By Richard M. Kavuma
April 15, 2004
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Villagers suspect the UPDF, Kony, and the boo-kech
Betty Alum was one of two teachers for the blind at Kitgum Girls Primary School. They old lady had arrived from Gulu on Thursday. Her home, just outside the lower gate of the school is a few metres away from a UPDF detach that guards the mission. She sent her daughter to the shops to buy some items on Thursday evening but advised her to sleep in town if it got late before she could be back. When the 15-year old girl returned the next morning, the door to her mother's house was locked. She knocked several times but got no answer. Fearing that her mother had fallen sick or been taken to hospital, she panicked, and cried. When the teachers kicked the door open, the key lay in the entrance. Betty lay on her belly. Her packed travel bag sat on her head. A grinding stone lay on top of the bag. A small bag of charcoal sat on the grinding stone, followed by a smaller grinding stone. Beside her laden body lay the big stick with which Betty had been brutally killed. Her money was gone. The incident raised a lot of fear among the community of Kitgum mission. Betty had taught at the school for 14 years according to headmistress Sister Santa Adongo. "Father I used not to be scared but now I am scared for the girls," Sr Adongo told the Parish Priest, Fr Joseph Gerner, that Sunday evening. People were asking how Betty could have been killed without the soldiers nearby hearing. The soldiers could have been away on a patrol but there was suspicion that the soldiers had a hand in Betty's death. Such is the confused world of war-ravaged Acholi. That soldiers were the first suspects has as much to do with the proximity of the scene of the murder to the UPDF detach, as with the confidence people have in the force. Journalists reporting killings have stopped using the line "suspected LRA rebels" and pile all murders, ambushes and robberies on the rebels of Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army. Even residents say the rebels commit the majority of atrocities. The Boo Kech But they also speak of the Boo Kech. Boo Kech in Luo means "vegetables are bitter." Villagers use it to mean armed gangsters who prefer "sweet things" like meat and others that they steal. The Boo Kech, passing off as rebels, stage ambushes and rob and kill people before disappearing into the bushes. In some cases, the Boo kech have been known to demand a specific amount of money after one has sold a property or given away one's daughter in marriage. According to two elderly catechists in Kitgum, the Boo kech and the LRA are bitter rivals. The Army Spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza says many are ex-rebels, who just abandoned the rebellion, hid their guns and melted into their communities. Bantariza dismisses suspicion of civilians in Gulu and Kitgum that some of the Boo kech may be soldiers or policemen, or that security personnel hire their guns out to the thugs. "Why would they be policemen?" he asks. Perhaps it is because some soldiers have not helped their reputation by committing atrocities similar to those of the Boo Kech. Cases of indiscipline by the government soldiers have left people suspicious that some of the atrocities blamed on the rebels are actually committed by other armed groups. On July 20, 2003 the New Vision ran a story of an 'armed man' who shot one Odiya, a Land surveyor in Kitgum town council. The incident, in which the killer was disarmed, happened around 8 pm at Crenar Bar in Kitgum's East Ward. Residents say that the gun was traced to the UPDF, although the army at the time only admitted that investigations were underway. About two months before that, a UPDF soldier had entered a bar in Kitgum where people were watching Premier League Football and shot a teacher of Atanga Secondary School dead. The soldier run away with an unspecified sum of money. On October 8, 2003 the Luo newspaper, Rupiny, carried a story about a UPDF soldier Okello John Bosco who raped 30-year old Christine Ajok in Kitgum. The soldier shot and killed the woman and her 8-months old son, Richard Ayera. A 13-year old night commuter in Gulu said he had to leave home early because even the soldiers "can cause you problems if you leave late". Still fresh in the memory of Gulu residents was the story of young man, his mother in labour and a UPDF foot patrol unit. Riding a bicycle with a lantern, the boy was taking his mother to hospital at night on July 24. At Gulu Police playground, on the outskirts of Gulu town, the patrol commander stopped Francis lakony, 18. Ms Kacilina Aunu reportedly sat down as her son explained that he had to get his mother to hospital. The soldiers shot the boy. Then they shot his mother. Two bullets ended three lives. The Army spokesman in the area, Lt. Paddy Ankunda, was quoted as saying that government would compensate Aunu's family with "coffins, bags of posho and Shs200,000" in burial expenses. Incidents like the above occur now and again in Acholi. The same soldiers of the 7 Battalion also shot one Odong Tule, and soldiers at Palenga trading centre killed Milton okema. The reaction of the army and government to such incidents is that the force does not tolerate indiscipline. Lt. Gen. David Tinyefuza said in an interview, that such incidents are punished and the perpetrators are sometimes killed by firing squad. "If you went to Luzira [Prison] today, [a] number of soldiers are on the condemned roll, who committed atrocities in the north and were charged and are supposed to be hanged; about 400 or so," he said. He went on: "It is possible that some soldiers commit atrocities but we deal with them. There is no government in the history of Uganda, which has decisively and mercilessly dealt with those within its ranks who commit atrocities against the people." An LC I chairman in Kitgum said people in the war zone are not sure who commits atrocities. A few days earlier, a ginnery just outside Kitgum town had been broken into and tarpaulins stolen: "that one we do not know whether it was rebels or not," the chairman said. About three weeks earlier, a house belonging to one of the Kitgum MPs had been broken into and looted: "That one we have established was by the rebels." One young man who spent a month and a half in LRA captivity in Kitgum reports that the rebels were often talking of 'sabotaging' the government and making it be hated. Acholi also believe that Kony continues to punish his tribesmen for 'betraying' him by refusing to support his rebellion. After the death of teacher Betty Alum, a primary five pupil told the headmistress: "Sister, if they have killed her, then it means they are going to kill all of us." The question is; who are 'they'?
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� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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