Family perishes in gunship bombing
By Monitor Team
June 24, 2003
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10 killed as rebels attack Soroti, Lira At least 10 people have been killed in separate incidents in Soroti, Lira, and Kaberamaido since Sunday. Gunmen said to be part of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army yesterday ambushed two vehicles in Otuboi in Kaberamaido and Atirir in Soroti district. According to the Lira district youth chairman, Mr Hamson Obua, who was travelling from Lira to Soroti, the rebels burnt a Toyota Dyna truck in which five people are feared to have died. Only the tonne-boy escaped. The Soroti RDC, Mr Edward Masiga, said that the incident was near the Oculoi hill in Soroti. “I understand that the vehicle is still burning,” said Mr Masiga at 5 p.m. “But you also know how they operate. They commit a crime here and then they withdraw.” The rebels also reportedly ambushed another pickup truck and shot dead two of the passengers. Speaking on phone from Soroti, Obua told The Monitor that there were no UPDF soldiers at the scene of the ambush. Family tragedy Meanwhile, an army helicopter on Sunday morning fired on a group of civilians in Abeko, Tubur sub-county in Soroti, killing four members of the same family and injuring nine. One of the injured, Mr Moses Iyolit, said from his Soroti Hospital bed that his family had regrouped after suspected LRA rebels invaded their village on Saturday. He said that the helicopter gunship closed in on Abeko at about 10 a.m., hovered over their home twice and then unleashed a volley of machine gunfire. “We had just started work at home and then suddenly the helicopter appeared, flying at a very low altitude,” Iyolit said. Iyolit identified his dead relatives as Mike Atidi, Simon Olupot, John Adotu and an elderly woman. He also said that it is possible more people died in the bushes where they fled as the helicopter sprayed its deadly payload on the village. Abeko is about 5km from the rebel-infested Achomai forest reserve along the Amuria-Orungo road. Meanwhile, a band of suspected LRA rebels yesterday looted valuable items and drugs from the Oimai Catholic Mission in Wera sub-county, 17km on the Soroti-Moroto highway. “The rebels broke into houses in the mission and shops,” said Katakwi LC-V Secretary for Finance, Mr Stephen Ariko, soon after he rode into Soroti town yesterday. The incident happened around 2 a.m. Ariko said that an army unit arrived at Wera sub-county headquarters at about 10 a.m. yesterday to reinforce the group already there. By 11:30 a.m. would-be travellers to northern Uganda were still stranded in Soroti town because the road to Lira remained closed for much of Monday. But RDC Masiga last evening said that the road is now open. All day on Sunday and into Monday, people were still pouring into Soroti town from the Soroti-Moroto road and Soroti-Lira road. ironically, as they entered into town, hundreds of others were leaving the town on bicycles, taxis and on foot in a panic mainly along the Soroti-Serere road. Radio under siege The Minister of State for Defence, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, the director generals of the External Security and Internal Security organisations, Mr David Pulkol, and Col. Elly Kayanja, respectively, had earlier met with religious leaders here on Sunday. Meanwhile, an army unit yesterday morning joined the police at the premises of the Kyoga Veritas FM radio, which was closed by Soroti district authorities on Sunday afternoon. The soldiers were brought in as the police and other security officers continued to search the premises. The security operatives took away more documents in paper form, mini-discs and videotapes. The Co-ordinator of the Soroti Catholic Diocesan Development Committee, who also is the station manager, Fr Athanasius Mubiru, told The Monitor that the security men, who were led by the Regional CID officer (mid-eastern), Mr Victor Aisu, had offered to allow them to open up part of the complex. “But I objected. Because when you close the radio, you affect the other projects that are run [by the Soroti Catholic Diocese Integrated Development Organisation] which is part of the complex where the radio is,” he said. More than 10 departments operate under the organisation, which is housed in the same complex as Radio Veritas. Elsewhere, religious and cultural leaders from northern Uganda and southern Sudan meeting in Gulu have called on the international community to intervene to end the Kony war. A press release following a meeting in Gulu urged the UN Security Council to “address the issue of conflict in northern Uganda so that all necessary measures are put in place for the protection of the civilian population and to bring about an end to the 17-year-old conflict”. A joint report by Patrick Elobu Angonu, Henry Ochieng, Patrick Ebong & Richard M. Kavuma |
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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