Regional - EastAfrican - Nairobi -
Kenya
Monday, March 1,
2004
Luwero Killings: Acholis
to
Say Sorry to Buganda
By A.MUTUMBA-LULE
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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