The rumors of new rebel group in Uganda

By Zechariah Manyok Biar

July 6, 2009 — There are reports of new insurgency, called Uganda Patriotic Front (UPF), forming in northern Uganda under the leadership of Henry Obonyo, a medical doctor living in the United States and also has a second home in the United Kingdom. Many other well educated and wealthy Ugandans living abroad are reported to be part of UPF. The New Vision reported on July 3, 2009 that “this group was behind Kony’s refusal to sign the Juba peace agreement.” The goal of UPF is to kick President Museveni out of power by force.

The news is not only shocking to outsiders like me who might be naïve about the oppression of northern Ugandans in Uganda, northern Ugandans themselves express their fear that the brutal Konyi war that had devastated northern Uganda for decades is coming back again after two years of relative peace. Ms. Christine Aciro said this: “With the lull in fighting, we had started enjoying peace and freedom to till our land but I am getting too afraid to do anything, prevention is better than cure; and it appears our future will be doomed again” (The Monitor, July 4, 2009).

Former Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) abductees are not impressed by the news of the new rebel group. The former LRA abductees, Mr. Otto Samuel, said this: “I was abducted and survived death among LRA rebels and now this new group will completely kill my hope to return home.”

The fear that northern Ugandans express makes one wonder about the usefulness of the new war in Uganda. LRA war was one of the inhumane wars in Africa. Instead of fighting the Uganda Defense Forces (UPDF), LRA killed innocent people in the area that they wanted to liberate from the would-be oppressors. Those who are now forming new rebel group condoned the killings of their people in northern Uganda by LRA over the last two decades despite the fact that they live in the West and are more informed about human rights. What do they want?

One might wonder why I, a former rebel of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), condemn another rebel. Is it a kettle calling a pot too black?

The answer is simple. There are wars of choice and wars of necessity. Wars of choice are generated by selfish interests of the few. But wars of necessity are generated by conditions that half of the population in an area or a country regards as unacceptable. Nobody needs to sensitize people about a war of necessity. People rise up against their enemy spontaneously.

The new rebel’s intention is of selfish interest. The evidence showing that this war is a war of choice against the will of northern Ugandans is that new rebels are trying to recruit criminals. They planned to attack the prison in Gulu, Police posts in Kafu, Budongo, and various out posts within Masindi district to release prisoners and make them their army and to get arms, too. This makes it a war of choice. If it were a war of necessity, soldiers would have rebelled from the UPDF and civilians would have joined the rebel group the way SPLA got its army from 1980s to the time that peace was signed in Kenya in 2005.

The plan to form a new rebel group in northern Uganda after only two years of relative peace defies logic for two reasons: it is not developmental and not strategic.

If northern Ugandans’ anger against Museveni’s government is because of the lack of development in northern Uganda, then why can’t northern Ugandans in the Diaspora appreciate the business that northern Ugandans are now involved in within less than two years of relative peace in Uganda? Why do rich northern Ugandans like Dr. Charles Akena find enough money to fund rebel groups and not enough money for opening businesses in northern Uganda to employ northerners who might be discriminated against by Museveni’s government?

During LRA war, northern Uganda’s percentage admitted in the universities in Uganda was less than the percentages admitted from the rest of the regions in Uganda, although northern Uganda is the largest region in Uganda. One would not talk about unfairness of Ugandan government on northern Ugandans without considering war effects on northern Uganda. Survey after survey confirmed that war was the major cause of the drop of educational level in northern Uganda. Anybody who would pass through northern Uganda would be the witness of what was going on because school-going-age children were confined to Internal Displaced Peoples’ camps (IDPs) because LRA used to abduct them. That situation is now changing because of the two years of relative peace. Children are going back to school. Does the new rebel group intent to confine northerners to IDPs forever?

If the aim of the new rebel group is to kick Museveni out of power, then it is going to take them at least ten years or more to do so because they do not have enough manpower to crash UPDF within a year. That means Ugandans will retain Museveni in power to fight the rebels because he is expert in bush war. Museveni will then stay in power for other ten or more years before he is kicked out of power by force. Is that strategic? I doubt.

Strategy, to me, would be for northern Ugandans to consolidate their political power even if it takes ten years. There is a possibility that Museveni would not reach sixth terms in office. Wealthy northern Ugandans should fund their political activities including sending their smart children to leading universities in the world. When their people become well educated, they can manage their region and extend it to other regions, winning the hearts of all Ugandans through good leadership. This strategy can take ten useful years as compared to ten destructive years.

The lesson that Sudanese should learn from Ugandan’s new rebel’s intention is that not everybody who claims to work for the best interest of his or her people is honest about it. Some people take pleasure in the blood of innocent people. It is wise to first know the intention of politicians before we bless their ideas. We must only fight the war of necessity, not the war of choice.

Zechariah Manyok Biar is a graduate student at Abilene Christian University, Texas, USA. He is pursuing a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry and a Master of Science in Social Work, specializing in Administration and Planning. [email protected]