Luwero Killings: Acholis to
Say Sorry to Buganda
THE EASTAFRICAN
A DELEGATION of cultural and religious leaders from the Acholi sub-region is expected to make a public apology to Buganda this week for the atrocities committed against non-combatants by the predominantly Acholi Uganda National Liberation Army, UNLA, during the five-year bush war that brought President Yoweri Museveni to power.
In a development that could be significant for north-south relations in Uganda, the elders and religious leaders from Teso, Gulu and Lira will accept responsibility for the indiscriminate killings that sometimes saw whole families perish, as government forces sought out supporters of the National Resistance Army insurgency led by Yoweri Museveni (who at the time was a rebel leader) between 1981 and 1985. Janaan Kasango, one of the people behind the reconciliatory meetings, said last week that cultural leaders like the Emorimor of Teso, Osburn Kadugala, the tribal chief of Acholi, the Rwot and representatives from Buganda have agreed to attend the meetings.
"This will be the first of its kind, but we expect more reconciliatory meetings to take place," Kasango told The EastAfrican last week.
In the Luwero Triangle, bitter memories of the war still linger and President Yoweri Museveni's campaign team capitalised on such memories to campaign against the opposition in 1986.
Sources in the Mission for National Reconciliation, the people behind the reconciliatory meeting, said they had so far met different people in the central government, the army, Buganda Kingdom, local chiefs in Teso, Kitgum and Gulu.
Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, Minister of State in charge of Defence, told The EastAfrican that she was not aware of the arrangements. However, she added that if they were to take place, they could only be good for the country.
Mike Mukula, Minister of State for Health, also welcomed the idea, saying it should be encouraged.
The deputy Prime Minister of Buganda, Kaya Kavuma, said he had not been informed about the developments. However, other officials at Bulange, the seat of Buganda Kingdom, said they are aware of the reconciliatory meeting and would participate.
"Reconciliation is good, we cannot keep on hiding these facts," said one official.
Dates have been set tentatively for March 4 to 7, 2004. Activities to be carried out include visiting sites were there are mass graves of people killed during the 1980-85 war, visiting collapsing buildings destroyed by the war and a rally in Luwero town, some 80kms north of Kampala.
The peace tour, which is likely to be reciprocated by elders in Buganda by visiting some areas in the north and east, has been greeted with excitement as it will bring the two groups together and hopefully erase the bitter memories of the past.
Museveni used the Luwero Triangle as his base to fight President Milton Obote's government. The area paid dearly for this as government troops killed civilians indiscriminately, taking them to be either rebels or rebel sympathisers.
A document seen by The EastAfrican last week says that towards the end of last year, as insecurity spread to Teso, it became evident to a number of people in Luwero that there were still deep roots of bitterness towards the north and north east because of the people killed in the civil war of Luwero during the early 1980s.
"This emerged when an initiative started in the fellowship at New Hope Uganda in Luwero led by Mr. Jay Dangers, to send teams of people to Soroti to help the internally displaced people, generated a lot opposition from members," says a statement headed as Reconciliation Initiative involving Luwero, Teso, Lango and Acholi.
It will be good for the country especially as there are feelings that the war in northern Uganda by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) came up mainly as a result of a revenge campaign carried out on the people of northern Uganda in 1986, by the victorious NRA soldiers.
The northern conflict started in 1986 when former soldiers of the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) regrouped themselves and started a guerilla movement called the Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA) against the NRM/A government for alleged excesses committed when they captured northern Uganda.
Several rebel groups emerged during the same period and following the 1988 Pece accord between a UPDA faction and the government, the LRA eventually became the main armed opposition group in the region up to now.
Up to now skulls, part of the more than 100,000 people killed in the five-year rebellion, still liter the whole area in Luwero though some have been buried.
Destroyed houses in the triangle have writings on them, suspected to have been written by Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) soldiers during the war with the rebels.
Some read as follows, remember the Karuma Boys, a good Muganda is a dead one, we shall not leave Buganda and Baganda are traitors, among others.
"We have arranged that the delegation from the Acholi sub-region to go to some of these places with such writings and they remove them," said a source behind the get together.
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