Uganda, a collapse nation with ignored genocide
By Charles O Kagwa *
October 15, 2006 — As peace talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continue in Juba, a debate is raging over whether those who have committed war crimes should be allowed to escape international justice for the sake of peace.
And as reported by “(Reuters) 15 October 2006 Uganda admitted violating a landmark truce by deploying too close to a Lord’s Resistance Army encampment in Owiny kibul and Ri-Kwangba, but Uganda said it was an innocent mistake.” This is not the first time peace effort has been violated. Even Agreement that Uganda NRM leader General Museveni has participated in person, agreed and signed like the 1985 Nairobi Peace Agreement mediated by Kenya president then Mr Daniel Arapmoi was violated by Museveni proper. In June 1988, another Agreement was signed between Muveveni NRA and rebel of UPDF in Pece Gulu, few months later it was violated and some of the leaders like Maj. Kilama killed. In 1989, UPDA political wing led by Akena Adoko signed another pact they ended up escaping narrowly to exile. The same 1989 the commander of a rebel UPA called Jesus Ojirot signed another pact with NRM leaders, he surrendered with thousand of troops weeks later his head was chopped off in Otoboi in Teso and his troops wiped out.
Today there is effort being mediated for a peaceful settlement by government of South Sudan, ones an ally to NRM Museveni regime and Uganda president was their mentor. Hopefully they may wish to be independent in their “Mediation roles” but under the domination of their mentor it is not going to be easy to act without his blessing and bending to his thinking.
May be if the SPLM decided adamantly to declare their maturity as Rwanda have done in Kisangani I and II, which their brutal confrontation with Museveni soldiers in Congo cause Ugandans over a thousnd lost of Ugandans burried in Kisangani in 1999.
Currently, ICC is used as a proxy to claim their untested authority on LRA rebel; it should be acknowledge that LRA rebellion was created by bad policy of indiscriminate atrocities meted on the population of Acholi, Lango and Teso by NRA Armies. One of the NRA Commander who captured Northern Uganda Col. Samson Mande now exiled in Sweden confessed openly that in 1986 when they captured north people were friendly and he led a called to encourage everyone to come and they build Uganda together but when about 2000 former UNLA soldiers gathered in Pece stadium in Gulu, another Officer who was sent from the Sate house, now is a General Tinyefunza came and said that he Col. Mande was treating Northerners and Acholi with kids gloves.
Those 2000 people perished, a genocide was triggered, Tinyefunza gave orders for homes, livestock and garden to be rabble on the ground such are the genocide that even continued today. Part of the genocide strategy was forcefully herding people of the region into “Concentrations camps” where more than 1000 die each week according to various NGOs report, it is the Camps that is and became effective place for the Genocide project; people were forced in these camps by NRA/UPDF and those found outside these gazetted areas were indiscriminately targeted as rebel or collaborators thus ordinary civlians became classifed as effective enemies of Uganda government.
These are the crime that ICC does not even want to think of, they even blame one side of the perpatrator LRA the criminal even if the rebel must be held accountable for the crime they meted, still NRA/UPDF and their Officers like Salim Sale, Tinyefunza, General Kazini, and their chief General Museveni personally amongst other must be indicted by ICC for the people to believe their roles are partial and are for true Justice but not being used as proxy and to enxtend the genocide further in Northern Uganda as Uganda regime wishes.
SPLM and Authority of South Sudan and their leaders must also demonstrate their true independent postion and limits their dependency on Uganda regime if they are to be trusted in the mediation effort being conducted in Juba other than that is would e time wasting and people continue to perish in the “Concentration Camps, over twenty years genocide which is ignored and concealed by the West because Uganda is used as ally in region and part of the stragety is the plunder in D R Congo where over 4 Million died.
* The author is based in Stockholm. He can be reached at [email protected]