LRA must not get off the hook unpunished
Jul 20, 2006
LRA must not get off the hook unpunishedTHE transition from fascism to peace and democracy is a hard, and painful process and renewed talks with the LRA mediated by the SPLM government to end terrorism in northern Uganda when the International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted their leaders provok
SAYING IT WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR - OFWONO Opondo
THE transition from fascism to peace and democracy is a hard, and painful process and renewed talks with the LRA mediated by the SPLM government to end terrorism in northern Uganda when the International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted their leaders provokes memories, nostalgia, sadness and bitterness.
Some people argue that after 20 years of LRA terror we need peace very fast at any cost, and shelve justice for over 30,000 victims dead and alive so that the guilty LRA leaders can bask under a government amnesty.
Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the leader of the government team is in Juba holding out Christmas ornaments to the LRA, but back home and around the world the talks have ignited intense debate over LRA’s prolonged impunity. To ensure success, we need a hard look at past betrayals Uganda suffered so that LRA does not filibuster talks again, and let them know that the tide of history has brought them to a rendezvous with a real bitter destiny, and they either fish or cut bait.
There is no doubt that civilians have been the victims of LRA carnage particularly from 1988 when they went wild, targeting boys and girls as young as five years for kidnap to serve in LRA ranks, and others orphaned, and traumatised left to their own wits to hustle life in what remained of villages or IDPs camps.
“To forgive and forget we should know what actually happened,†Nelson Mandela told the South Africa Truth Commission in 1994 as it heard horrifying accounts from victims and torturers under apartheid. It is still possible to get the peace, and for the LRA ringleaders to face some justice in order to end impunity, and in Kony’s case, international justice is on our side, and he shouldn’t be made greater than Charles Taylor or Forday Sankoh!
Some people who committed genocide in Rwanda with the French government support today escaped justice, as did those in Angola’s 25-year war sponsored by the ‘democratic’ United States, and apartheid South Africa are now members of parliament. But their leader Dr Jonas Savimbi the then US preferred choice got some justice when he was killed in the battlefield because of intransigence, and Kony and Otti should end the same way.
Back home we of course know that those who planned and killed in Teso, Lango, West Nile, and Busia are now national political highflyers having renounced armed rebellion, which Kony must do as the minimum. The Sudan (Khartoum) government, and Ugandan fugitives living happily in the diaspora sponsored this war, which mutated from earlier ones started by Acholi political and military elites deposed from power in 1986.
In a sense, Uganda has for long been betrayed because it alerted foreign governments and the UN of the presence and activities of LRA collaborators within their spheres but they never took action until recently.
Our economy has been on its knees, broken by war, which suppressed production in the whole of northern Uganda.
Millions of people, mostly children, had their lives ripped apart by the multi-faceted social and economic crisis and are growing without required support or meaningful education which could offer them personal autonomy, and life choices. And it has been easy to forget and harshly condemn the contributions of UPDF soldiers who have fought liberation wars against Idi Amin, and UPC, or those whose hopes and lives in the army as a noble career too have been shuttered.
Yet looking critically, the UPDF has been so sweet in this bleeding war to have retained in large measure a high sense of national duty, and humanity by observing human rights for civilians, rebel collaborators, and captured rebels. There have been countless instances when the UPDF exhibited sweetness during this war but none in my view exceeds that of May 20, 1995 when the LRA butchered 250 civilians, 67 being students of Atiak Technical College.
I recall finding Brig. James Kazini, Lt. Col. Nakibus Lakara and Betty Bigombe at the horrifying massacre scene at river Ayugi confluence supervising soldiers, wrapping, burying or exhuming bodies that had been positively identified. The UPDF has rescued tens of thousands of children from LRA captivity, notwithstanding that some officers exhibited incompetence or greed.
But this being Uganda, there are people or groups that never cease to amuse through comedy like FDC’s vice president Sam Njuba who has now demanded they be included on the government peace talks with the LRA when he knows that some of their leaders are accused of links with the LRA! From these accusations, Njuba ought to know that FDC already has independent and reliable contacts with LRA, which James Opoka developed. On Monday, FDC leader Kizza Besigye said he was “disappointed by government’s boisterous attitude,†which according to him, led to the collapse of talks in the past, and he refused to at least acknowledge LRA actions.
Perhaps it would not be farfetched for one to imagine it is the reason some people now want passports back to travel abroad for “consultations†with supporters, possibly including the LRA to derail this process. After all, Ken Lukyamuzi recently stated publicly that the talks are meant to lure rebel leaders back so they could testify against Besigye in the treason case! Since the LRA has over the years changed spokespersons, we must watch over our shoulders for some of its allies in Kampala.
THE transition from fascism to peace and democracy is a hard, and painful process and renewed talks with the LRA mediated by the SPLM government to end terrorism in northern Uganda when the International Criminal Court (ICC) has indicted their leaders provokes memories, nostalgia, sadness and bitterness.
Some people argue that after 20 years of LRA terror we need peace very fast at any cost, and shelve justice for over 30,000 victims dead and alive so that the guilty LRA leaders can bask under a government amnesty.
Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the leader of the government team is in Juba holding out Christmas ornaments to the LRA, but back home and around the world the talks have ignited intense debate over LRA’s prolonged impunity. To ensure success, we need a hard look at past betrayals Uganda suffered so that LRA does not filibuster talks again, and let them know that the tide of history has brought them to a rendezvous with a real bitter destiny, and they either fish or cut bait.
There is no doubt that civilians have been the victims of LRA carnage particularly from 1988 when they went wild, targeting boys and girls as young as five years for kidnap to serve in LRA ranks, and others orphaned, and traumatised left to their own wits to hustle life in what remained of villages or IDPs camps.
“To forgive and forget we should know what actually happened,†Nelson Mandela told the South Africa Truth Commission in 1994 as it heard horrifying accounts from victims and torturers under apartheid. It is still possible to get the peace, and for the LRA ringleaders to face some justice in order to end impunity, and in Kony’s case, international justice is on our side, and he shouldn’t be made greater than Charles Taylor or Forday Sankoh!
Some people who committed genocide in Rwanda with the French government support today escaped justice, as did those in Angola’s 25-year war sponsored by the ‘democratic’ United States, and apartheid South Africa are now members of parliament. But their leader Dr Jonas Savimbi the then US preferred choice got some justice when he was killed in the battlefield because of intransigence, and Kony and Otti should end the same way.
Back home we of course know that those who planned and killed in Teso, Lango, West Nile, and Busia are now national political highflyers having renounced armed rebellion, which Kony must do as the minimum. The Sudan (Khartoum) government, and Ugandan fugitives living happily in the diaspora sponsored this war, which mutated from earlier ones started by Acholi political and military elites deposed from power in 1986.
In a sense, Uganda has for long been betrayed because it alerted foreign governments and the UN of the presence and activities of LRA collaborators within their spheres but they never took action until recently.
Our economy has been on its knees, broken by war, which suppressed production in the whole of northern Uganda.
Millions of people, mostly children, had their lives ripped apart by the multi-faceted social and economic crisis and are growing without required support or meaningful education which could offer them personal autonomy, and life choices. And it has been easy to forget and harshly condemn the contributions of UPDF soldiers who have fought liberation wars against Idi Amin, and UPC, or those whose hopes and lives in the army as a noble career too have been shuttered.
Yet looking critically, the UPDF has been so sweet in this bleeding war to have retained in large measure a high sense of national duty, and humanity by observing human rights for civilians, rebel collaborators, and captured rebels. There have been countless instances when the UPDF exhibited sweetness during this war but none in my view exceeds that of May 20, 1995 when the LRA butchered 250 civilians, 67 being students of Atiak Technical College.
I recall finding Brig. James Kazini, Lt. Col. Nakibus Lakara and Betty Bigombe at the horrifying massacre scene at river Ayugi confluence supervising soldiers, wrapping, burying or exhuming bodies that had been positively identified. The UPDF has rescued tens of thousands of children from LRA captivity, notwithstanding that some officers exhibited incompetence or greed.
But this being Uganda, there are people or groups that never cease to amuse through comedy like FDC’s vice president Sam Njuba who has now demanded they be included on the government peace talks with the LRA when he knows that some of their leaders are accused of links with the LRA! From these accusations, Njuba ought to know that FDC already has independent and reliable contacts with LRA, which James Opoka developed. On Monday, FDC leader Kizza Besigye said he was “disappointed by government’s boisterous attitude,†which according to him, led to the collapse of talks in the past, and he refused to at least acknowledge LRA actions.
Perhaps it would not be farfetched for one to imagine it is the reason some people now want passports back to travel abroad for “consultations†with supporters, possibly including the LRA to derail this process. After all, Ken Lukyamuzi recently stated publicly that the talks are meant to lure rebel leaders back so they could testify against Besigye in the treason case! Since the LRA has over the years changed spokespersons, we must watch over our shoulders for some of its allies in Kampala.