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. "It is not out of fear but out of a feeling for what is right that we should abstain from doing wrong." "Doing right is based most of all on respecting the other person." "We ought to do our best to help those who have suffered injustice." "The wise man belongs to all countries, for the whole world is a homeland to a great heart." "Poverty in a democracy is as much to be preferred to so-called prosperity under despots as freedom is to slavery" "I would rather discover a single causal law than be king of Persia!" Democritus <http://stginu.blogspot.com/> Stop The Genocide In Northern Uganda (StGiNU) stginu.blogspot.com StGiNU(stg...@yahoo.co.uk) is a human rights activists group formed by Human Beings concerned about the genocide that has been taking place in Northern Uganda for the last 19 years. StGiNU seeks to achieve its objectives by getting Uganda Government to: 1. declare the north a disaster zone. This ... LikeUnlike · [Comment] ·Unfollow PostFollow Post · <http://us.mg4.mail.yahoo.com/ajax/sharer/?s=99&appid=2309869772&p%5B0%5D=580523377&p%5B1%5D=179371208841032> Share · <http://us.mg4.mail.yahoo.com/awichua/posts/179371208841032> Saturday at 7:51am near <https://www.facebook.com/pages/San-Diego-California/110714572282163> San Diego, CA · * · * he was hit and he died before us his eyes and the brain where out.. I remember it happen
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