Luwero war skulls stolen
Even in death they cannot rest in peace. The remains of those who lost their lives during the NRA liberation struggle are slowly but surely disappearing.
By Frederick Kiwanuka, Lydia Namubiru and Joshua Kato
EVEN in death they cannot rest in peace. The remains of those who lost their lives during the NRA liberation struggle are slowly but surely disappearing.
Local people believe witchdoctors use them to cast spells on their clients’ enemies.
Though exact figures are impossible to get, the local people say the heaps are reducing by the day.
At Katikamu in Luwero district, where 2,000 skulls were buried in 1995, residents report that more than half have gone missing.
“We used to have a full grave but now the remains are just covering the bottom,†says Hajji Umar Kyagulanyi, the LC3 chairperson of Katikamu sub-county.
Several cases of trespassing on the graves have been reported to the Police in recent years.
Five people were arrested by the Nakaseke authorities in 2000 after they were found sneaking into the mass grave at the Kikamulo sub-county headquarters.
When questioned, they claimed they had been looking for the remains of a dead relative.
“We let them go although we believed they had other motives,†says James Senteza, the Kikamulo LC3 chairman.
In 2001, a man was arrested and charged with stealing two skulls from the Wakyato mass grave, again in Nakaseke district.
Four years later, Nakaseke residents were seen brandishing human skulls during a demonstration demanding that their area be given district status.
And last year, several people were arrested with human skulls in Kayunga, a district that neighbours Luwero.
The disappearing of skulls is not new to the Luwero assistant CAO in charge of Katikamu County, Fred Kyeyune. “I have not personally gone to the mass graves but I have received those reports from people,†he told Saturday Vision. He said the Police was investigating the matter.
Over 70,000 skulls
According to official estimates, over 300,000 civilians were killed during the NRA guerrilla war against the regimes of Milton Obote and Tito Okello Lutwa. Of these, over 70,000 skulls were collected and buried in mass graves scattered across the vast Luwero Triangle at the end of the war.
While touring the Nakaseke mass graves with foreign diplomats in May, 2006, President Museveni noted that all the victims were civilians, and many of them children.
Edward Mwanje, a resident of Nakaseke, recalls that displaced people who were lining up for relief would be pulled out of the queues by then UNLA government soldiers and killed on suspicion of being guerrillas.
In another incident, he says, hundreds who had fled the war were duped into returning to their homes during a lull in the fighting.
They were welcomed by UNLA soldiers, commanded by Brig. Binaisa and Capt. Brown, who killed them.
Moses Senfuma of Kapeeka recalls the notorious attack on a church at Kasiga, Kapeeka sub-county. A total of 27 people who had taken refuge inside the church were killed, he says.
In Katikamu sub-county, there was a special operations commander, George Wilson Ogole, of Obote’s army. The site had a notorious road block where people were arrested and killed in the nearby bushes on the slightest suspicion of being collaborators or guerrillas.
According to Hajj Kyagulanyi, there was also a major detention camp where hundreds of people were detained, tortured and killed. “They would be shot, beheaded or beaten to death,â€he says.
The skulls were voluntarily collected by residents in the late 1980s. “After the war, we picked the skulls from the bushes,†says Maimuna Nakibuka, a resident of Katikamu.
“We used to collect them from swamps and gardens. Sometimes we would find them along the way. They were everywhere,†says Makanga, an LCV councillor in Nakaseke sub-county where the remains of 1,405 victims were buried.
Initially, the skulls were stored at different locations, such as stores and verandahs at the various county and sub-county headquarters.
Between 1992 and 1995, mass graves were commissioned and built through a sh20m government project. At ceremonies funded by State House, the remains were finally laid to rest in mass graves that would each hold thousands of skulls.
Besides the Katikamu and Nakaseke mass graves, thousands more were buried in graves in Sambwe, Kikyusa, Butuntumula, Makulubita and Ziroobwe, all in Luwero.
In Nakaseke district, mass graves were erected in Wakyato, Kikandwa, Kikamulo and Semuto, while another burial site is at the Nakasongola district headquarters.
The mass graves were constructed in the form of big cubical pits with detachable concrete lids. Some have holes in the lids.
The windows were left unsealed to allow visitors view the skulls, according to the Luwero women MP, Rebecca Nalwanga.
Where have the skulls gone?
The Luwero Movement boss, Al hajj Abdul Nadduli believes the skulls are being stolen. He blames the theft on the lack of locks to secure the graves. “There have been fewer cases of theft at some of the sites where local authorities have put improvised locks,†Nadduli says.
The Nakaseke deputy RDC, Lt. John Kaddu, points at the poor state of some of the burial sites. “Some of the sites have deteriorated so much that they are easy for one to break into,†Kaddu says, citing Kikandwa and Semuto burial sites.
“The problem is that the burial sites were not fenced off. It is easy for wrongdoers to steal them for all kinds of reasons,†says Hajj Umar Kyagulanyi LC3 chairperson of Katikamu.
Asked why people would steal human skulls, the Luwero assistant CAO says: “We are wondering, too. These skulls are not food that people should steal and eat. There is no known museum where they could be taken to. It is hard to draw a conclusion. But Police is investigating the issue.â€
Many locals believe the skulls are used for witchcraft. The communities around Luwero believe they can be used to cast a spell on one’s enemy.
According to the Ugandan Penal Code, a person caught exhuming the remains of a dead person without a court order, can be charged with disturbing the peace of the dead and may be sentenced to up to three years in jail.
Some efforts are being made to secure the after-life peace of the people with whose blood Uganda’s peace was bought.
The UPDF has recently embarked on a campaign to fence off the grave sites. The project, which started at Gombe in Wakiso district, is to cover all the 13 grave sites, according to officials of the UPDF construction unit.
The grave sites are also undergoing some renovation, according to Luwero RDC Geoffrey Kyomukama. “We are in the process of renovating the graveyards to make them safer,†he says.
EVEN in death they cannot rest in peace. The remains of those who lost their lives during the NRA liberation struggle are slowly but surely disappearing.
Local people believe witchdoctors use them to cast spells on their clients’ enemies.
Though exact figures are impossible to get, the local people say the heaps are reducing by the day.
At Katikamu in Luwero district, where 2,000 skulls were buried in 1995, residents report that more than half have gone missing.
“We used to have a full grave but now the remains are just covering the bottom,†says Hajji Umar Kyagulanyi, the LC3 chairperson of Katikamu sub-county.
Several cases of trespassing on the graves have been reported to the Police in recent years.
Five people were arrested by the Nakaseke authorities in 2000 after they were found sneaking into the mass grave at the Kikamulo sub-county headquarters.
When questioned, they claimed they had been looking for the remains of a dead relative.
“We let them go although we believed they had other motives,†says James Senteza, the Kikamulo LC3 chairman.
In 2001, a man was arrested and charged with stealing two skulls from the Wakyato mass grave, again in Nakaseke district.
Four years later, Nakaseke residents were seen brandishing human skulls during a demonstration demanding that their area be given district status.
And last year, several people were arrested with human skulls in Kayunga, a district that neighbours Luwero.
The disappearing of skulls is not new to the Luwero assistant CAO in charge of Katikamu County, Fred Kyeyune. “I have not personally gone to the mass graves but I have received those reports from people,†he told Saturday Vision. He said the Police was investigating the matter.
Over 70,000 skulls
According to official estimates, over 300,000 civilians were killed during the NRA guerrilla war against the regimes of Milton Obote and Tito Okello Lutwa. Of these, over 70,000 skulls were collected and buried in mass graves scattered across the vast Luwero Triangle at the end of the war.
While touring the Nakaseke mass graves with foreign diplomats in May, 2006, President Museveni noted that all the victims were civilians, and many of them children.
Edward Mwanje, a resident of Nakaseke, recalls that displaced people who were lining up for relief would be pulled out of the queues by then UNLA government soldiers and killed on suspicion of being guerrillas.
In another incident, he says, hundreds who had fled the war were duped into returning to their homes during a lull in the fighting.
They were welcomed by UNLA soldiers, commanded by Brig. Binaisa and Capt. Brown, who killed them.
Moses Senfuma of Kapeeka recalls the notorious attack on a church at Kasiga, Kapeeka sub-county. A total of 27 people who had taken refuge inside the church were killed, he says.
In Katikamu sub-county, there was a special operations commander, George Wilson Ogole, of Obote’s army. The site had a notorious road block where people were arrested and killed in the nearby bushes on the slightest suspicion of being collaborators or guerrillas.
According to Hajj Kyagulanyi, there was also a major detention camp where hundreds of people were detained, tortured and killed. “They would be shot, beheaded or beaten to death,â€he says.
The skulls were voluntarily collected by residents in the late 1980s. “After the war, we picked the skulls from the bushes,†says Maimuna Nakibuka, a resident of Katikamu.
“We used to collect them from swamps and gardens. Sometimes we would find them along the way. They were everywhere,†says Makanga, an LCV councillor in Nakaseke sub-county where the remains of 1,405 victims were buried.
Initially, the skulls were stored at different locations, such as stores and verandahs at the various county and sub-county headquarters.
Between 1992 and 1995, mass graves were commissioned and built through a sh20m government project. At ceremonies funded by State House, the remains were finally laid to rest in mass graves that would each hold thousands of skulls.
Besides the Katikamu and Nakaseke mass graves, thousands more were buried in graves in Sambwe, Kikyusa, Butuntumula, Makulubita and Ziroobwe, all in Luwero.
In Nakaseke district, mass graves were erected in Wakyato, Kikandwa, Kikamulo and Semuto, while another burial site is at the Nakasongola district headquarters.
The mass graves were constructed in the form of big cubical pits with detachable concrete lids. Some have holes in the lids.
The windows were left unsealed to allow visitors view the skulls, according to the Luwero women MP, Rebecca Nalwanga.
Where have the skulls gone?
The Luwero Movement boss, Al hajj Abdul Nadduli believes the skulls are being stolen. He blames the theft on the lack of locks to secure the graves. “There have been fewer cases of theft at some of the sites where local authorities have put improvised locks,†Nadduli says.
The Nakaseke deputy RDC, Lt. John Kaddu, points at the poor state of some of the burial sites. “Some of the sites have deteriorated so much that they are easy for one to break into,†Kaddu says, citing Kikandwa and Semuto burial sites.
“The problem is that the burial sites were not fenced off. It is easy for wrongdoers to steal them for all kinds of reasons,†says Hajj Umar Kyagulanyi LC3 chairperson of Katikamu.
Asked why people would steal human skulls, the Luwero assistant CAO says: “We are wondering, too. These skulls are not food that people should steal and eat. There is no known museum where they could be taken to. It is hard to draw a conclusion. But Police is investigating the issue.â€
Many locals believe the skulls are used for witchcraft. The communities around Luwero believe they can be used to cast a spell on one’s enemy.
According to the Ugandan Penal Code, a person caught exhuming the remains of a dead person without a court order, can be charged with disturbing the peace of the dead and may be sentenced to up to three years in jail.
Some efforts are being made to secure the after-life peace of the people with whose blood Uganda’s peace was bought.
The UPDF has recently embarked on a campaign to fence off the grave sites. The project, which started at Gombe in Wakiso district, is to cover all the 13 grave sites, according to officials of the UPDF construction unit.
The grave sites are also undergoing some renovation, according to Luwero RDC Geoffrey Kyomukama. “We are in the process of renovating the graveyards to make them safer,†he says.