Dr. Kayondo
You responded in a wise and responsible way to the HIV/AIDS issues in Rakai
that I so raised. While as usual I have been dismissed by George Okello and his
gang, there is a need to revisit this Rakai situation in a systematic way. I am
reporting here verbatim what was reported in the New York Times of April 1980
and this was one year later. "The looting, murder and rape inflicted upon
Masaka by Acholi’s, during the 1979 invasion devastated the town and its
surrounding rural areas, formerly Uganda's third largest town, had been all
but leveled.....Today about 6,000 residents remain among the rubble". Masaka
district, once one of the most prosperous agricultural centers in Uganda, has
pretty much returned to subsistence farming (New York Times 1980). "In amongst
the rubble and poverty that remained throughout the district, the seeds of the
world's first catastrophic community-wide AIDS epidemic had already been sown,
a direct product of rape and social disruption that had characterized the war".
HIV and AIDS were as yet unknown. Ironically, Idi Amin--a man with no formal
education--seemed to have been aware that an unusual disease was being spread
during the war of 1978-79, yet Acholi’s the most educated Ugandans denied its
existence. There is no single iota of any of their governments going after it
even to the end of Obote two government.
A local journalist in Masaka reported that "in the closing stages of the war,
Amin had spoken of the "Wakombozi" are also spreading a dangerous type of
gonorrhea". He said it is incurable, and its victim waste away and loses all
the hair. Those were Amin’s words as he was leaving. If this is the case,
fellow countrymen and women, don't you think UNLA needs to be charged with
crime against humanity! UNLA had no reason to treat innocent women, men and
children that way. UNLA was perceived by many as liberators and not rapists,
murderers and looters, but unfortunately, that is what they ended up to be.
There were some Ugandan diplomats apart from Paul Muwanga who sold the embassy
in France who believed in post-Amin Uganda and went out of their way and return
properties of Uganda to the new leaders. A classic example is the late Ombiga
an accountant at the Uganda High Commission in Ottawa (and by the way, a Kakwa
too, Amin's tribe) who sent back to the new Uganda Ministry of Foreign Affairs
One Million US dollars in cash!!! money he could have simply pocketed and no
questions asked. On the other had the liberators were looting left and right.
Oyite Ojok who became the new chairman of the Uganda Coffee Marketing Board was
rumored to have swindled more than $6 million dollars within a short period of
time.
At what point do Ugandans stand to question the manufacturers of the UNLF/UNLA
tragedy?
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2014 7:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: {UAH} THIS WAS PRINTED IN UGANDA BY A PAPER CALLED THE STAR IN 1984
This is my home ground and I lost nearly all my cousins I used to visit in the
village as a young boy due to HIV/AIDS and I saw what happened to a village
when many of its residents die.
Many died in other parts of the world due to HIV/AIDS including USA and they
to can be blamed or the way they responded. May be it was partly due to a poor
public health system then and we all know information was not flowing as
efficiently as it does now. We also have to remember the fact that many still
believed that it was witchcraft until it was very late.
It is very easy to allocate blame after a tragedy because then the evidence is
very clear but in moments then the unknowns were way more than the knowns.
Response to epidemics is a science that has gotten much better today compared
to years past.
Unfortunately even later on after the response my cousins who died when HIV
was well known could not be saved because of lack of medication, the knowledge
we have now of managing that illness was clearly not available then.
Was it a genocide? I will not argue that because history is a servant to
anyone who digs enough and information to support what ever they want can be
found.
If it was a genocide, was it planned? And if so for what purpose? Would failure
of a public health response then be a better explanation? I would think so,
though that doesn't carry a strong incriminating message so it might not be
acceptable by some.
As always I bring every conversation back to now and the future because history
is very depressing and cant be changed by hope or dreams. With the current
changes we have in the public health sector and the several trained doctors
many of them my friends and former class mates who received their training
oversees or in the advanced state of art Public Health school at Mulago, can
this poor response be easily replicated? I tend to think not really. So we had
the Ebola scare and my be there too is the answer to my question.
As viruses which have existed on this earth some as long as human life keep
adapting and evolving we will continue getting epidemics, one only hopes that
it doesn't reach this far.
May all those in my family who lost their lives in this region rest in peace, I
will never forget all the happy moments we had as we grew up together, those
moments we all looked for during Christmas holidays when I made trips to my
village town in Magiri and up to last week I laughed my breath off telling a
story of a planned fist fight that you guys got me involved in. You all passed
,and I blame nobody for your deaths.
Eddie, MD
_____
From: Herrn Edward Mulindwa <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >
To: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> ; [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> ; [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, December 6, 2014 6:16 PM
Subject: RE: {UAH} THIS WAS PRINTED IN UGANDA BY A PAPER CALLED THE STAR IN 1984
It was a genocide and these friends kept quiet about it, but restricted people
from getting help required, the very same way they refused any one to send help
to us in Luwero war. That is a problem we need to address as Ugandans. They
locked up Kyotera and Rakai the very same way they locked up Luwero triangle.
Red Cross wanted to go in and they simply said no.
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
From: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2014 5:43 PM
To: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
Subject: Re: {UAH} THIS WAS PRINTED IN UGANDA BY A PAPER CALLED THE STAR IN 1984
WOW
_____
From: Herrn Edward Mulindwa <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> >
To: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> ; [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> ; [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, December 6, 2014 5:30 PM
Subject: {UAH} THIS WAS PRINTED IN UGANDA BY A PAPER CALLED THE STAR IN 1984
“Mysterious Disease kills 100 people in Rakai”
A strange killer disease has struck the District of Rakai in South Uganda,
killing at least
100 people in ten months. The victims of the disease, locally called ‘SLIM’,
are youths
aged between 15 to 36 years. The worst hit area is Kyebe-Kannebulemu sub-county.
Hardly a fortnight passes without a death of one or more young men or women.
Mourning is everywhere and several people I met wear dejected faces, carry
heavy hearts
and are living in great fear.
The disease has so far not responded to any treatment. All patients taken to
various
hospitals have died. Investigations I made here indicated that the disease has
been
prevalent in the district for over a year now. The disease, which started at
Kyebe-
Kannebulemu, has now spread to Kyotera Township and Kooki.
A common characteristic about this disease is that all victims have at one time
or another
been associated with the lucrative border trade between Uganda and Tanzania.
Once one
has contracted it, one experiences intermittent fits of vomiting, diarrhoea,
preceded and
accompanied by fever, high temperatures and profuse perspiration. Despite
treatment of
whatever nature, the condition persists. Gradually, the victim loses weight and
progressively gets so emaciated that within a fortnight or month, he is reduced
to mere
skin-on-bones with eyes nakedly sticking out of fleshless sockets. The sick
young person
miserably and desperately awaits the imminent and inevitable end – death.
Although
several people have consulted professional doctors, all people I talked to said
they have
completely failed to get a remedy for this killer disease.
In the last six months alone, more than 40 people have died. Some families have
lost more
than one of their youth. To mention but a few of those families, Laurio Nnoba
of Kinyiga
village lost two twin sons aged 32 and another son following them. Ferdinand
Kagezi of
Balole village has lost two sons and a daughter-in-law; Karko Kasujju of Gwanda
village
has lost two sons, and recently three cases, namely Muluba, Bukenya and Nsamba
were
reportedly taken to Mulago Hospital, Kampala.
The people I interviewed appealed to the government, especially the Ministry of
Health,
to immediately embark on a plan to save the families of Rakai District
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
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UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are
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group, send email to: [email protected]
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--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are
responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this
group, send email to: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> or Abbey Semuwemba at:
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> .
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UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are
responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this
group, send email to: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> or Abbey Semuwemba at:
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> .
--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are
responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this
group, send email to: [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]> or Abbey Semuwemba at:
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> .
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