This is a a very sad story. One would only be insane not to condemn it. Equally saddening however are the stories told by those who suffered during Obote's and Amin's regimes. Some of the stories have already been posted here before and can be reproduced if needed. Like the others before, this one from the library of congress will hopefully server to remind us that although it is terible today, it was not any better during Obote's second regime.
The Second Obote Regime: 1981-85 Uganda Table of Contents In February 1981, shortly after the new Obote government took office, with Paulo Muwanga as vice president and minister of defense, a former Military Commission member, Yoweri Museveni, and his armed supporters declared themselves the National Resistance Army (NRA). Museveni vowed to overthrow Obote by means of a popular rebellion, and what became known as "the war in the bush" began. Several other underground groups also emerged to attempt to sabotage the new regime, but they were eventually crushed. Museveni, who had guerrilla war experience with the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frente de Libertaçâo de Moçambique--Frelimo), campaigned in rural areas hostile to Obote's government, especially central and western Buganda and the western regions of Ankole and Bunyoro. The Obote government's four-year military effort to destroy its challengers resulted in vast areas of devastation and greater loss of life than during the eight years of Amin's rule. UNLA's many Acholi and Langi had been hastily enrolled with minimal training and little sense of discipline. Although they were survivors of Amin's genocidal purges of northeast Uganda, in the 1980s they were armed and in uniform, conducting similar actions against Bantu- speaking Ugandans in the south, with whom they appeared to feel no empathy or even pity. In early 1983, to eliminate rural support for Museveni's guerrillas the area of Luwero District, north of Kampala, was targeted for a massive population removal affecting almost 750,000 people. These artificially created refugees were packed into several internment camps subject to military control, which in reality meant military abuse. Civilians outside the camps, in what came to be known as the "Luwero Triangle," were presumed to be guerrillas or guerrilla sympathizers and were treated accordingly. The farms of this highly productive agricultural area were looted--roofs, doors, and even door frames were stolen by UNLA troops. Civilian loss of life was extensive, as evidenced some years later by piles of human skulls in bush clearings and alongside rural roads. The army also concentrated on the northwestern corner of Uganda, in what was then West Nile District. Bordering Sudan, West Nile had provided the ethnic base for much of Idi Amin's earlier support and had enjoyed relative prosperity under his rule. Having born the brunt of Amin's anti-Acholi massacres in previous years, Acholi soldiers avenged themselves on inhabitants of Amin's home region, whom they blamed for their losses. In one famous incident in June 1981, Ugandan Army soldiers attacked a Catholic mission where local refugees had sought sanctuary. When the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reported a subsequent massacre, the government expelled it from Uganda. Despite these activities, Obote's government, unlike Amin's regime, was sensitive to its international image and realized the importance of securing foreign aid for the nation's economic recovery. Obote had sought and followed the advice of the International Monetary Fund ( IMF), even though the austerity measures ran counter to his own ideology. He devalued the Uganda shilling by 100 percent, attempted to facilitate the export of cash crops, and postponed any plans he may once have entertained for reestablishing one-party rule. The continued sufferance of the DP, although much harried and abused by UPC stalwarts, became an important symbol to international donors. The government's inability to eliminate Museveni and win the civil war, however, sapped its economic strength, and the occupation of a large part of the country by an army hostile to the Ugandans living there furthered discontent with the regime. Abductions by the police, as well as the detentions and disappearances so characteristic of the Amin period, recurred. In place of torture at the infamous State Research Bureau at Nakasero, victims met the same fate at so- called "Nile Mansions." Amnesty International, a human rights organization, issued a chilling report of routine torture of civilian detainees at military barracks scattered across southern Uganda. The overall death toll from 1981 to 1985 was estimated as high as 500,000. Obote, once seen by the donor community as the one man with the experience and will to restore Uganda's fortunes, now appeared to be a liability to recovery. In this deteriorating military and economic situation, Obote subordinated other matters to a military victory over Museveni. North Korean military advisers were invited to take part against the NRA rebels in what was to be a final campaign that won neither British nor United States approval. But the army was warweary , and after the death of the highly capable General Oyite Ojok in a helicopter accident at the end of 1983, it began to split along ethnic lines. Acholi soldiers complained that they were given too much frontline action and too few rewards for their services. Obote delayed appointing a successor to Oyite Ojok for as long as possible. In the end, he appointed a Langi to the post and attempted to counter the objection of Acholi officers by spying on them, reviving his old paramilitary counterweight, the mostly Langi Special Force Units, and thus repeating some of the actions that led to his overthrow by Amin. As if determined to replay the January 1971 events, Obote once again left the capital after giving orders for the arrest of a leading Acholi commander, Brigadier (later Lieutenant General) Basilio Olara Okello, who mobilized troops and entered Kampala on July 27, 1985. Obote, together with a large entourage, fled the country for Zambia. This time, unlike the last, Obote allegedly took much of the national treasury with him. Uganda Table of Contents Source: U.S. Library of Congress Quoting Matek Opoko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > Soldiers Cited in Sexual Abuse > > > Email This Page > > Print This Page > > Visit The Publisher's Site > > The Monitor (Kampala) > > June 26, 2005 > Posted to the web June 27, 2005 > > Peter Nyanzi > Kampala > > A new report has named UPDF soldiers as some of the perpetrators of > sexual violence against women and children in Pabbo IDP camp in northern > Uganda. > > The report, Suffering in Silence: A Study of Sexual and Gender-based > Violence (SGBV) In Pabbo Camp, was launched in Gulu recently. A United > Nations child care organisation, Unicef, commissioned the research in > September 2004. > > "Attacks [against women and children] also come from soldiers whose task > is to protect camp residents, as they demand for sex from women and > girls in exchange for food, shelter, protection, etc," the reports reads > in part. > > But the UPDF spokesman in Gulu, Lt. Kiconco Tabaro, defended the forces, > saying they have not received complaints about criminal behaviour by > officers in Pabbo camp. > > Army denies > > "We are not aware that our officers in Pabbo are involved in such > criminal activities. It is not the policy of the UPDF to condone such > conduct. The normal procedure is that the culprits should be reported to > us so that they face court martial," Kiconco said. > > Pabbo IDP camp was created in 1986 with an initial population of 30,000 > but the number has now more than doubled, with more than two thirds of > them women and children. > > According to the research, six out of every 10 women in the camp have > been physically and sexually assaulted, threatened and humiliated by men > including UPDF soldiers. > > It says the most vulnerable groups, based on the data compiled from both > the area police post and a health centre in the camp, are girls aged > between 13 and 17. Women aged from 19 to 36 follow, then younger > children aged from 4 to 9. > > However, the report says it is difficult to estimate the actual extent > of SGBV incidences in the camp. "Actual incidence of sexually > inappropriate behaviour in Pabbo camp is estimated to be much higher > than the cases reported," it says. > > According to the report, current methods of estimating the number of > women who are assaulted do not reflect the occurrence of violence. The > statistics are based on reported incidents of abuse obtained from > police, hospital records, LCs, and camp leaders. > > Girls barter sex for goods > > It says defilement rates are mostly a result of gross deprivation in the > camps, forcing young girls to barter sex for essential items. Parents > were also forcing their children into early marriages to get money, > exposing the girls to HIV\Aids and sexually transmitted infections. > According to the report, Pabbo Health Centre registered 49 births by > girls below 18 years out of 80 births. > Relevant LinksEast Africa > Uganda > Human Rights > Children and Youth > Crime and Corruption > Arms and Military Affairs > Refugees and Displacement > > The report says one of the major effects of defilement has been > exclusion from education, whereby the rate of girls dropping out of > school was too high. In the P7 class of 2004 in Agole Primary School in > Pabbo, there were only 20 girls compared to 76 boys. > > Unicef country representative, Mr Martin Mogwanja, called for practical > response from those concerned. > > > > --------------------------------- > Yahoo! Sports > Rekindle the Rivalries. 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