By Sam Akaki
March 7, 2004
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Literally translated from Luo, �Bar-lonyo� means �The Field of Wealth�. The local name was not randomly selected. The area is so climatically endowed that you could throw a seed by the roadside and in no time it would blossom into abundant underground or over-ground food stuffs; and chickens, goats, sheep and cows seem to magically breed and multiply in the same way; hence the name Bar-lonyo, the (Field of Wealth). By an ironic twist of fate, thanks to the attacks LRA and the failure by the inappropriately named Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) to defend the people; the previously unknown village in Lira district became �Bar-to� or the �Field of Death� and gained an instant international fame. Several world leaders including the Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Anan, now know about the former Bar-lonyo. The cause was the three-hour orgy of bloodbath in which over 200 defenceless men, women and children were massacred. That the Minister of Defence Amama Mbabazi has refused to resign over the massacres is understandable. His entire future depends on his continued defence of the indefensible failures by the UPDF to defend the people of Uganda generally, and those in the north in particular. In any case, Mr Mbabazi does not represent a northern constituency in Parliament, and is therefore not intimately knowledgeable about the extent of human tragedy caused by the 18-year long war in the north. The people who are best placed not only to know about the tragedy but also to effectively advise the president are five government ministers who hail from the north: Mr Jovino Akaki Ayumu, Mr Okot Ogong, Mr Omwony Ojwok, Ms Betty Akech and Mr Okello Oryem. It is therefore difficult if not impossible to understand their decision to remain silent and in office in spite of some extremely insensitive and inaccurate statements by the government, including the ruling that the north is not a disaster area. Granted, all government ministers are bound by a conventional practice of collective responsibility by which they are required, but not compelled to support the government on every issue. However, ministers are also human beings and are expected to have principles and consciences, which should, ultimately, dictate their decisions whether or not to support or disagree with the government on a particular issue. Also by convention, resignation is automatic if they disagree with the government. Sadly, you have to push your hands dip into the blood-sodden history of Uganda to find a minister who last resigned on principle, or as a matter of conscience. In 1967, the then minister of Economic Planning, Mr Aqbar Adoko, the son of Akaki Nekyon, resigned his cabinet post on a matter of principle. He had reportedly disagreed with his cousin Milton Obote who was then president, on a number of policy issues including the Common Man�s Charter. Compare and contrast Adoko the son of Akaki�s decision to resign over the Common Man�s Charter, a socialist experimental policy document, which had not caused the death of a single person at the time; and the position taken by another Akaki, Jovino and the four other northern ministers, given their silence over the war in the north, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and turned the region into real hell on earth. Last week, that brave and patriotic woman from the west, the MP for Mwenge South, Ms Dora Byamukama successfully tabled a motion calling on parliament to declare northern Uganda a disaster area. The key to her appears to have been the compelling political and moral case, which she made pleading: �when they (future generations) ask us that what did we do in the wake of Kony�s atrocities, what shall we say? It does not take away the sovereignty of the State if we declare a national disaster� (See. �Parliament Declares North Disaster Area�, The Monitor, February 26). Incredibly, the government in which the five northern ministers are a part, has ruled that there was no disaster in the north. This raises two disturbing questions: Alternatively, did they act in the name of collective responsibility in government and chose to endorse the government ruling that there is no disaster in the north? Whatever the answers, one thing is not in doubt: none of the five ministers has made a public statement about the matter. That is not all. In the same spirit of collective responsibility, they have also endorsed a series of insensitive statements, which the government has made in relation to the war in the north, including the claims that: - The number of the people killed in Bar-to camp was not 240, 200, or even 192, but �only� 84; - The number of people kill in Abia three weeks earlier was not 50 but �only� 24 and therefore not a massacre, but just a �hiccup�; - The two million people in the Internally Displaced Person�s (IDP) camps are living very well, getting relief food and their children are going to school; - If life in the camps were so bad, the people there would have left; - Kony will be finished by the �next� dry season; - And that if the donors had not unreasonably put a limit on defence spending, the war would have ended years ago. Unfortunately, these are not the views shared by people living the in camps, other Ugandans at home and abroad, or the international community in general. Take one issue for example: if life in the camps was so good, why can�t these honourable or horrible ministers move with their families and set up homes in the camps? Their disgraceful decision to join in the game of collective trivialisation and politicisation of the tragedy in their own home areas is not motivated by patriotism, but by sheer greed, selfishness and the love for pomp and pageantry, which go with their posts. This is in spite of the fact that for almost two decades the LRA has wrought havoc on their northern kith and kin; killing over 50,000 people, maiming several many more, abducting and brutalising 20,000 innocent children and driving over two million into IDP camps where they are living inhuman lives without adequate food, water, shelter or security. The question is: for how long must the war go on; how many more people must be killed or maimed; how many more children must be abducted and how many more men, women and children must be driven into concentration camps before Akaki Ayumu, Okot Ogong, Omwony Ojok, Betty Akech and Okello Oryem recognise that the north is a disaster area? While the long-suffering people in the north wait for answers, they would be justified to conclude that their chief enemies are not the LRA who kill them, or Amama Mbabazi who down-plays the numbers of people killed, makes propaganda pronouncements on rebel strength and tells blatant lies about the situation on the ground. The enemies are the five northern ministers who lend credibility to Mr Mbabazi�s lies by keeping quiet so that they can retain their ministerial posts and enjoy cosy lives in Kampala, while millions perish in the north. Therefore, the real issue is not whether Amama Mbabazi should have resigned over the Bar-to massacres, or whether the north is a disaster area. It is not even about the need to abide by the requirement for collective responsibility in government. The issue is that the five Ministers from the north must be held accountable for their individual and collective responsibility for knowingly and willing misleading the country and the international community by supporting the government line that the north is not a disaster area. By taking this action, the five ministers have condemned the north to a condition of eternal hell. If the ministers from the north have advised the president and the cabinet that the north is not a disaster area, who is Ms Dora Byamukama from west, Aggrey Awori from the east, Ken Lukyamuzi from the south, or The Monitor from everywhere to say otherwise? However, two things are almost certain: Sooner rather than later, the LRA will attack another IDP camp in the north where they may kill even many more people than they did at Bar-to. And Ms Dora Byamukama�s question will haunt the five northern ministers for the rest of their political and biological lives: �When they ask us what did we do in the wake of Kony�s atrocities, what shall we say?� �We advised President Museveni and the cabinet that that the north was not a disaster area�, they will have to say. To cap it all, one of them, Security minister Ms Betty Akech has seriously jeopardised future foreign humanitarian help in the north by pouring scorn on the head of the European Delegation, Mr Sigurd Illing, when she reportedly told him not to �go into people�s sitting rooms, bedrooms, anywhere into the toilets anywhere and do what they want,� (See, �Govt Warns EU Diplomat�, The Monitor, March 5). This is in spite of the public knowledge and Mr Illing�s statement to parliament in which he said: �We note that the vast majority of humanitarian aid to the north, both in the past and today, is being provided by the international community.� Only time will tell who is walking on quick sand: the five northern ministers Whatever happens, it will be the defenceless and helpless men, women and children in Lango and Acholi region who will continue to die unnecessarily, thanks to the collective responsibility of the five ministers who hail from there. The author is European co-ordinator of International Lobby for Reform in |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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