Friends
As the series on Acholi violence continues, we are going to go back into The
Luwero triangle where Acholi started to publicly exhibit violence against
the population. You see before the Luwero war, Acholi only violated people
on road blocks and in urban centers, but they had not gone after villages
amass, and had not attacked people in rural homes. As long as you were in a
rural area, and you have not passed a road block, you survived. The Kony war
had never started so Acholi had not attacked themselves either, so within
the concept of only urban centers, Acholi violence had not been pin pointed
let alone discussed. When The Luwero war was started that is when Acholi got
a first crack of exhibiting rural violence in our country publicly. Because
I have written very many times about Luwero atrocities, in this series I am
going to limit myself on a very puzzling issue at what Acholi did in Luwero.
The looting of building materials.
When you study the materials written by organizations like Amnesty
International, Doctors without frontiers and (ISIS-WICCE). You realize that
among the very many things Acholi looted, they loved to loot iron sheets and
cement. Many of the people that were killed in Luwero district actually died
for they failed to carry Iron sheets and cement. In a study done by ICIS
WICCE titled The political economy of violence against women during armed
conflict in Uganda, by Meredeth Tursheen, and I am going to directly quote
a part of page 814:-
{In a study of women's experiences in armed conflict in this period,
ISIS-WICCE (1998, 26), an international non-governmental organization based
in Uganda, found that 97% of respondents reported having their household
property looted and/or destroyed: iron sheets were removed from the roofs of
houses...household property was looted as well as animals such as cows,
goats, chicken and pigs. Harvested coffee, maize and other crops were taken
or burnt. Women were forced to carry the loot to the government military
bases. A woman in a discussion group in Mukulubita that met ten years later
to discuss the war said. The moment [the government forces] entered one's
house, they could do thorough checking. Those who had interest in women
could do the raping while their husbands and fathers would be looking on.
The government soldiers were mostly fond of women, chicken, cows and other
material things like clothes and mattresses. The girls would be taken as
wives (ISIS-WICCE, 1998, 24).} End quote.
Again the issue of looting iron sheets raises its head. Another report I
read few days ago by USAID quoted a Uganda woman that lamented for Acholi
beat her father to death for he crumbled under a load of iron sheets he was
supposed to carry, the daughter said They were just too many for him to
carry and he simply crumbled under them. They beat him to death. So the
issue of iron sheets again raises its head among Acholi. Now since there
were two fighting groups in Luwero, NRA and UNLA, NRA did not have the need
to loot iron sheets for they were a running force, they never had any use
for them for they did no have storages for them, let alone need. Acholi on
the other hand had the IFA trucks and had stationed barracks, so they had
the way and means of taking the iron sheets. As they did in West Nile and as
they did in Acholi land, Acholi targeted schools and government buildings
with private homes in Luwero and removed all iron sheets they so got their
hands on.
And here comes the one million dollar question, what did Acholi do with the
iron sheets? Where did these amounts of iron sheets end up? And this is a
good question for when you look closely at Acholi land, all their homes are
still thatched houses. Many of the former UNLA officers and soldiers that
fought in Luwero but looted all of our iron sheets have thatched homes. What
did they do with the massive iron sheets they looted out of Luwero district?
All the effort they used, all the man power they used, all people that died
in Luwero for they failed to carry this loot, what happened to our Mabaati
from Luwero?
And I am just asking !!!!!
Stay in the forum for Series two hundred and forty one is on the way
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in
anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni
katika machafuko"
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