LRA’s Press Statement – Uganda: State Terrorism and Genocide Continue
Lord’s Resistance Army/Movement (LRA/M)
Dec 19, 2005 — In pursuance of its declared policy of targeting civilians and humanitarian aid organizations and their facilities, the Uganda dictatorship has once again re-affirmed its policy of deliberately maintaining State terrorism and genocide in Northern Uganda. In the implementation of this policy, the Museveni’s dictatorship has stepped up its campaign of terror on civilian targets by way of ambushes, rapes and torching IDPs camps.
Over the last month or so, northern Uganda and southern Sudan has witnessed some cowardly acts of brutality by the UPDF in form of ambushes of innocent civilians on both sides of the border between the two countries and members of the international community working for the various humanitarian organizations. These kind of grotesque acts have resulted in an unnecessary and wasteful loss of innocent lives. This comes amidst damning reports by the UN and other human rights organizations of alarming death rates amongst the 1.6 million IDPS incarcerated in the camps in northern Uganda.
Such appalling acts are however, being smartly blamed on the LRA. This is precisely what the Ugandan dictatorship would want the local, regional and international community and the world media to believe. When one considers the purposes, the beneficiaries and how such premeditated acts influence near and future decisions, then one begins to see that what the Ugandan dictatorship is propagating is far from the truth. We have underlined some key phrases that are constantly being made as allegations or quoted as evidence to back up the accusations labeled at the LRA. Many of you will realize that such phrases would not stand a chance in any court of law, whether in Uganda or anywhere else in this civilized world.
Dec 17, 2005 (CAIRO) – Ugandan rebels killed 10 civilians on their way back to Sudan from a market in Uganda, a Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) spokesman said on Saturday. (SPLANA) Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) fighters attacked the group about 7 km (4 miles) inside Sudan from its border with northern Uganda on Friday afternoon, said SPLA Colonel Cyprial Oeiongo, who was helping to bury the dead. “People are confused and angry and want to retaliate,” he said, adding that one of 13 wounded had identified the attackers as members of LRA by the language they used. Q: What language do the Acholi LDUs, Amuka, Frontier and 105 Brigade speak? A: Acholi or Luo/Swahili.
Nov 22- Rebels from Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) killed three people on Monday in a Sudanese village south of Maridi, near the border of Democratic Republic of Congo, U.N. sources said.
Nov 7, 2005 (NAIROBI) – A group of armed men ambushed a vehicle of IAS and shot dead a British aid worker in an ambush in southern Sudan, his employer said on Monday. Collin Lee, 67, and his three-months-pregnant wife were driving from Uganda to the Sudanese town of Yei on Saturday when they were attacked about 12 km (7 miles) from the border.
Five days later two men, a Sudanese and an Iraqi working for a Swiss-based mine-clearing organisation, were shot dead in an attack on their convoy near the southern Sudanese town of Juba. The deminers were leading a three-vehicle convoy from the regional capital of Juba to the Ugandan border town of Nimule “when they were stopped by armed men, taken out of the truck and killed,” Pronk said in a statement.
Oct 26 – Two Ugandans working for international humanitarian agencies were killed in separate ambushes in northern Uganda by unknown gunmen.
In a statement, the European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Louis Michel, has expressed deep concerns following the recent attacks, saying, ?it seems the Lord Resistance Army has changed its tactics, which are unacceptable by targeting tourists and humanitarian workers.’ Another statement, claimed to be from a Brigadier Kapeil of the LRA issues, threatens NGOs, saying that they will kill any “white person” in the region (again, not clear which region), because they are talking badly of the LRA. Note: LRA has neither issued such threats nor has it changed its tactics with regard to non-military targets and foreign nationals.
According to Sudan Tribune Editorial, ?Could it really be the LRA who has issued such threats?
Many crimes are being committed in southern Sudan in the name of infamous “Tong-Tong” [known as LRA in Sudan, meaning hackers of people]. There are many enemies of peace in Sudan who would like to weaken the government in southern Sudan, halt development in the south and incite tribal conflict among southerners and show to the world that the southern Sudanese cannot govern themselves and therefore do not deserve a separate government.
The purported LRA recently carried out two consecutive attacks on villages on 17 and 19 November without confrontation from the Sudanese army or the previously government-backed militia groups in the area.
The most accurate answer and information regarding all the above attacks from the LRA side were provided by its 2nd in Command, Vincent Otti. Otti’s recorded responses to these accusations can be listened to when you log on to:
www.freeugandafront.org/Portentious_Events.
FUF. 3 Nov —
. LRA Otti responses to a question about their being suspected in the killings of two Swiss and an African volunteers in the Southern Sudan. The left is Acoli language, and the right in English.
FUF. 31 Oct
— Otti on the recent reports of attacks on NGOs and his presence in Garama National Parks, DRC.
If a source is to be believed, there are efforts to neutralize the recent ICC overzealous warrants for the arrests of the LRA bigwigs. If not, the source says that the burden of arrests may be left to only Museveni with no logistical supports from others. One of the reasons given is that there is on-going talks some people are having with the LRA. One result of such talks is that we can notice a decrease in attacks on civilians. Word is that as the lower commanders receive communications, there will no longer be attacks on civilians.
Northern Uganda Dec 17 – While the Ugandan military blames the LRA for the latest road ambushes and killings of civilians in northern Uganda the newly consecrated Agago Archdeacon Pastor, Rev. Laban Awok has said it is soldiers of the Uganda Army (UPDF) staging the road ambushes, and the rising attacks and killings of civilians in the Acholi region of northern Uganda.
Speaking at the funeral service of the 12 victims of an ambush along Pader – Kitgum road, where he personally lost relatives, Rev. Pastor Laban Awok asked, “If soldiers of Uganda Army did not carry out the ambush, if they are not responsible, why did two soldiers flee, and why has the army instead arrested other soldiers? Pastor Awok went on, “adding onto that the soldiers were present as the road ambush was carried, which proves the soldiers carried out the ambush and in any case, most ambushes are staged within, and close by military barracks.”
Teso Dec 17 MAYHEM reigned as Amuria internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had gathered to meet disaster preparedness state minister Christine Amongin Aporu dispersed without meeting her due to a security scare. Amongin was forced to cut short her day-long programme that was to cover Amuria district headquarters, Obalanga and Morungatuny sub-counties to mobilise Teso IDPs to return to their homes.
The President had directed that IDPs be mobilised to get back to their homes by December. The IDPs, who were to meet the minister at Amuria district headquarters on Tuesday, fled after getting wind of rumours that LRA rebels were headed towards Teso. Amongin arrived at the venue a few minutes past 1:00pm, to find that the IDPs had fled. Amuria district interim chairman Robert said, “What happened is people saw a group of soldiers at Teso/Lango boarder and that caused panic among the people.”
GULU N.Uganda Dec 17 – SENIOR medical consultants in the district have decried the high rate of rape of old women in the displaced peoples’ camps in northern Uganda by youth and armed forces. The medics said this last week while presenting a draft document entitled “Gulu District protocol for the management of rape cases”.
Kitgum Uganda Dec 15 – Soldiers of the Uganda Army shot dead two displaced interned Acholi refugees at Padibe IDP camp in northern Uganda.
An LDU soldier of the Uganda Army shot and badly wounded an innocent one displaced person in a camp in Kitgum Matidi for bringing firewood for cooking purposes into the camp. LC3, chairman Can-Opwonya George confirmed this to Rupiny that, “an LDU, Olaa Robert shot John Omwony between the hours 10.00pm and midnight.
Lira N. Uganda Dec 15 – Unidentified group of armed men on Tuesday killed 8 persons in an ambush at Ogowie Parish along Aloi and Omoro road in Lira district. The Uganda military blamed the ambush on soldiers of the LRA. The ambush comes amidst raging dispute between the Ugandan dictatorship and some Ugandan Members of Parliament on whether the Lango is secure enough for the IDPs to return to their homes. MP Omara Atubo is reported to have said the displaced would only leave the IDP camps and return to their homes if Uganda dictatorship provides security. Q: Who sent these IDPs into these camps? A: Museveni.
The above killings in Lira district comes after the Ugandan dictatorship had been asked to give security and other basic needs to the returning internally displaced people in Lira before they return to their homes from the camps. Q:
Who wants to keep these IDPs in these camps? A: Museveni.
Kitgum N. Uganda Dec 8 – Two displaced persons who had gone hunting have been shot and critically injured by soldiers of the Uganda Army at Obolokome Village, Akwang Sub County Kitgum District. The soldiers claim they mistook the hunters for LRA rebels.
GULU – The executive director of Human Rights Focus, James Otto, has said 15 out of 16 criminal cases on human rights violations at the district high court are against UPDF soldiers.
ADJUMANI – The UPDF 4th Division has set up a committee to investigate the circumstances that led to the killing of seven civilians and injuring several others 200 metres from a military detachment in Dzaipi sub-county on March 20.
The New-York based HRW accused the Ugandan Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) of indiscipline that has led to a raft of abuses while President Yoweri Museveni’s government has stood by and failed to reign in on its errant soldiers. “Soldiers in Uganda’s national army have raped, beaten, arbitrarily detained and killed civilians in camps,” said the report, entitled “Uprooted and Forgotten: Impunity and Human Rights Abuses in Northern Uganda.”
“The Ugandan government has failed to pursue prosecution of military officers before national courts that could put an end to such violations,” HRW researcher, Jemera Rone, told reporters. “Instead of protecting its own citizens, it (the army) has permitted a widespread abuses against the civilian population which is only deepened the animosity between the people of northern Uganda and the central government in Kampala,” she said. “The discipline of the Ugandan soldiers is woefully lacking.” Q: Which army has failed to protect IDPs? A: Museveni’s.
GULU and PADER – FIRE razed four camps for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Gulu and Pader districts, destroying property and leaving about 10,000 homeless.
KAMPALA, Dec 7 (Reuters) – Dry season fires razed the homes and property of nearly 4,000 people at camps in war-torn northern Uganda, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Wednesday.
“Nearly 4,000 internally displaced persons in Gulu and Pader districts were left homeless, without any belongings, due to fire outbreaks in the end of November,” ICRC said in a statement, adding that it had given tarpaulins and other relief items to almost 2,000 of the victims.
Quoting the reaction of a senior member of the Acholi community, who had this to say, “For the superstitious and religious the IDP camp fires portend something ominous about to happen and these are advance warning signs.”
He went on to say, “There is also the political explanation that somebody is deliberately killing the Acholi by genocide as described by Olara Otunnu during the Sydney Award 2005 Peace Prize lecture, and quoting Olara Otunnu, ?I know of no recent or present situation where all the elements that constitute genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948) have been brought together in such a comprehensively and chilling manner, as in northern Uganda today.’ He (the Acholi senior citizen) then concluded by saying, “For me I tend to agree with the political explanation. Who ever forced the Acholi people to live in these poorly crafted grass-thatched huts is the culprit.” Q: Who forced IDPS into these camps? A: Museveni.
1. By carrying out ambushes on both local southern Sudanese and some foreign nationals, Museveni’s UPDF wanted to get an international outrage at such attacks in order to put pressure on both the Khartoum government and the new leadership in southern Sudan to agree by all means the extension of its agreement with Sudan to have his army a free will to roam the territory of a sovereign state, southern Sudan. Mind you these attacks happened a week or so before this extension was due for renewal. In addition, there were already some indication that the Sudanese authorities were ?unwilling to renew the agreement” which Defence Minister, Amama Mbabazi was reported to have confirmed.
2. By carrying out ambushes particular on the civilian population in Pader, Museveni’s UPDF wanted a good pretext for arresting and punishing those LDU who mutinied a couple of weeks earlier. This explains why, Rev. Laban complained as to ?why the army arrested the wrong soldiers’. (Details about the ?wrong soldiers’ Rev. Laban talked about are given below herein for your information). Museveni’s UPDF, is an army whose commanders are full of maniacs and beasts, sick and rotten to the core with corruption; an army whose C-I-C lacks morals and treats human beings as if he were himself a beast. Ugandans should surely think twice before trusting their lives, security and future in the custody of these criminals. Those who were naïve and have paid with their dear lives must be turning in their graves on seeing our brief case politicians playing courtship games with Museveni’s NRM-O.
3. By promising to decongest IDPs camps in Lango and Teso, Museveni wanted to play politics – appear to be doing these two tribes a favour, in the hope of getting their support and votes, come elections day in 2006. But then again, carrying ambushes in Lira and fanning fears of the return of the LRA in Teso, Museveni definitely wants to confuse those who have not known him ever since coming to power. Museveni is responsible for insecurity and only him can bring security. Many people unfortunately buy his tricks and propaganda in the apparent security he ceaselessly talks about. They do not see however, Museveni’s hidden hand in the continuous insecurities, civil conflicts and wars we seeing in the Great Lakes Region. Wondered why Southern Sudanese are confused?? Because they neither know nor understand the Real Museveni.
4. The Sunday Times Magazine, a supplement to The Sundays Times, a weekly UK Newspaper, on 04th Dec 2005 in an article by a Damon Galgut titled: On a hiding to nothing; concluded by saying this, “…A rebel army without willing recruits? Yet the gov’t cannot protect it’s citizens? You have to suspect the political will for resolution…” he writes. He reflected on and was puzzled by how the UPDF which had only days before, under mango trees, been asking civilians for information on the LRA, were now refusing to retrieve their dead relatives, while saying, “…Too dangerous? Too many rebels? He thought wrongly, like many of us do that, They (UPDF) are meant to be looking for rebels…”!!. He continues, ?There is also a high incidence of rape, and that with all the local resentment and general mistrust of the Museveni’s regime you might think the situation is ripe with revolutionary potential…Does the LRA have to abduct at all? Our answer: Not necessary.
? UPDF abduct, murder, children in Adilang.
For the first time we reveal here that there are hundreds of men in arms being kept inside every barrack in northern and eastern Uganda as ?Secret Reserve Militia’ units charged with the responsibilities of carrying the kind of ambushes, rapes, murders and torching of IDPS houses as we see everyday in northern Uganda. Members of the regular army (UPDF) do not even know of the existence of such a force within their own barracks. Members of these militia units were abducted by the UPDF, and therefore are thought wrongly, to have been abducted by the LRA or considered long dead by their immediate relatives. Every time members of these units are involved in incidents of murders or ambushes or abductions, the UPDF rushes to claim it was done by the LRA. A few days later, the UPDF will claim that the same LRA, which did such an attack, have either surrendered or have been captured by the UPDF, in which case then the true identities of these militia units are exposed. If you won’t believe this, then you won’t believe that Museveni’s Fronasa men actually carried out most of murders during Idi Amin’s years.
? Come on UPDF, an army whose commanders are full of maniacs and beasts, sick and rotten to the core with corruption; an army whose C-I-C lacks morals and treats human beings as if he were himself a beast.
The LRA/M condemns in the strongest possible terms Museveni’s cowardly policy of always targeting civilians and what the IDPs consider their only property left – the poorly built grass-thatched huts. We consider these attacks premeditated acts that constitutes pure state terrorism and must not be condoned. We further call on the international community to restrain the murderous and illegal dictatorial regime of Museveni from carrying out these senseless targeting of the civil population in northern Uganda. We furthermore appeal to all opposition parties and groups NOT just to exploit temporary advantages but rather seek comprehensive solutions to the many deep-rooted political, economic, social and structural problems that continue to make Uganda the scene of un-ending conflicts, destructive wars, abject poverty and cruel repression for nearly 20 years under Museveni.
LRA/M Information Bureau.