Myths and facts about Northern Uganda

Many truths and many lies have been told about the war in Northern Uganda. The fact that the conflict has become deeply politicised, and that the parties involved have become parties of interest, has complicated the understanding of the conflict, and thus made it difficult to agree on a solution.

In an attempt to bring all the parties on the same wavelength and contribute to a sober and constructive debate, based on facts, The New Vision travelled all over northern Uganda, visiting the biggest camps in every district and interviewing camp leaders as well as displaced people, in an attempt to distinguish truths from lies, facts from myths. Camps visited by The New Vision team included: Pabbo, Amuru and Atiak in Gulu district; Padibe, Mucwini and Kitgum Matidi in Kitgum district; Patongo, Rackoko and Lapul in Pader District; Barr, Erute, Aloi and Agweng in Lira District; Minakulu and Otwal in Apac District, Okude, Morungatuny and Kapelebyong in Amuria District, Teso. Els De Temmerman and Chris Ochowun write:

Myth 1: People are in camps because they were forced by the army
It was the night of January 7, 1997. A large group of LRA rebels descended upon Lokung and Padibe sub-counties in Kitgum district. Angered over the fact that some Kitgum abductees had revealed the location of hidden arms caches to the army, they embarked upon a five-day killing spree.

“They were killing people wherever they found them,” recalled Fidensio Nokrach, camp leader of Padibe IDP camp. “Some were slaughtered in their gardens as they went to collect dried simsim. Others were hacked to death in their compounds or burned alive inside their houses. In my own village, six people, including my aunt, were clubbed to death on January 25.”

The massacre, in which over 400 people were killed, uprooted almost the entire population of Padibe East and West. “Over 20,000 people fled to the trading centre, where there was a military detachment,” said Nokrach. “Others fled to Kitgum town and joined us later.” Asked if anybody was forced to go to the camp, he replied: “No, everybody here left their homes for fear of being killed.”

Almost everybody we interviewed in Kitgum, Gulu, Pader, Lira and Apac districts described how the LRA’s extremes drove them into the camps for protection. Most pointed at specific atrocities that caused their displacement. The survivors of these atrocities and their horrific testimonies are living evidence of the terror that gripped Northern Uganda.

In Mucwini, in Kitgum district, it was the massacre of 56 civilians at Kirome village on July 24, 2002 that sparked off the mass movement of people. One woman who survived, Esther Apat, had been forced to smash her six-month-old son to death against a tree because he was crying, before she herself was hacked on the head and left for dead. “People first came to the camp in July 2000, as the rebels were killing and abducting,” explained Mucwini camp leader, Livingstone Kolo. “When relative peace returned, they went back to their villages. But it was the Kirome massacre of July 2002 that caused the mass displacement. The entire population of nine parishes took refuge here.”

In Atiak, in Gulu district, people pointed at the massacre of 200 civilians in April 1995 as the cause of the first displacement in the area. According to one of the survivors, Catherine Akwero, the victims, including 45 students of Atiak Technical School, were lined up in front of deputy LRA commander, Vincent Otti, a born of the area, who was seated on a chair. “You are useless people. Your guns are rusting,” the terrified victims were told. Otti then personally gave the orders for the three rounds of shooting. Akwero had to watch her 14-year-old son being riddled with bullets.

In Pabbo sub-county, Gulu district, it was the abduction and killing of 13 adults from Bira village in February 1996, which caused the first movement of people to Pabbo trading centre. “As the violence and killing continued between June and September 1996, people from other parishes joined us,” explained camp leader Simon Oryem. Asked if anybody was ordered into the camp by the army, he reacted surprised. “When your life is in danger, you just run. Nobody needs to force you,” he said.

Mzee Benson Pajob at Amuru IDP camp in Gulu district knows why he is in the camp. “The rebels attacked my village, Labongo, on October 11, 1997, taking away my 18-year-old son and my brother,” he recalled. “They were later found lying at the side of the road, with ten others, all beaten to death. After that incident, many people from Palyec, Pamuca and Pagak parishes fled to Amuru camp. They have never gone back.” In Patongo, in Pader district, it was the Gere Gere massacre, where the rebels dismembered their victims and cooked them, that caused a stampede of tens of thousands of people to the trading centre, turning it into one of the biggest camps in Northern Uganda.


Patongo camp leader, Celestino Okello, was one of the first to flee. He left his home in August 2001, after he had been abducted, along with his three wives and all their children, and seriously tortured. “We came to this trading centre for protection,” he narrated. “Patongo was not yet a camp. We just slept under people’s verandas. When the Gere Gere massacre took place, the whole community joined us.”

Apac district was hit later that year. According to the camp leader of Otwal, a series of simultaneous killings at Kodi, Wi-Agaba and Te-Angola villages in December 2002, in which 23 people were clubbed, shot and burned to death, made the entire region flee. “People fled in fear of their lives,” said camp leader, Willy Ogwal. “They will only go back home when the last rebels have been eliminated.”
Lira was next. The massacres at Ngetta in November 2003, where 14 people were slaughtered and Abiya and Barlonyo, in which 80 and 300 people perished respectively in February 2004, routed the entire population of the district. Over 300,000 people fled to trading centres, sub-county headquarters and Lira municipality. Thousands of people filled up the pavements and verandas in Lira town every night, seeking army protection. They were later moved into rural camps, closer to their fields.

Then, on June 15, 2003, Teso was struck, taking everybody by surprise. The first massacre at Obalanga and the mass abductions that followed, drove shock waves through the Teso community, prompting people to abandon their homesteads and run for their lives. Like in Lira, the pavements and verandahs in Soroti town filled up with thousands of displaced people. And like in Lira, most people were later moved into rural camps, closer to their homes.

Only twice during our journey was there mention of people being urged by the army to move to camps. However, in each of these occasions, the order came after consultation with the local leaders; and the traditional leaders or the local councillors were involved in the mobilisation.

Ottika Terence Kanyum, the camp leader of Lapul in Pader district, recalled a security meeting in September 2002 by the district officials and the army.

“There were killings and abductions all over the place,” he said. “The insurgency became too much for people to stay at home. In a security meeting, it was resolved that the population would be called to the camp in order to protect them better. People were given two weeks to move. The local councillors were involved in the mobilisation. Nobody resisted.”

But Jemina Akello did not wait for the order. “I came to the camp in August 2002 because of rebel atrocities in my village,” the 37-year-old woman in Lapul camp said. “Life had become unbearable. There were daily abductions. We would sleep in the bush every night for fear of attacks.”

In Atiak, too, the remaining villagers were called into the camp. “In 1996, the rebels were seriously recruiting,” remembered LC3 Chairman William George Odong. “Being so close to the Sudan border, we were always the first to be hit. Abductions were so rampant that our children were living in the bush day and night. Food was brought to them where they were hiding. As the situation became untenable, the local leaders and the army agreed on a plan to assemble the remaining population in order to protect them. The rwot kwere (traditional leaders) were doing the mobilisation. The army only speeded up that process by issuing the order.”
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