three children—He had nine wives, and was a second lieutenant with two stars. His name was Michael Oringa, but he was killed a few years ago.

 

Vicky escaped with her three children in 2003. She was sick and pregnant with her last child when the LRA camp she was living in was attacked by the Ugandan army. There was serious fighting, with helicopters flying above, and some LRA surrendered. She didn't surrender, but she ran by People walking to work in Gulu town. Enough/Julia Spiegel 3 

 

The Enough Project • www.enoughproject.org | Survivors: Stories of war and perseverance herself and moved on foot alone for one week while pregnant and with two young children—one on her back and the other one walking by her side. Vicky found water by looking underneath big rocks, and all she and her children ate for the week was soil so they could keep their stomachs full. Vicky was fearful of coming out of the bush. In the LRA, propaganda was spread and she was told that if she returned to Uganda, she would be poisoned. But when she returned, nothing happened to her. She was taken to the reception center at Gulu Support the Children Organization, or GUSCO, for three months and then went back home. She found out that her father had been killed by the LRA but that her mother was still alive. She received some psycho-social support and was told not to keep talking about what had happened in the bush, since she might bring up someone else's family members who had been killed. Now that Vicky is back, life is hard. Some people will interact with her, but others won't. Her uncle wasn't happy because he lost all four of his children—they were all killed in the bush. He thinks it is unfair that she is still alive, so she fears him and has no one she can go to for help. She was badly beaten in the bush—with sticks and machetes—and is having chest pain and can no longer do hard work. All she wants is for her children to be able to study.

 

At the moment, Vicky is staying alone. She's not happy. She even contemplated suicide. She has no friends and no relatives who want to be with her, and other people don't look at her with good eyes. She's all alone. She wants to find a home and a way to pay for school fees for her children. She also wants her government to follow up with former abductees and support reintegration.

 

Rose, age 26

 

In 1994, Rose was captured by the LRA while walking with a group of other children at night. Three of them were taken, two—Rose's brother and cousin— were killed. As they were moving along, they ran into a man who wanted to kill them, but they got away. The LRA they were forced to travel with burnt the whole village down. They continued moving throughout the entire night. Then in the morning, the less attractive female girls were sent back home. The beautiful ones were kept and integrated with a group from Kitgum, and they went together to Sudan. When they reached Sudan, they were distributed to the men and began military training. They were taught how to assemble and reassemble guns, and they worked very long hours. But they weren't given any food. Some children died. They then proceeded even deeper into Sudan. When they reached where Kony was staying, they were given food and medicine, and life was a bit easier. But then they deployed to fight on the Sudanese government's side against southern Sudanese rebels. Rose was involved in many of the fights, and was given as a wife to Joseph Kony's chief escort. But as long as she didn't conceive, she had to continue to fight. Rose came back to northern Uganda in July 2003. By the time the government began Operation Iron Fist, during which the Ugandan army went into Sudan and the LRA committed atrocities back in northern Uganda, Rose already had two children—ages one and four—who could now walk and she was pregnant again. Other women without children crossed back into Uganda quickly, but Rose traveled slowly and branched off by herself at night. She walked the whole night along the road. By morning she met a man, and explained her situation to him.

 

The man took her to his place, gave her food and clothes and then took her to an army outpost, where she was kept for four days for interviews. She was then taken to reception centers for former LRA fighters run by the organizations Caritas and GUSCO. Now that Rose is back home, life is very hard, even harder than in the bush. Her parents were killed. Her grandparents sold her home. Now she is homeless. She can't get remarried, although she's tried several times—men will have children with her but then they abandon her afterward. She is trying to cope with life with her four children. Rose is learning to sew bags with the organization Invisible Children. She says she likes working there. She has hope for the future. But she needs a home. Paicho displaced camp—an abduction hotspot In 1999, as the war in northern Uganda continued to escalate, Paicho was reportedly the worst war-affected sub-county in Gulu district. Local leaders estimate that the LRA abducted some 2,400 children from Paicho during the war, although official figures from the Ugandan government put the number at around 600 children. Jennifer and Denis were both abducted by the LRA as young children, but have now returned home to Paicho.

 

Jennifer, age 24

 

Jennifer was abducted in 1997 and escaped in 2005. She was taken from Paicho camp when she was 12. She went from the camp and spent the night up on a nearby hill. There were 150 LRA and 100 abducted children. The LRA fighters had received orders from Kony that all abductees should be taken to Sudan. As they were moving there, the government of Uganda received information that they were heading to Sudan, so helicopters came and started firing on them. She was wounded. It took them five days to cross from Uganda to Sudan. Jennifer was in a great deal of pain when she reached Sudan. There was no food and a cholera outbreak killed her brother, but she was not allowed to cry. However, she could not help it and cried anyway. And so she was caned 150 times for crying, and they said she would be killed if she continued. She was told that Kony was going to overthrow Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and that Kony would become president, so they should not worry about home. Within a month, she was given to a 30-year-old man—he was a major. She was with him for seven years. During the eighth year he received more wives, five in total. Jennifer gave birth to two children with that man. She was only 14 when she gave birth to the first child, and was 16 when she had the second. Jennifer asked her husband if she could leave five days after birth of her second child because of health complications, and he threatened to kill her. She was crying all the time. So the man decided to remove her first born—he was three years old at the time. He gave the child to a relative back home. So she remained with only the younger child, which he kept so she wouldn't escape.

 

The Ugandan army was following them, and the LRA received information that a government attack was coming. She decided to break away and go her own way with her child. The Ugandan foot soldiers and helicopters were shooting at them, and she was seeing people being killed everywhere. She entered Awadi and managed to break free. She was taken to World Vision in Gulu and stayed there for four months. She sometimes couldn't sleep in Paicho. She wanted to stay alone and not with the rest of the community. She often cries alone. Her brother is gone and she only has her mother left. There is nothing but farming for her to do to make money. At times, she feels useless because she has not gone to school, is raising a child alone, and has no money for school fees. Since she returned, the government has given nothing to her except some food from the United Nations World Food Program. And even that must be taken to a machine that Jennifer cannot afford before it can be consumed. She can't afford nursery school or uniforms. Maybe she could run her own business, but she would need training and capital. If Kony is caught, Jennifer believes he should not be forgiven—he should be killed.

 

Denis, age 20

 

Denis was abducted on December 15, 2001 from Paicho camp. He was selected to go to Sudan but there were many challenges during the four month journey. He started moving in September and they reached Sudan in December. When they reached Sudan, there were many problems— no food and almost all the civilians had guns. If you moved around, they would kill you. He doesn't know what they were even eating. They only had bananas for a while. They stayed in a big camp where Kony was staying. When he reached the camp, there was a big fire and two of Kony's sons were killed. They were then taken to go retrieve hidden guns—they had gotten them by attacking a Dinka camp. They decided to raid Sudanese cattle—they needed food—so they slaughtered all of them. He was given a gun when leaving Uganda to go to Sudan. There were several government ambushes along the way and he was in the heat of many fights. In Sudan, Dinkas came and attacked, so Kony ordered them to attack the Dinka; anything that moved would have to be killed. Therefore, when Denis came across an old woman he beat her to death with a stick. As he was doing it, he was saying to God that he should forgive him because he would have been killed had he refused to kill this old woman. Denis was with Vincent Otti during this time and he escaped government attacks when the rebels he was with returned to Uganda. They were bombed heavily by airplanes on their way back. When coming back, Denis was looking for something to eat. He had made a fire but it caught a whole area on fire and a tin of bullets was destroyed. He was beaten seriously for that—150 strokes. He entered a Ugandan army ambush in Atiak. It took one week to reach his destination. He snuck back to the camp and hid his gun, and then reported to UPDF barracks there. Fearing the UPDF would kill him; he split from the other two men he was with. He was carrying two machine guns. When Denis returned, he was happy, but it saddened him to learn that his grandma had died. He was all alone. He does nothing but farm now. Before he was abducted, he liked to repair bicycles, therefore he would like to go to technical school. There are many bicycles in the camps so it would be a good income-generating activity. Denis believes Kony knows what he is doing, that he's a very clever man and is doing this all purposefully. He says that Kony will not come out unless the whole world pressures him to, either through fighting or peace talks. If just regional governments are involved, they will never finish Kony. They need the big powers to come in.

 

Learn more about the LRA's key commanders in Enough's "Wanted by the ICC: The LRA's leaders—who they are and what they've done" Survivors of the Barlonyo massacre In February 2004, the LRA executed one of its most gruesome massacres to date in Barlonyo. Out of the camp's population of nearly 12,000 people, the LRA killed and abducted around 700 people in one night, according to local sources. The people in the camp had expected the government to provide sufficient forces to protect them in this condensed area, but the Ugandan army didn't deploy and instead recruited local children to serve as local defense forces. Some were as young as 14 years old. On the day of the attack, less than 40 of these local defense forces were in the barracks. The camp was burned to the ground. LRA commander Okot Odhiambo, one of the three living LRA commanders wanted by the International Criminal Court, led this attack. Barlonyo was most likely attacked because many young people lived in the camp and potentially could be abducted and trained to be rebel fighters. Local leaders explained that the biggest challenge in Barlonyo today is caring for children. There are large numbers of child-headed households, schools do not exist, and clean drinking water is nearly impossible to find. Agnes, age 26 Agnes was about 21 years when Odhiambo came to Barlonyo. It was a Saturday, at around 5 p.m. She had just returned from the local market and all of a sudden she heard gunshots and people all over the camp started running around in alarm. A lot of fire was exchanged—no one knew the rebels were coming. Even the soldiers in the town were unaware. Those soldiers who weren't in the barracks ran away; all the soldiers in the barracks were killed. Everyone in the town had been told to go into their houses if the rebels arrived so that the government soldiers could protect them. Therefore, Agnes ran into her hut as gunshots fired all around her. The LRA started setting all of the houses ablaze. Agnes ran out of the house with her baby. She dropped to the ground and pretended to have been shot. Down on the ground, she crawled with her three-month old baby to a tree, and she stayed there for 20 or 30 minutes. There were no soldiers left in the town. The rebels began checking to make sure all of the people on the ground were dead. They found her, and said she had to leave her baby and go. They said, "If you want to take your baby, I will shoot you now." So she left her baby.

 

Fellow Ugandans Acholi violence is real and we so need to discuss it but very candidly.

 

Stay in the forum for Series two hundred and forty six 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"