Ochan
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Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2005 14:27:23 +0000 (GMT)
From: Joseph Lokwang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The LRA Creation........In the beginning.........
This is an extract from the LRM/A original document detailing their decision to go to war with the NRM/A murderous regime way back in the 1990s. These documents are currently being updated in terms of events on the ground, the time elapsed and the new policies being adopted by the movement. This is therefore, the first in a series of original documents being released by the LRM/A political wing before the new ones are adopted by both the military and political wings of the movement.
Your comments and reactions to these documents therefore, will be very much welcome and appreciated as we try our level best to reach out to our community members at local as well as those in the diaspora.
(Note that this document was adopted by the movement way back in 1994).
J.L.
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The Lord�s Resistance Movement/Army (LRM/A) was formed several years into the NRM/A government of Museveni, following the surrender of the Uganda People�s Democratic Movement/Army (UPDM/A) in 1990, under the leadership of Otema Alimadi (RIP), former Prime Minister in Milton Obote�s government of 1980-85. The following year (1991) however, Museveni dishonored the peace accord signed with Allimadi resulting in the arrests of several former UPDM/A commanders who were subsequently killed in cold blood. One such commander was Lt Col Kilama, a senior UPDM/A Brigade commander killed along with ten of his bodyguards in Jinja. Others, included officers like Lt Col Ochero Nagai, Chief of Operations Commander of the UPDM/A, Lt John Oketa, Accounts Officer, Capt Stephen Odong, Paymaster general and hundreds more we shall enlist in a separate document, were all killed in cold blood.
In addition to the murders of these officers, there were widespread and indiscriminate arrests and killings of hundreds of innocent civilians within northern <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Uganda alone. It became therefore, absolutely necessary to stop this gross human rights abuses in order to protect our vulnerable civilian population from these arbitrary arrests, summary executions, massacres, and rapes of men, women and underage children. These extremely degrading maltreatments generated so much anger amongst ordinary civilians to the point some willingly offered to fight the NRA even with their bare hands. As a result, in 1993, a group without an officially agreed name yet, resolved to provide this essentially and an absolutely necessary protection to the civilian population in the region; even if this meant continuing to fight without guns and ammunitions, following the surrender of UPDA with all their weapons to the government. It was for the very same reasons that people from their villages were seen using stones, sticks, axes and bows and arrows to fight the government troops. This method, and of course, the weapons used however, were very basic and ineffective during the early days of the war.
This instinctive reaction of the locals, coupled with their use of poor weapons became the mockery of Museveni�s regime. Western press became the �Pipe Pipers� in leading Museveni�s war machine and propaganda campaign, claiming that the Acholi were smearing their bodies with human excrement so that the bullets cannot go through their bodies. Yet it was this propaganda of demonizing and dehumanizing the people to the outside world which was a camouflage for mass genocide of civilians by government soldiers who were themselves taking orders from the highest person in government, Museveni himself. As a result of this constant and persistent dehumanization and demonisation of the rebellion, hundreds of thousands of civilians were helplessly and wastefully massacred by government troops. Most of the civilians were killed in cold blood during government operations. Gersony in his report blames key officers, such as Gen. David Tinyefunza for most of the atrocities, but we believe that Tinyefunza was just a messenger; a loyal officer carrying out the orders of his commander-in-chief, Yoweri Museveni.
Another element in Museveni�s war of extermination of our people was to deliberately infect as many people as possible with the Aids virus. Mass rapes of men, women, and children were carried out on a wide scale in broad daylight. In the Acholi, like in most African cultures, men never sleep with men, children never have sex before 18, and married women never have sex outside their marriages. Sadly and regrettably, HIV infection rate is now three times the national average in Acholi and Lango, a region that was in the 1980�s completely free from HIV/Aids.
It was after 1994, that the Lord�s Resistance Army (LRM/A) was created and officially announced. This came about as a result of the world community doing absolutely nothing about the killings in the Acholi sub-region. The entire tribe was left exposed to Museveni to slaughter and eliminate as painfully as he could. During these desperate days it was only natural that everybody turned to God for help. This is how the name Lord�s Resistance Movement came into being. It has nothing to do with the fanatical Christian faith. It was now felt and hoped that God�s miracles would help the LRA sustain a strong resistance to Museveni against the background of strong government as well as Western propaganda. It became even more feasible as the LRA continued to capture many assorted weapons from NRA, now UPDF and became the formidable and invincible force we now know.
The name Lord�s Resistance Army itself brought about the birth of yet another propaganda and misinformation. The most widely used one is that the Lord Resistance Army wants to rule Uganda according to biblical laws, the Ten Commandments. Certainly some Western countries have got political as well as civil organizations in their own countries with similar names, like the German Christian Democratic Union. Why aren�t similar derogatory things being said about such associations, like they are going to govern their countries or manage their affairs according to the Ten Commandments? The LRM/A is not a religious organization as the press has portrayed it. We would like therefore, to emphasize that we are neither Christian fa tics, nor do we endorse such an ideology as a means of providing simple- social justice for Ugandans.
Castigating ones enemy as barbaric has been a tried and proven tactic since time immemorial. Blaming the victim is nothing new as a political and military strategy. To justify the use of inhuman means to quash ones enemy, it is natural to first paint him as a monster so that one does not feel any compassion for him. In modern parlance this is called psychological warfare - the war of words and also the first casualty of any war.
The negative propaganda unfortunately, simply acts as an encouragement for Museveni to carry out his pogrom - to wipe out our people. The Acholi have somehow become modern day Red Indians, not of North America, but of northern Uganda. Great institutions like the Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, UNICEF, etc have all fallen into being used as tools for Museveni�s mass murders. On September 18, 1997, the former two organizations were given a government party at Nile Hotel Complex. This is evident in itself that these two organizations � Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are institutions that the suffering masses in Africa cannot rely on for help. They have become tools of oppression. See page A.A commentary in The Monitor, a Ugandan Newspaper with a worldwide circulation, written by David Kibirige tells you all that you want to know. It also exposes the depth of involvement of these organizations with the murderous regime of Museveni. They are all out there to get blood money.
All these four important great institutions have not mentioned anywhere in their respective reports the Concentration Camps in Acholi. The appalling conditions under which nearly 2 million people live in these camps, offer yet another method of the extermination of the people in this region. There are over 30 deaths of children and elderly people every day in each of these camps. Life in these camps is characterized by rampant rape of women, children and men. Summary arrests are the order of the day. Neither have any western governments come out to condemn Museveni. Yet up to this day, the West is still speaking with great passion about the evils of Nazi�s concentration camps. Monuments were built in memory to those who perished in the death camps. Yet the IDP camps in Uganda were created for the same ill intention, they are real death camps. We see that what the NRM/A are doing to us (extermination of our people) in these camps is a repeat of just what the Nazis did to the Jews.
Museveni cannot fool the people of Uganda anymore; as we have always maintained, he is the brain behind this continuing war and pogrom. Never again are we going to be too involved with our culture to the destruction of our people�s survival. This war has been forced on us. We never wanted it. We will fight now until genuine peace can be achieved. This peace shall come not only for the people of the north but also for all the people of Uganda. Over the past year LRM/A has taken a national shape in which the military is now composed of all the tribes of Uganda and it is truly a national Army. Equally important is the fact that th e LRM leadership is now fully a national one, composed of nearly all the nationalities in Uganda. This is a completely new development we are very proud of that has neither been reported nor realized under any single previous rebel group or organization.
It is important that we make ourselves known to the world community. Lord�s Resistance Movement is an organization that was formed in 1994. It is not the same organization as Alice Lakwena�s Holy Spirit Movement (HSM), because it was defeated in 1990. Lord�s Resistance Movement is not even a continuation of Uganda Peoples Democratic Movement (UPDM), since it had surrendered to the government of Museveni in 1990. The LRM/A is not a continuation of Lakwena Two (a movement that was founded by Alice Lakwena�s uncle) either, because this group too was defeated way back in 1992.
During the rebel activities of UPDM/A, HSM and Lakwena II stretching over the first eight years of NRM/A rule, the LRM/A was non-existent. The LRM/A has been fighting now for the past eleven years. So the misguided and false reporting in national as well as international press that the LRA for the past eighteen years has abducted over eight thousand children it is not correct. This is where the western media has missed out the point. Those rebel groups, which fought the NRM/A regime during its first eight years in power, have all surrendered to Museveni. However, young officers who refused to surrender to the government formed the Lord�s Resistance Movement. Their first commander was Ben Nono Opiro. He worked very hard until his capture by Uganda government. He had participated in a failed coup against Museveni in 1994. He escaped from prison in 1997 and rejoined the LRA. After Opiro�s capture, the LRM/A leadership was handed over to Joseph Kony who up to now has carried out the struggle very successfully. He has become a household name in Museveni�s murder campaign on the people of Acholi. Under his leadership, the LRM/A struggle has grown from strength to strength following the reorganization of the movement.
Since the establishment of the LRM/A there has been great strife to integrate the LRA into a new a national army. Right now the LRA hierarchy is composed of all the various tribes of Uganda. This kind of development is always very welcome by the LRM/A leadership. The LRA is a well-disciplined army comparable to none. It takes great heart to accept people who, not long ago, participated actively in the mass massacres of our people. In spite of this, we have accepted them and will continue to do so. We clearly know the great risk they take in order to join us. Their acknowledgement of the LRM/A�s primary objective, coupled with their overwhelming feeling of brotherhood have a case and that we are interested in peace for all the people Uganda. LRA neither discriminates against anybody, nor does it practise sectarianism within its rank and file. We strongly believe in one country, one nation, and one society. It is important that we respect one another. The only one Uganda is large enough and has unlimited resources for us all.
Museveni now knows that war does not offer solutions to deep-rooted political and economic problems as his simplistic socialist ideology taught him. All that Marxist concept of winning the war and bringing peace throughout the country in a flash has evaporated. Museveni is facing the real world now, than ever before. We are coming by hook or crook; we shall reach Kampala by the same token. LRM/A by its birth, nature of operations and sustenance is a peasant revolution, which seeks to overthrow the corrupt system of government in Uganda. LRM/A is the people�s crusade against the sectarian and divisive government in Uganda. LRM/A is the people�s organization and the people�s voice in Uganda and beyond. We shall consider the interests of our fellow Ugandans first though, before anyone else; this is our motto.
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