Omar,
This is a very sad story indeed. Very sad because dictator Museveni is turning his gunships on innocent civilians with impunity. Museveni apologist-sychophants like Bantariza's unforgivable utturences that the army regrets the 'incident' does not cut it. An army that cannot tell the difference between a civilian funeral and a rebel convoy is no peoples' defence force. Lt Gen Museveni as C-n-C of the army should take the responsiblity and do the honorable thing - resign.
Imagine: " ... the helicopter gunships bombed the villages. ..."
"... the killing of nine people by the choppers that also injured several others ...."
".... Many suffered bullet wounds but had received no treatment...."
"...There are women ... whose breasts were split by bullets ..."
Ugandans deserve better protection than this offered by the so-called UPDF!
y
From: Omar Kezimbira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: ugnet_: News Update: UPDF Gunship kill nine civilians Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 13:21:55 -0700 (PDT)
Gunships kill nine civilians By Our Reporters July 25, 2003 -Monitor
Army says it was a mistake
Military helicopters killed nine civilians and injured several others in anti-rebel bombing raids in Obalanga in Katakwi district on Tuesday.
The LC-V councillor representing Obalanga sub-county, Mr Julius Ochen, said that the civilians were fleeing the fighting between the Uganda People's Defence Forces and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels at Alito village, Angica parish in Obalanga.
"We are saddened by the killing of nine people by the choppers that also injured several others at Alito," Ochen told The Monitor in Soroti town last night.
He was in Soroti, which borders Katakwi, to look for transportation to move injured civilians to hospital.
Many suffered bullet wounds but had received no treatment.
Children hurt most
Ochen said that some of the injured were being carried to his house in Obalanga trading centre.
"There are women in my house whose breasts were split by bullets and I have asked the security organs to assist in transporting them to Soroti Hospital for treatment," he said.
The army spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, yesterday regretted the incident, saying that the helicopters were targeting rebels.
He said that civilians had previously deserted the area.
"What happened was that the rebels killed a person but we didn't know that some people had taken their dead back for burial," Bantariza said.
Ochen said that he was compiling a list of all those killed or injured when the helicopter gunships bombed the villages.
The UPDF has deployed three MI-24 attack helicopters to provide aerial support for ground troops and local militia fighting the LRA rebels.
The LRA have started renaming sub-counties in the Teso sub-region, which they first invaded on June 15.
The Tuesday killings bring to 31 the number of people killed by UPDF gunships since the army's offensive against the LRA started in Teso last month.
Local sources said that those killed on Tuesday were mostly children.
Army denies losses
Meanwhile, the Missionary News Agency (Misna) yesterday reported that 30 UPDF soldiers were killed in a firefight with the rebels.
The fighting is said to have taken place in Apala, 20km north of Lira.
But the UPDF yesterday said it had not suffered heavy casualties.
"The fighting broke out last Tuesday at 16:00hrs local time, and lasted for a couple of hours. In the morning of the same day another group attacked the small town of Ngai," Misna reported.
Maj. Bantariza laughed off the Misna report as "wishful thinking".
The spokesman of the army's 5th Division, Lt. Chris Magezi, also denied that the army had lost any men.
There were only a few skirmishes, Lt. Magezi said. "There has not been any fighting apart from small skirmishes including one in which about seven rebels fired a few bullets at our convoy in Apala," he said.
Misna also reported that the "rebels killed one civilian and abducted at least 20 people" at Iceme, 50km west of Lira.
The LRA rebels have been fighting the government since 1988.
The war in northern Uganda has left thousands dead and forced one million into camps for the internally displaced.
On Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Yoweri Museveni told members of Parliament that the key factors why the northern war has not ended are the Sudan government's support for the rebels, bad leadership in the north, poor infrastructure and inadequate funding for Defence.
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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