[Ugnet] Peace team robbery in Mbarara a great irony

Peace team robbery in Mbarara a great irony

Ekuba omunaku tekya (the rains that torture the suffering never cease).

Who would have ever imagined the northern peace team, having survived ambushes in the rebel infested bushes of Acholi, would be waylaid and robbed in Mbarara of all places?

The sad incident reminded me of an earlier one in the mid 90's when President Museveni's government had won international acclaim for restoring peace in Uganda.

A foreign tourist, lured by this, decided to travel to Kampala and see for himself. He checked in at his hotel just as it was getting dark. But eager to check out the streets, he had a quick bath and hit the road.

The streets were characteristically poorly lit. But the air was cool and refreshing.

Barely had he moved a hundred metres when he got swallowed up by a gaping manhole. He was flown out of the country on clutches, having broken his limbs.

According to the reports, Gulu LC5 Chairman Lt. Col Walter Ochora, blamed his robbed colleagues for not having moved in a convoy as decided on at the president's country home in Rwakitura where they had gone to meet him over the troubled peace process with LRA rebels.

But the peace team could be forgiven if they took the convoy idea lightly. Since when did people require to move in convoys in Mbarara? They thought they had left the inconveniency in the north where vehicles can hardly move without being escorted in armed convoys.

Like the tourist, they were looking forward to a relaxed trip back to Kampala without having to worry about ambushes and the like.

The ordeal suffered by the peace team in Mbarara offers some political and moral lessons both for the peace process in the north, and the overall political process in the country.

The bad chaps who robbed the northern peace team could be equally as bad as some rebels who, besides engaging the army, pick on civilian soft targets. In a deteriorated political situation, they could equally wreak havoc in places like Mbarara. Put bluntly, they are potential rebels.

Bishop John Baptist Ondama might want to use the incident as part of a sermon to the rebels and the rest of the country:

We are all sinners; rebels and all Ugandans alike, he may want to preach.

As the north went into flames, women raped, children turned into fighters, thousands of young, old and sick herded into camps for the internally displaced persons; most of the the other Ugandans partied all night. They sat around their dining tables stuffed with rich foods and toasted one another's good health.

Headlines of "400 killed in rebel attack" were not distressful enough to deter other Ugandans from going ahead with glamorous wedding parties for their children, as others buried and mourned loved ones killed in the 19-year war in the north.

The whole country needs to repent for our sins during the entirety of the war. The combatants and non-combatants alike. It does not matter who killed how many people. Killing fewer people does not make it a lesser sin. Let's not point fingers at each other now as we talk peace. We are all sinners before God and need to repent. Amen.

The wider political lesson is that the entire country needs to stop, think and be party to the peace process in Uganda.

While the Acholi peace team pursues peace up north, the rest of the country should explore ways of using this initiative to resolve the root cause of war in the country. Otherwise we might end war in the north only to save that ammunition for yet another war - internally or with our neighbours.

War should not end only in the north. It should never start anywhere else again. Uganda has been a slave to war for donkey's years, and a permanent solution ought to be sought.

The northern peace initiative is simply part of a much bigger equation of ridding Ugandan politics of violence. These are the kind of agenda parliament and the opposition should kickstart now in addition to getting registered and preparing for the 2006 campaigns and elections.

In this respect, it might not have been wise for Museveni to keep the African Union away from the peace process when he said they should wait and get involved only if Betty Bigombe (key peace negotiator) fails in her initiative.

Just the same way Museveni sought the intervention of the International Criminal Court to help tame Joseph Kony, the participation of the international community could help deliver a sustainable peace.

************

Did I hear properly Museveni telling Charles Mumbere that he can only visit Kasese or Bundibugyo as an individual and not king?

That "the constitution of Uganda, indeed the philosophy of NRM does not allow one cultural group to dominate another or a cluster of others?"

But if Museveni pointed a warning finger at Mumbere, he needs to be reminded that the other four fingers are pointed back at him and reminding him that " Uganda's constitution and indeed the NRM philosophy does not allow a president a third term."

[Ugnet] Peace team robbery in Mbarara a great irony

Reply via email to