Friends
For some time I have raised the attack of Barlonyo refugee camp and I have
raised this attack on many times and will continue to do so till when we
get to understand how Acholi operate. When you read UNHCR reports about the
camps in The North, you will realize that at the peak of the war between
Uganda government and LRA in 2005, there were 251 camps of IDP {Internally
Displaced people}, in a total of 11 districts camping a whopping 1.85
million people. Because Acholi out number Langi in the region, most of the
displaced people were Acholi. Because Barlonyo camp was in Lira district it
held the most Langi population in one camp. Because this particular camp had
mostly Langi, Acholi attacked it with such brutality to make sure that they
murder as many Langi as possible. When you read the numbers of attackers and
fire power Acholi were bringing to attack IDP camps, Barlonyo got the most
number of attackers and a more organized plan on how to murder as many Langi
as possible. And that is why we lost just under 300 people that single day.
It is important to note as well that because Acholi only wanted to attack
Langi they did not fight with the UPDF that was stationed in Barlonyo, they
chased them off the site, then spent the next two hours murdering Langi.
Proctor Keith of Feinstein International Center, Tufts University: Medford,
USA. Wrote a very compelling report about this attack, and I have quoted
reports from this university before, But I need you to take a moment and
read exactly on how Acholi managed to get their hands on Langi and how they
murdered so many in one day. But here is the interesting part about their
violence, they turned around and murdered fellow Acholi after as well.
Acholi violence is real and we so need to discuss it very candidly.
================================================
Overview of the Attack and Its Aftermath
On 21 February 2004, hundreds of LRA fighters under the command of Okot
Odhiambo attacked the village of Barlonyo. What followed was among the worst
massacres ever perpetrated by the LRA. Odhiambo, who was cultivating a
reputation as one of the LRAs most vicious lieutenants, had been personally
dispatched by Joseph Kony to exterminate as many Langis as possible.5
Infamously, he was instructed to kill every living thing.6 To conserve
ammunition, villagers were hacked apart with machetes, speared by bayonets,
and burnt alive in their huts the latter was deemed the most efficient
method of extermination.7
Barlonyo was ripe for an attack. At the time it was the site of a camp for
internally displaced persons (IDPs) who had fled their homes as a
consequence of insecurity brought by years of civil war. Though the LRA was
known to be active in Lango, and had recently attacked nearby Abia, the GoU
had only lightly garrisoned the camp. Of the seventy- four men stationed in
Barlonyo, none were UPDF (Ugandan Peoples Defence Force i.e., the GoU
military). Fourteen were members of local militia, the LDU (Local Defence
Units); the remainder was made up of even less trained and more poorly
supplied Amuka militiamen.8 Unfortunately, this token force was unable to
offer a defense. On the day of the attack, many of the camps soldiers were
away at the Agweng market. The soldiers present were quickly overrun, with
only a few shots fired.
In the three-hour bloodbath of that afternoon, the LRA was unhindered by
government forces stationed nearby. Oti Michael was a young man living in
the Barlonyo camp with his family at the time of the attack. During the
massacre, his wife and four children were killed. He related the events of
the attack and its aftermath:
The attack began. They came. Some of them were dressed in military uniforms.
It confused everyone. We thought maybe it was the government. That is what
we thought. They surrounded the barracks, proceeded through the camp. They
began to burn it. We ran. Some went to Kohn-Ogur, others to Kampala. The
route to Agweng was blocked. . . . When I came back the next day, so many
people were dead. The place was all quiet. There were dead bodies on the
road. You could not drive. Everywhere was full of dead people. You might
find five dead people in a house, and there was no one to help you dig the
grave. You would dig it yourself. You would bury them without ceremony or
possessions.9
Fearful that the LRA would strike again, Oti Michael and others buried the
dead. In many cases, it was impossible to identify the deceased.
Twenty-six kilometers north of Lira, Barlonyo is a tiny community of
thatched houses, gardens, and a few concrete and sheet-metal buildings that
lie near the River Moroto. The reminders of the massacre are everywhere. In
the physical scars and economic impoverishment of the survivors, in the
shuffling gait of a woman handicapped by machete cuts, in the bones
occasionally turned up by a plow.
Just off the road cutting through town, the most obvious reminder of the
attack is the mass grave. Shaded by mango trees, the mass grave is a
circular space of tilled earth atop a concrete slab. A stone column with a
plaque commemorates the victims. The plaque at the mass grave reads: Here
lie the remains of 121 innocent Ugandans who were massacred by LRA
terrorists.
As will be discussed below, mass burial severely contradicts traditional
practice; however, the GoU argued that the mass grave was a necessary
adaptation to horrific circumstances. The number of dead was simply too
large and security around the camp too precarious to accommodate individual
burials. The GoU dispatched the Minister of State for Health, Mike Mukula,
to coordinate with district leadership to bury the remains in a large pit
dug near the military barracks. An educated young Ugandan and cultural
leader, Abu Vigilio, was present. He described a horrific scene, haunted by
dogs whose bellies were swollen from feeding on corpses. There were so many
dead. The bodies were put (in the mass grave) in no order, he said. It was
scoop and dump.10
Yet the mass grave was not, it seemed, simply a response to duress.
Strangely, while some of the dead like Oti Michaels family had been
initially buried at their family home, according to abbreviated traditional
rites, the government ordered that all the dead be transferred to the mass
grave. Those who had been buried were dug up and brought by wheelbarrow to
the pit.11 It was not good, Odongo Yuventino said. Yuventino was wounded
during the attack but managed to escape. He returned to Barlonyo to find
his wife beaten to death and one of his children bayoneted through the
skull. He buried his wife and child at his home, but GoU officials ordered
them dug up. The experience traumatized Yuventino. It was not good. They
had already been buried and they should have stayed there, he said.
Experiencing that was not good for me. A striking man with close-cropped
silver hair and a floral-printed shirt, he told me that his wife and childs
bodies had decomposed, that their skin was peeling off. It was not good
for me to see that, Yuventino kept repeating. It was not good, not
good.12
Why the government ordered already buried remains to be unearthed has not,
in the opinions of informants, been satisfactorily answered. Indeed, the
only explanation offered was that burying all the bodies in the mass grave
would make laying concrete cheaper and easier. Many did not accept this
reasoning; the savings, frankly, could not balance the deep cultural harm
of mass burial. Some informants speculated that it was done to obfuscate the
number killed, believing that the actual tally would be an embarrassment for
GoU security forces. Contrary to the plaques claim of 121 in the grave,
those who assisted the military in burying remains insist that over 300
bodies lie under the concrete slab. An extensive survey of Barlonyo
estimates that 420 people were killed in the attack.13
After the bodies were placed in the pit, the concrete slab was poured.
Slightly over a month after the attack, a one-day community ceremony was
held to commemorate the massacre. The ceremony was overseen by President
Museveni himself, and was attended by religious and clan leaders from
throughout Lango. A clan chief served as master of ceremonies.
Unfortunately, no one interviewed found the ceremony sufficient. At best, it
was the most that could be done under the circumstances; at worst, it was a
violation of deep-seated cultural taboos.14 Many, like Oti Michael, remain
deeply conflicted about the mass grave. I came to accept why the government
put people there, Michael said. But I wish my family could have been
buried at home. It still troubles me.15 Michaels anxiety reflects a
tension apparent throughout the community of Barlonyo, and Lango at large:
conflict between traditional requirements and compromises forced by the
impoverishment and insecurity of civil conflict. The profound trauma of the
massacre at Barlonyo has been magnified by the inability of the people to
respond in a way that satisfies traditional beliefs. As a consequence, the
psychic and spiritual wounds have never closed.
Stay in the forum for Series two hundred and fifty five 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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