Rebels fighting in northern Uganda attack displaced, killing 192 people
By GEOFFREY MULEME Associated Press Writer
KAMPALA, Uganda, Feb 22, 2004 (AP) — Scores of rebels armed with assault rifles, artillery and rocket-propelled grenades attacked a displaced persons’ camp in northern Uganda, shooting people as they fled and burning others alive in their huts, killing at least 192 people and wounding dozens of others, the area’s legislator said Sunday.
The attack Saturday evening on Barloonyo camp in Lira district is one of the worst in recent years by the shadowy rebel Lord’s Resistance Army which has been fighting the Ugandan government for 17 years.
As the insurgents surrounded the camp from three sides, many people ran to their makeshift grass huts, rather than trying to escape, and were burned as the insurgents torched their houses, said legislator Charles Anjiro.
“It’s a hopeless situation, we went there this morning with the Lira district police commander and physically counted 192 bodies,” Anjiro told The Associated Press by telephone from Lira town, 26 kilometers (16 miles) south of the camp. “The scene is terrible.”
Dr. Jane Aceng, head of Lira hospital, said 56 people were taken to the hospital with burns, shrapnel and gunshot wounds, one of whom died Sunday.
Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza confirmed the attack, but said he did not know the death toll.
He said it was possible that more than 100 people were killed in the camp, which was home to about 5,000 people who had fled their because of the insurgency, which has forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes.
The camp was being guarded by members of a local defense force, who were outnumbered and outgunned, Bantariza said.
It was not possible to contact the Lord’s Resistance Army, which is led by Joseph Kony, who claims to have spiritual powers.
After the Sept. 11 attack on the United States, U.S. President George Bush put the group, which rarely makes contact with the outside world, on a list of organizations suspected to have links to terrorism.
“The rebels came with sophisticated guns … and grenades, when they arrived at the camp at 5.30pm, they approached it from three fronts – from the north, east and south and left the western side for their exit,” Anjiro said. “They bombed the camp with artillery and overpowered the local defense forces and then started burning the huts.”
2nd Lt. Chris Magezi, an army spokesman in the region, said government forces were pursuing the rebels.
Magezi, also speaking from Lira, 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Kampala, was also unable to confirm the death toll, but he said it appeared to be one of the worst rebel attacks for several years. In 1995, the rebels rounded up more than 300 villagers in Gulu district and slaughtered them, he said.
The rebel group, which has wreaked havoc across northern and northeastern Uganda, rose from the remnants of a revolt by soldiers from the Acholi tribe after President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, seized power in 1986 after leading his own five-year bush war. The Acholi is the dominant tribe in northern Uganda.
Most of the rebels had given up by mid-1988, but those who kept up the fight coalesced into the Lord’s Resistance Army.
The group replenishes its ranks with children it abducts to use as fighters, porters or concubines. Estimates of the group’s size range from hundreds to a few thousand.
The insurgency has waxed and waned, depending on relations between the East African nation and its neighbors.
The rebels used to launch attacks into northern Uganda from neighboring southern Sudan, mainly raided villages and attacking military posts. But in March 2002, the Sudanese government – which Museveni had accused of supporting the insurgents – agreed to permit Ugandan troops to enter Sudan to destroy rebels bases in what was dubbed “Operation Iron Fist.”
The operation drove the rebels into northern Uganda where they renewed their attacks on villages and camps, looting, killing and forcing thousands of children to flee to the safety of towns each night. The insurgency also spread to eastern Uganda last year.
The government attempted to draw the rebels into peace talks last year, but the insurgents, who claim they are defending the interests of the Acholi, refused to gather in government-designated areas and the talks never took place.
Museveni, who regularly vows to crush the rebellion, often goes to northern Uganda to lead military operations.