UGANDA 5/2/2003 21:23
GOVERNMENT SOLDIERS KILL 2 STREET VENDORS FOR REFUSING TO CONSIGN MONEY, REBEL ACTION CONTINUES
General, Standard 
News of violence continues arriving from North Uganda. MISNA sources referred that at least two people were killed today in the zone of Acholibur, around a dozen kilometres from the city of Kitgum, in clashes between the rebels of the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) and government troops. While amid the daily violence another undisciplined act was perpetrated by Kampala regular troops. A group of Ugandan soldiers killed two youths, 20 and 23 yrs-old, at the market of Pajumu, around 20km north-west of Kitgum. Based on testimonies collected by MISNA, some men in Ugandan military uniforms attacked the booths of the local market, nearly empty due to the impossibility of provisioning. The streets are in fact the privileged location of ambushes and attacks by the Olum (‘grass’, as the rebels are called in Acholi). The limited circulation on the roads is in fact what pushes both the LRA to attack shops and markets, as occurred today in Pajumu, and the more undisciplined of the regular soldiers. After robbing the few products on sale, the soldiers forced some street vendors to consign their money. But when two brothers, both vendors, claimed to have no money, the soldiers killed them. “The regular soldiers have no appreciation for human life – commented a missionary working in North Uganda – and continue abusing the civil population as the rebels do. These men use their weapons with extreme facility and ruthlessness”, added the missionary. In the past days a document issued by the ARLPI (Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative) condemned – among other things – the increase in violations committed against the local population of North Uganda by the armed forces of President Yoweri Museveni. It is not a secret that the Head of State does not have particular sympathy for the people of the north, where his predecessors were from, such as Milton Obote (of the Lango ethnic group) and Tito Okelo (Acholi), who Museveni overthrew with force in January 1986.
[BO]
