Let’s admit, Amin was a murderer
I am writing in response to Maj. Gen Isaac Lumago’s story as told to Tabu Butagira in Sunday Monitor, June 5.
I am writing in response to Maj. Gen Isaac Lumago’s story as told to Tabu Butagira in Sunday Monitor, June 5.
For those Ugandans who have lived beyond four decades like myself, the amazement at reading this article must have been overwhelming.
In the very senior position of army chief of staff and minister of defence that Maj. Gen. Lumago held, in addition to being a highly trained intelligence officer, it is amazing when Lumago asserts “the allegations of the state-inspired murders — were craftsmanship of propagandists who wanted to portray Amin’s government as murderous and barbaric so as to justify a war to topple him.â€
How does Lumago justify incidnts such as hundreds of prominent Langi and Acholi civil servants who were picked up by state security agents, their legs tied with ropes and then tied to the car boots, and dragged through the streets in broad daylight. That, by the way, introduced me to Amin’s terror, and in December 1972, 1 witnessed the chief magistrate of Lira, one Odur, abducted and dragged through Lira town in a similar manner.
Little did I know that this terror would strike much closer home in the years to come. In 1977 my father’s brother, a former chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Abudallah Anyuru, was picked up from our home in the village where had been living quietly after his family members were tortured.
Later on Friday, January 14, 1977 he was publicly executed together with his brother-in-law, Ben Ongom, and his nephew Lt. Col Ogwang Otucu at the Clock Tower in Kampala. Are these the “armed robbers†whose execution Amin directly ordered? My father and his nephew. the District Commissioner of Kitgum Mr. Acut Otucu had to go in hiding. Meanwhile my brother. then a Makerere 1.. ‘niversitv medical student, now Dr. Moses Ebuk. immediately fled to Nairobi.
Two years later, my father, K.B Ojokodongo, a headmaster of Kitgum Technical College was hunted and gunned down on April 13, 1979. His only sin was that he was a Langi and, therefore, must have been celebrating the Obote return. Allow the wounds to heal. My story is the story of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, who are still alive today. Those whitewashing history ought to realise that they are opening up the scars.
This is the same advice I wish to give to my schoolmate and friend, FDC’s Beti Kamya. Beti has consistently written articles glorifying Amin’s rule. I keep wondering whether Beti enjoyed herself so much in those days that she never heard of the suffering of others. I did caution her last year when we met at the Uganda Gender Forum. I remember telling her that while as a daughter of Maj. Kamya, a serving Amin’s soldier, she may not have known what was going on then, it was unacceptable that she should continue in the same vein in spite of the advantage of hindsight.
I gave Beti an example of myself and most of us who hail from Lango who were generally unaware of the atrocities taking place in Luwero during the Obote II government. But having read and listened to testimonies of women and men who survived, should I defend or play down the gravity of the Luwero massacres?
Fellow Ugandans, we must learn to condemn wrong at all times. Murder is murder, regardless of who commits it. I believe every human life is sacrosanct.
I found it very confusing when there was so much hullabaloo about the arrest of the suspected murderers of the late Bongomin, the Movement chairman in Pabbo, Gulu. Why was so much said about the arrest of the MPs and not the other three co-accused? Are the other three also out on bail? I had always imagined that all are equal before the law. It is only now that I know that to be a fallacy.
Incidentally, I was struck by the similarity of the method of murder of Bongomin to that of the of Ongom-Duny, LC III Loro sub-county chairman, Oyam South constituency. Both men were battered to death using a pestle. Ongom-Duny was murdered in July 2001 and Bongomin 2002. As I write, two men, both prominent UPC activists are in jail in Luzira, convicted by the High Court in Lira, having been found guilty of murdering Ongom for political reasons. I found it curious — did the masterminds of these two murders compare notes?
And word doing the round is that other accomplices are still at large and threatening Movementists. The voters are very apprehensive about the forthcoming elections.
Finally, 1 must comment on the ongoing saga of “the mafia in Governmentâ€. The vice-president started it all. Now Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu has re-affirmed it. Both gentlemen are very high profile citizens.
The little I know about mafias is that it is a highly organised and most deadly group. It is not a word loosely used.
If such a group does exist, those who know about it are duty-bound to expose it.
In the same vein, if there are Ugandans who have facts about murder, torture, theft, etc, they must take their civic responsibility seriously and report it.
It will be most tragic if, after the Museveni government, we come out with stories like the ones after the Amin and Obote governments. At the end of the day, those who turn a blind eye to wrong-doing are as guilty as those who commit the acts. It is not enough to make a statement only for news purposes. One must furnish the investigative organs with the facts to enable a full investigation. I wish to add my voice to others and say: Please, do Ugandans a favour, speak now or forever be silent.
The writer is deputy director gender, youth and interest groups, Movement Secretariat
For those Ugandans who have lived beyond four decades like myself, the amazement at reading this article must have been overwhelming.
In the very senior position of army chief of staff and minister of defence that Maj. Gen. Lumago held, in addition to being a highly trained intelligence officer, it is amazing when Lumago asserts “the allegations of the state-inspired murders — were craftsmanship of propagandists who wanted to portray Amin’s government as murderous and barbaric so as to justify a war to topple him.â€
How does Lumago justify incidnts such as hundreds of prominent Langi and Acholi civil servants who were picked up by state security agents, their legs tied with ropes and then tied to the car boots, and dragged through the streets in broad daylight. That, by the way, introduced me to Amin’s terror, and in December 1972, 1 witnessed the chief magistrate of Lira, one Odur, abducted and dragged through Lira town in a similar manner.
Little did I know that this terror would strike much closer home in the years to come. In 1977 my father’s brother, a former chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Abudallah Anyuru, was picked up from our home in the village where had been living quietly after his family members were tortured.
Later on Friday, January 14, 1977 he was publicly executed together with his brother-in-law, Ben Ongom, and his nephew Lt. Col Ogwang Otucu at the Clock Tower in Kampala. Are these the “armed robbers†whose execution Amin directly ordered? My father and his nephew. the District Commissioner of Kitgum Mr. Acut Otucu had to go in hiding. Meanwhile my brother. then a Makerere 1.. ‘niversitv medical student, now Dr. Moses Ebuk. immediately fled to Nairobi.
Two years later, my father, K.B Ojokodongo, a headmaster of Kitgum Technical College was hunted and gunned down on April 13, 1979. His only sin was that he was a Langi and, therefore, must have been celebrating the Obote return. Allow the wounds to heal. My story is the story of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, who are still alive today. Those whitewashing history ought to realise that they are opening up the scars.
This is the same advice I wish to give to my schoolmate and friend, FDC’s Beti Kamya. Beti has consistently written articles glorifying Amin’s rule. I keep wondering whether Beti enjoyed herself so much in those days that she never heard of the suffering of others. I did caution her last year when we met at the Uganda Gender Forum. I remember telling her that while as a daughter of Maj. Kamya, a serving Amin’s soldier, she may not have known what was going on then, it was unacceptable that she should continue in the same vein in spite of the advantage of hindsight.
I gave Beti an example of myself and most of us who hail from Lango who were generally unaware of the atrocities taking place in Luwero during the Obote II government. But having read and listened to testimonies of women and men who survived, should I defend or play down the gravity of the Luwero massacres?
Fellow Ugandans, we must learn to condemn wrong at all times. Murder is murder, regardless of who commits it. I believe every human life is sacrosanct.
I found it very confusing when there was so much hullabaloo about the arrest of the suspected murderers of the late Bongomin, the Movement chairman in Pabbo, Gulu. Why was so much said about the arrest of the MPs and not the other three co-accused? Are the other three also out on bail? I had always imagined that all are equal before the law. It is only now that I know that to be a fallacy.
Incidentally, I was struck by the similarity of the method of murder of Bongomin to that of the of Ongom-Duny, LC III Loro sub-county chairman, Oyam South constituency. Both men were battered to death using a pestle. Ongom-Duny was murdered in July 2001 and Bongomin 2002. As I write, two men, both prominent UPC activists are in jail in Luzira, convicted by the High Court in Lira, having been found guilty of murdering Ongom for political reasons. I found it curious — did the masterminds of these two murders compare notes?
And word doing the round is that other accomplices are still at large and threatening Movementists. The voters are very apprehensive about the forthcoming elections.
Finally, 1 must comment on the ongoing saga of “the mafia in Governmentâ€. The vice-president started it all. Now Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu has re-affirmed it. Both gentlemen are very high profile citizens.
The little I know about mafias is that it is a highly organised and most deadly group. It is not a word loosely used.
If such a group does exist, those who know about it are duty-bound to expose it.
In the same vein, if there are Ugandans who have facts about murder, torture, theft, etc, they must take their civic responsibility seriously and report it.
It will be most tragic if, after the Museveni government, we come out with stories like the ones after the Amin and Obote governments. At the end of the day, those who turn a blind eye to wrong-doing are as guilty as those who commit the acts. It is not enough to make a statement only for news purposes. One must furnish the investigative organs with the facts to enable a full investigation. I wish to add my voice to others and say: Please, do Ugandans a favour, speak now or forever be silent.
The writer is deputy director gender, youth and interest groups, Movement Secretariat