{UAH} Acholi violence

Herrn Edward Mulindwa

       Here below is a document about atrocities caused in the Acholi sub region. If   that was so, can we get a good Samaritan to compile for us details of what   transpired in the Luwero five years bush war? 

     Fellow Ugandans,we should all get concerned as Ugandans,not for a particular   ethnic group. I remember, during the 1979 Amin war, when people from Masaka   region were running seeking for refugee, people in other areas especially in   Kampala and elsewhere, were laughig at them and nicknamed them ;Empuunzi;but   when the Luwero war took place,those who were nicknamed others Empuunzi,turned   to be themselves.          People in the North and East had not tested that, but Alice Lakwena and the so   called Kony`/NRM government waged a war in those region, the situation turned   against them.We should avoid the saying * Tebinkatako* To whom it may concern.   Now the entire three regions are suffering, and a point is sported to the   Westerners, which is not true. Not all Westerners are involved but a small   minority group putting all Westerners at risk when a regime change will occur.          ACHOLILAND IN PARTICULAR     President General Yoweri Museveni is now well into the third decade as ruler of   Uganda. In the first twenty of those twenty-five years since he took power in   January 1986 through violence, wiliness and guile, Northern and Eastern Uganda,   in particular Acholi sub-region, suffered from one of the most brutal, bloody   and savage armed conflicts in modern African history.    Museveni's army - the National Resistance Army (NRA, 1981-1996), renamed Uganda   People's Defense Forces (UPDF) in October 1996 - and his other security   agencies committed innumerable grave acts of atrocities and abuses of human   rights that constitute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in   northern Uganda. These included torture and ill-treatment of captives, mass   killings, rape, sodomy and other sexual assaults, summary executions,   recruiting children as soldiers, large scale forcible displacement of civilians   and detention under inhuman conditions.     Others included brutal maiming and mutilation of the human body such as cutting   off lips and ears, use of displaced civilians in IDP camps as human shields   against rebel attacks, burying people alive, deliberate campaign to spread HIV   AIDS by infected soldiers, use of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), in   particular, chemical weapons, and landmines against civilian populations,   setting villages and farms on fire, and wanton destruction of properties and   infrastructure, among them the stealing of millions of heads of cattle and   other livestock.    Amnesty International in one of its reports on Uganda reported that the   inhumanity and the humanitarian catastrophe that unfolded in northern Uganda   was a manifestation of a vicious and systematic violations of human rights on   the greatest scale, sustained in a campaign of state-sponsored terror. (Amnesty   International Report on Uganda (1992). The Human Rights Record 1986-1989. AI   Index AFR 59/01/89. Amnesty International, London.)    I. Summary of Grave Atrocities by Museveni's Army in Northern Uganda    1. Ethnic targeting and cleansing of Acholi by Museveni's government and army    Even after seizing power and removing northerners, Museveni and his supporters   and the policy of his NRM government was right from the block virulently   hostile to the northerners, Acholi in particular, identifying them as enemies.   The policy of hatred and power to act fueled the discrimination and   marginalization of northerners in public and private domain and was the basis   on which he prosecuted the war.    At the very the heart of the NRA High Command was Major General Tinyefunza who   held the view that 'Acholi were the enemies, that he would not handle them even   with velvet gloves.' Another person at the NRM/A High Command was Commander   Karushoke who likened the Northerners to biological substances to be eliminated   to provide living space for the Tutsi of Rwanda. Museveni himself in his choice   of words also encouraged the NRA to become brutal and wipe out all the   northerners who opposed the government and publicly vowed to shoot and kill.   This set the stage for eventual destruction of the people and land of northern   Uganda. General Tinyefunza began it by commanding the troops that went on to   commit atrocities, molesting women and children, arresting men and tying them   bound up like suitcases (kandoya) resulting in permanent disability and   paralysis, and destruction and looting of property under the guise of searching   for guns.     This tragedy was summed up by one scholar, "The decimation of the Acholi   population is the result of lethal cocktail of deceit, demonization and   ethno-xenophobic hate, in which western governments and the United Nations   became complicit." (Stop the Genocide in Northern Uganda, STGINU, The Politics   of Mass Death, Onek Adyanga, PhD,  <http://stginu.blogspot.com/>   http://stginu.blogspot.com/)    2. Massive displacement of people into concentration camps    Museveni's regime planned and carried out the agenda to systematically and   massively expel the Acholi from their homes and villages and to get them to the   so-called 'protected villages'. The villages were bombarded with heavy weapons,   strafed with helicopter gunships and burnt down. Granaries for food storage and   crops were destroyed. People were forcibly moved to towns and nearby trading   centers which were ill-equipped to receive an influx of people.     In September 1986 Museveni's NRA set up the first IDP camp in Uganda at a place   called Kiburara in Mbarara district, within 15 km from Museveni's Rwakitura   home. Since then, between 1.8 to 2 million people were displaced into over 200   camps in the Acholi sub-region alone. Living condition in the camps was   absolutely appalling and intolerable. There were no shelters, sanitation, water   and food. Violent deaths were very frequent, three times higher than in   occupied Iraq, rape by soldiers, children died of diseases, exhaustion, lack of   sleep, hunger and starvation. For years, people endured suffering in the camps,   starvation and malnutrition, diseases, unsanitary conditions and exposure to   violent death.    The result is that the people of northern Uganda suffered unspeakable misery in   the camps and a total disruption to means of livelihood, and the destruction of   their social, cultural and economic support systems fundamental to their   survival.    3. Children's death toll in the concentration camps: 100,000    One of the worst stigma of the northern Uganda war prosecuted by Museveni   against the insurgency was the awful children's death toll in the concentration   camps. At least 2,000 children died every month from hunger and starvation,   exhaustion, violence, poor sanitation and preventable diseases. The overall   children's death toll in the war is at least 100,000. The tragedy is a blot on   the conscience of the world, which stood on the sidelines as it unfolded.    4. Use of rape and sodomy to spread HIV AIDS as a weapon of war    The NRA/UPDF became infamous for burning civilians alive in huts, killings,   and the rapes of both women and men in what the Acholi called tek gungu. Tek   Gungu referred to rape of men and women by Museveni's soldiers who would force   a man or woman to kneel down (gungu) before the rape is committed against the   male or female victim. These rape incidents have been documented by Human   Rights Watch and yet remains ignored by most so-called Western mainstream   media. ( <http://www.afrol.com/articles/11238>   http://www.afrol.com/articles/11238)    Later in the war, Museveni's soldiers used rape and sodomy in the concentration   camps in northern Uganda as a weapon of war meant to humiliate, permanently   scar and instill the greatest fear on the local population. These inhuman   practices were part of a deliberate campaign to spread HIV AIDS as a tool of   genocide. In a practice that was planned, concealed and promoted by the   government's political and military leadership and and command as a social and   psychological weapon against IDP camp population, government soldiers   (NRA/UPDF) were screened, and those tested HIV-positive were deployed to   northern Uganda with the mission of spreading the AIDS infection through raping   women and girls and sodomizing men. (Dr. Olara Otunnu, The Secret Genocide, p.   2 July/August 2006). The result of this is that Northern Uganda now has the   highest prevalence of HIV AIDS in the world.    5. Cynical manipulation of atrocities against adversaries as political and   military policy    During the 22-year war, Museveni's army killed, maimed and mutilated thousands   of civilians while blaming it on rebels. This counter-insurgency as a tool of   conflict building was used by Museveni's forces in Central Uganda (Luwero),   Northern Uganda, South Sudan and DRC.    In northern Uganda, instead of defending and protecting civilians against rebel   attacks, Museveni's army would masquerade as rebels and commit gross   atrocities, including maiming and mutilation, only to return and pretend to be   saviors of the affected people. These atrocities were in the latter years of   the war carried out by a pseudo-rebel counter-insurgency brigade called   Battalion 105.    In Lango and Teso sub-region, the army masqueraded as cattle rustlers, and they   stole cattle and killed people, while blaming it on Karamojong livestock   thieves.  The defunct Shariat newspaper reported in the 1990s that the UPDF soldiers   were caught masquerading as the LRA rebels and planting landmines to blow up   civilian vehicles.     One of the most brutal killing carried out by the government army under the   false image of rebels was the Barlonyo massacre in Lira district on 21st   February 2004 in which more than 300 unarmed civilians died.    6. Using the civilian population in IDP camps as human shields against rebel   attacks    Once the civilian population had been moved from their homes and villages to   the concentration (IDP) camps, Museveni's army turned them into human shields   against rebels who came into the camps to attack the army and take supplies.   The positioning of the the civilians' mud huts in the camps relative to the   army barracks was such that the civilians' huts and makeshift shelters ringed   the barracks - instead of the other way round.This physical configuration meant   that the camp dwellers were always caught in crossfire during rebel attacks on   the army. Civilians had nowhere to run for their life. This deliberate policy   of using civilians in the camps as human shields resulted in the death of   thousands of them.    7. Use of chemical weapons in the northern Uganda theater of war    Museveni's army used chemical weapons and other prohibited weapons such as land   mines against both rebel forces and civilian population in the northern Uganda   war zones. Government forces bombarded battlefields and villages with the   deadly weapons using helicopter gunships on several diverse occasions, fifteen   (15) of them recorded here below.    Details and places in which Museveni's government army used chemical weapons in   northern Uganda:  (Places and district are based on the administrative units at the time)     i. 1st July 2002 - Amuru Sub-county, Gulu District  ii. 6th July 2002 - Alero Opok, Gulu District  iii. 12th July 2002 - Pamot Lukili, Lamwo County, Kitgum District  iv. 4th August 2002 - Labongo Ogali, Amuru Sub-County Gulu District  v. 28th August 2002 - Bar, Agoro Sub-County, Kitgum District  vi. Okung Gedi, Amuru Sub-County, Gulu District  vii. 28th August 2002 - Orum, Kamdini, Apac District  viii. 30th August 2002 - Puranga, Pader District  ix. 4th September 2002 - Palenga, Gulu District  x. 6th September 2002 - Bobi Nyek, Gulu District  xi. 10th September 2002 - Aleb Tong, Lira District  xii. 18th September 2002 - Bobi Nyek, Gulu District  xiii. 22nd September 2002 - Acholibur, Kitgum District  xiv. 22nd January 2003 - Awac, Gulu District  xv. 5th February 2003 - Ogom, Atiak, Kitgum District    8. Abduction of children and their forced recruitment into military service    The abduction of children who were then forced into military service and sexual   servitude was another prevalent practice by both Museveni army and rebel groups   opposed to the NRM rule. This practice was started in Uganda in the early 1980s   by Museveni and his guerrilla force (NRA) in central Uganda (Luwero). It later   spread to northern Uganda and the wider Great Lakes region, especially DRC.   During the 22-year war in northern Uganda, more than 30,000 Acholi youths   disappeared, most of them abducted and killed by Museveni's army.    II. Dates, Places and Descriptions of Some of the Mass Killings, Torture and   Sexual Assaults by Museveni's Army in Northern Uganda    i. Namokora massacre, Kitgum District, Acholi, August 1986: 45 killed    The Namokora massacre - among the first by Museveni's army - was an act of   reprisal against civilians following the army's defeat in the hands of Uganda   People's Democratic Army (UPDA) rebels. The army arrested 44 men and one woman   and forced them into the back of a military truck. Soldiers armed with   automatic weapons in the back of a pick-up seized from Namokora Catholic Church   parish followed the truck as it departed west on the road to Kitgum town.   Fearing the worst, some of the detainees in the army truck attempted to escape   from it. The NRA soldiers fired on them and killed all the 45 civilians.    ii. Mukura train wagon massacre, Soroti District, Teso, 11th July 1989: 55   killed    On this day, Museveni's army rounded up 55 civilians and locked them up crammed   in a disused train wagon. They were all brutally suffocated to death in the   wagon after being accused by NRA (now UPDF) of supporting the then Uganda   Peoples Army (UPA) rebels.    iii. Bur Coro massacre, Paicoo Sub-County, Gulu District, Acholi: 1990 : more   than 200 killed    The period 1987-1988 was one of the worst in the history of the Acholi. It was   at that time that Museveni's army intensified atrocities on the civilians. This   was the period that Museveni declared a state of emergency. He entrusted his   commanders like his brother General Salim Saleh and Major General David   Tinyefunza to help him carry out the job. Their atrocities included the   terrible forcing of Acholi civilians in a pit dug into the earth in a place   called Bur Coro. The top of the pit was then covered with soil and grass which   was then set ablaze. The civilians slowly suffocated from the smoke. Many   others were killed by having their throats slit while others were shot and then   thrown into the pit. More than 200 civilians were killed in the place. Such   sadistic killers have never been punished. Later, the army exported such   atrocities into Teso in Eastern Uganda. ( <http://www.afrol.com/articles/11238>   http://www.afrol.com/articles/11238)     iv. 1st Atiak massacre, Gulu District, Acholi, 18 December 1993: 9 killed    In the first Atiak massacre, the NRA killed nine civilians in Atiak market.   People had come from various parts of Gulu for an auction in Atiak trading   centre. The army wanted to use the occasion to make various statements and   speeches but there was a lot of noise. The commanding officer of the 7th   battalion, a Lt. Bbosa, gave an order to shoot. Nine people died instantly with   sixteen others sustaining bullet wounds.    v. 2nd Atiak massacre, Gulu District, Acholi, 20 April 1995: 170-220 killed    On April 20th 1995, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) entered the trading centre   of Atiak and after an intense offensive, defeated the National Resistance Army   (NRA) troops stationed there. At the end one of the opposing forces rounded up   about 300 civilians, separated the men and boys from the women and children,   and then opened fire on the men and boys, killing between 170-200 of them.   While some people blame the LRA for the massacre, others blame the government   army and their collaborators.     vi. Lokung and Palabek massacre, Kitgum District, Acholi, 7-12 January 1997:   412 killed    Between 7 and 12 January 1997, up to 412 civilians (men, women and children)   were killed by armed attackers in the northwest Kitgum sub-counties of Lokung   and Palabek and in nearby areas. The attackers swept through an area in which   there were no opposing forces, armed persons or resistance from the victims.   They killed the victims mainly with manual weapons (clubbing, hacking, knifing)   during the five-day period. Eye-witnesses and lists of those killed may be   consulted directly in Lokung and Palabek Trading Centers and at displaced   persons camps in Kitgum town and elsewhere. (The Anguish of Northern Uganda -   Annex, ReliefWeb report -  <http://reliefweb.int/node/32886>   http://reliefweb.int/node/32886).     vii. Helicopter gunship massacre, Lokung, Kitgum District, Acholi, 31 August   1997: 29 killed    On 31 August 1995, a Ugandan army helicopter gunship attacked a column of armed   insurgents which was reportedly moving toward the Sudan border in the Lokung   area of northwest Kitgum. Approximately 29 persons were killed in the attack.   Later reports suggested that sixteen of those killed had been insurgents. But   the remaining thirteen were said to be abductees dressed in civilian clothes,   some of whose hands were tied behind their backs. Some critics charge that the   gunship attacked the column with reckless disregard for the lives of the   abductees. (The Anguish of Northern Uganda - Annex, ReliefWeb report -    <http://reliefweb.int/node/32886> http://reliefweb.int/node/32886)    viii. Cooking bodies of massacred civilians in pots, Omot, Pader District, 28   October 2002     On 28 October 2002 in possibly the most bizarre and gory incident in the   22-year war in Northern Uganda, government soldiers disguised as rebels   massacred 28 civilians and cooked their bodies in pots in Gang pa Aculu in Omot   Division, Pader, Northern Uganda. (See, Dr. James Rwanyarare, New Vision,   October 28, 2002; The Monitor, November 14, 2002, The Politics of Mass Death,   Onek Adyanga, PhD,  <http://stginu.blogspot.com/> http://stginu.blogspot.com/).    ix. Omot massacre, Pader District, Acholi, August 2003: 25 children killed by   UPDF     In August 2003, twenty-five children were killed by the UPDF in Omot Division,   Pader District. The children were a group set free by the LRA rebels. The UPDF,   frustrated and angry at its lack of success against LRA, ordered armored Mamba   vehicles to turn fire on the children, who were completely unarmed and posed no   threat whatsoever to the government army. The Ugandan press were later told   that the 25 children died in crossfire with the LRA. Witnesses however tell of   a cold-blooded massacre.    x. Rape and murder of a blind woman, Kitgum town, Acholi, 7 October 2003    One of the most hideous acts of rape and murder was committed on October 7,   2003 when six armed government soldiers raped and murdered Ms Betty Alum, a   blind teacher at St Theresa School in Kitgum town, northern Uganda. After   raping her the soldiers bayoneted her chest, forced her underclothes and bra   through her mouth with a stick towards her stomach and then smashed her head   with a grinding stone. The incident took place less than 50 metres from an army   detachment. Later the soldiers who committed the heinous act were merely   transferred to other army posts. In effect they had accomplished their mission   of an officially sanctioned policy of brutalizing the local Acholi people.    xi. Abia massacre, Lira District, Lango, 6th February 2004: 71 camp IDPs killed     After an attack by the LRA rebels on an army (UPDF) detachment near Abia IDP   camp in Lira, the UPDF on February 4, 2004 retaliated for their defeat and   attacked the camp killing 71 people.    xii. Barlonyo massacre, Lira District, 21 February 2004: over 300 camp IDPs   killed    In the space of less than three hours on the late afternoon of 21 February   2004, over 300 people in an IDP camp were brutally murdered by armed men and an   unknown number abducted. Camp residents were burned alive inside their huts,   hacked to death with machetes, stabbed with bayonets, clubbed with sticks and   shot as they fled. The bellies of pregnant women were slit open, their not-yet   formed babies thrown into the fires. (Human Security Report Project, Human   Security Gateway,    <http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=28373>   http://www.humansecuritygateway.com/showRecord.php?RecordId=28373) The   government of Museveni blamed the LRA rebels for the killing, but many of the   survivors privately state that the massacre was carried out by the government   army disguised as rebels.    The above are just a few of the many grave atrocities committed by Museveni's   army against the people of northern Uganda. The catastrophic impact of the   conflict on civilians has been repeatedly documented in a range of academic,   human rights and policy studies.    The genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated by Museveni   and his army in northern Uganda should be best visualized in the perspective of   the gross violation of human and people's rights on the scale of those that   have occurred in Rwanda, Yugoslavia and Sudan's Darfur region.

Hern Edward Mulindwa  Sun, 26 Feb 2012 17:14:29 -0800

--

*A positive mind is a courageous mind, without doubts and fears, using the experience and wisdom to give the best of him/herself.

 

 We must dare invent the future!
The only way of limiting the usurpation of power by
 individuals, the military or otherwise, is to put the people in charge  - Capt. Thomas. Sankara {RIP} '1949-1987

 *"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent

revolution inevitable"**…  *J.F Kennedy

 

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.