In the whole of Northern and North-East Uganda, fellow Ugandans live cruel, short and brutish lives. One could even ask who is better off: the living or the dead?
Elsewhere in the country, except for a small elite drunk on hubris, corruption and bankruptcy things are only better by comparison.
And this is how those that survive on this decay have designed 'fate' for the lot of us miserable humanity. i.e.
In DRC one Rwandese Tutsi, 'General' Laurent Nkunda, has grabbed all the land, he competes with m7 in number of cattle held, avails his fighters with very smart uniforms and powerful weaponary (follow the money as to who is the financer); and the world seems to bend backwards to find cover for such agents of death and mass murder!!
Our salvation will only come if we are united in purpose and effort.
It is nuts to keep on wallowing in cheap tribalistic rhetoric.
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Letters To Leaders
All messages are published with permission of the sender. The general topic of this message is Civil Liberties:
Subject:
Crisis in Acholiland of Northern Uganda
To: Sen. Trent Lott
May 26, 2004
SILENT GENOCIDE OF ACHOLI PEOPLE IN UGANDA
With great concern, I write to call the attention of Washington and the International Community to the devastating effect of the American foreign policy toward the government of Uganda, namely the praise for his purported success in the fight against Aids and “terrorism,” is having on the silent genocide in Acholiland. I am calling it genocide in the real term of the word, being fully aware of its seriousness.
By the end of 2002, the most conservative estimate by UNESCO put the number of Acholi children, as young as five years old, abducted as a result of the militaristic policy of the Uganda government toward the rebellion in the north at 15,000. This estimate excluded the number of children killed by government soldiers, UPDF, and the rebels of the so-called Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA. Since operation Iron Fist was launched by the government at the beginning of 2003, it has been estimated that nearly 20,000 children have been abducted to date. Meanwhile, a report from a concentration camp in Omoro County, where 10,000 Acholi have been forcibly confined by government soldiers indicated this month that on average, 17 children are dying every week due to lack of food, water, and basic medical treatment.
This staggering death toll, accompanied by the daily LRA abduction and UPDF killing of former abducted children forcibly conscripted into the LRA, is almost impossible to comprehend. I try to understand it by thinking of the scene at the terrible Bar-lonyo massacre in neighboring Lira, when 200 men, women, and children were killed and the government concern was contesting the number of the dead. A week earlier, about 48 people were axed to death; the president retorted that the killing of those innocent civilians was a hiccup, and not a massacre. This week, two members of parliament from Acholi region reported to Monitor newspaper in Kampala that alleged LRA have massacred about 200 Acholi. The government, through its spokesman, Major Bantariza, disputed the number, arguing instead that if the Acholi members of parliament were not satisfied with how the NRM government of Museveni is protecting Acholi, then they should bring Acholi people to protect Acholi civilians.
I continue to imagine the little bodies of Acholi children littering the grassland in Acholiland, having been killed by bullets from helicopter gunship operated by UPDF, and those left behind to die by fellow fleeing child soldier of LRA on a daily basis. The militaristic policy of the government of Museveni and his avowed agenda of exterminating the Acholi people of northern Uganda, are responsible for this monstrous scale of deaths of Acholi people and the cause of complete cultural, economic, and social collapse that has plunged Acholiland.
Most crucially, for over a decade, since Acholi people were forcibly herded into the concentration camps under the barrel of the guns of UPDF, their livestock rustled under the supervision of UPDF, and food reserves burnt and/or destroyed by UPDF, they have continued to live in these concentration camps without any proper sanitation, water supply, and medical treatment. The conditions are so bad that a UN representative reported in late 2003, that the humanitarian crisis was worse than that in Iraq. As the death of Acholi people, their cultural, economic, and social breakdown continue, the government is busy conscripting former abducted child LRA soldier whom they may rescue, into the UPDF rank to continue the vicious cycle of massacre.
It is simply terrifying. It is criminal and immoral. In my view, any person with a conscience should look at the basic facts and conclude that what has been going on in Acholi under the 18 years of the leadership of president Museveni is crime against humanity. It must be stopped now. There is every reason to believe that Museveni has his powerful lobbyists in Washington to deny that silent genocide of Acholi has been going on under Museveni’s NRM government in Uganda. With over 800,000 Acholi imprisoned in the concentration camps where they are slowly dying from starvation, diseases (AIDS cases are at 16% compared to 6% at the national level), massacres at the hands of LRA rebels and UPDF, this silent genocide cannot be allowed to continue. Washington and the International Community must stop entertaining Museveni.
Museveni persistently uses lies and puts on a humane face, but secretly, he is on a mission to exterminate the Acholi people of northern Uganda. To quote Museveni himself: “The rebels attacked us (NRA soldiers) at a place called Corner Kilak 20 miles South of Kitgum (Town). They came in while singing and shouting; our people (NRA) massacred those chaps. They approached us frontally. This gave us a very good chance because they exposed themselves; so on Sunday we surrounded them and massacred them. We massacred them very badly.” (The Standard, January 21, 1987). Evidence abound where he has sworn publicly that he will “finish” the Acholi people. One of his chief lieutenants also boasted about the massacre of Acholi: “We killed about 350 and these are the bodies we have counted. There are many more bodies lying in the field. These are the ones we have counted so far. The number of the dead could be more than six hundred (600) …” We were surprised to see the rebels coming at us without taking cover. We kept massacring them but they kept coming and we killed so many.” (The Standard, January 21, 1987). And for the last 18 years to date the counting of Acholi massacred by either LRA, alleged LRA and UPDF have continued. This, to me, is a silent genocide of the Acholi people.
Santonino Ku’Caya Banya, Ph. D Instructor of Science Education, Center for Science & Mathematics Education, 118 College Drive, # 5087 Johnson Science Tower, # 213 The University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS 39406. (601) 266-6531 (601) 268-2357 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Hattiesburg , MS
Mitayo Potosi
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