[Ugnet] Acholi Leaders Scapegoats for Failure to End Northern War

It is said that a man can fail many times, but he is not a failure until he begins to blame someone else. For the years that the civil war has raged in the north of our country, Museveni has never had a shortage of who or what to blame for his inability to deliver the people of northern Uganda from the scourge of war. He has blamed everybody except himself, yet he holds the position of the greatest power and responsibility in this country. In fact Museveni has been at this game of finger pointing for so long that it is about time he set up a Ministry of Excuses headed by himself.

He blamed the terrain - the long grass, wooded savannah and heavy rain. But the terrain affects all the parties to the war equally and mastery of the terrain is achievable through consistent efforts. He then blamed the geopolitical fact of Sudan providing a sanctuary to the rebels. Then the Sudan dealt a death blow to this excuse, allowing Operation Iron Fist to be launched inside their territory. Yet the ill conceived, poorly planned and incompetently executed Operation Iron Fist did not yield peace.

Museveni then turned on the general populace accusing them of collaborating with the people. He forced over eighty percent of the Acholi population into the so called protected camps. As with everything he does, there's always the real reason and the reason that sounds good. In this case, the reason that sounded good was that the camps were created for the protection of the people.

In reality, the camps were created so that the people could be controlled and to make them more dependent on the government. The movement of the people was restricted and their ties to their land and cultivated fields were cut off.

The army set on fire crops in a scorched earth strategy intended to deny the rebels the ability to feed off the land. The painful strategy of concentrating people in camps was to last a short time but eight years on, there's no end in sight and the rebels have launched audacious raids on the camps, killing and abducting people right under the very noses of government troops.

Then Museveni turned his guns on the Acholi in the Diaspora who he accused of sending funds to the rebels. But since the first Kacokke Madit in 1997, evidence shows that if anything the Acholi Diaspora has instead leveraged their considerable means to educate their relatives, build houses and invest in ventures such as hospitals and hotels. If these financial muscles were being flexed in favour of the rebels, the evidence would be hard to hide. The investments that the Acholi in Diaspora have made in their motherland show that they are conscious of their stake in its future. True, there may be a few who sympathise with the LRA and an even smaller number who contribute money such as loading air time on the rebel movement's satellite phones, but blanket accusations against the Acholi in Diaspora are clearly baseless.

The President then blamed the unending war on the laxity of the troops who have failed to offer adequate protection to the people.

Then he turned on the Acholi leaders generally, castigating them for advocating a peaceful approach which he misrepresented as equivalent to condoning impunity and collaborating with the LRA. After a short while he changed his hard line stance and appointed a peace team to explore ways of peacefully resolving the conflict. He even announced a limited ceasefire to facilitate the process.

In his New Year's address, the President thanked Lango and Teso leaders but still heaped blame on "some Acholi leaders" for the continuation of the rebellion.

As the December 2003 New Vision readers' survey revealed, the war in the north is the foremost national shame - the biggest wart on Museveni's face.

It is not accidental that Museveni has turned his guns on Acholi leaders.

Museveni's bush tactics, according to NRA child soldier, China Keitetsi, was to demonise the Acholi to the extent that the entire UNLA was presented as "Abacholi" to the largely Bantu NRA and Luwero populace.

In his address to Parliament in 2001, Museveni said that "the chauvinism of the Acholi had to be destroyed". This address can be found in the official records of the proceedings of parliament.

To the best of my knowledge, no Acholi leader has control over the levers of Kony's war machine. However, it may be politically expedient for Museveni to maintain a smear campaign that links those politically opposed to him to the LRA rebellion.

Museveni needs to be told again and again that he is fighting an unnecessary war and even if he wins, that will not change the fact that it was an unnecessary war.

Even the religious leaders have not been spared Museveni's smear campaign. All their efforts to point out misdeeds on the part of government troops only attracted sneers from Museveni who accused them of attempting to whitewash the LRA.

Acholi leaders and the religious leaders have made substantial contributions to the peace efforts. We have consistently urged both sides to seek a peaceful solution. We have also voiced out concerns about violations of human rights.

We have ceaselessly encouraged the people to cooperate with the military. We have also sensitised the rest of the country and the international community about the humanitarian catastrophe facing ordinary people in the war torn areas. We have campaigned among the Acholi living abroad about the need to seek a better solution other than war.

This outreach has enabled the Acholi in the Diaspora to get better information and thus enabling them to take a more objective stance about possible solutions.

Now with the surrender and capture of some top LRA Commanders, a smear campaign has been launched against Acholi leaders in the opposition. The LRA returnees, who are technically prisoners of war, are being pressurized to allege that opposition MPs have been the reason they continued the war! This ridiculous charge is peddled on radio with the intention of shifting the blame for the war on the unarmed political opposition.

The arrest of Reagan Okumu and Michael Ocula on trumped up murder charges now confirms this policy of smear, persecution and harassment.

The writer is MP for Gulu Municipality

[Ugnet] Acholi Leaders Scapegoats for Failure to End Northern War

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