NOTES ON CONCEALMENT OF GENOCIDE IN UGANDA by A. Milton Obote April 1990 Lusaka, Zambia. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE PROFILE OF A DEMENTED MIND 16 • The Sayings of Yoweri Museveni 16 • The Real Museveni 20 PART TWO FOOTSTEPS TO GENOCIDE 32 • 1980 Elections 32 • Luwero War 54 • Okello and Okello 85 PART THREE GENOCIDE 132 • A Crowd of Revelers 132 • Rebels and Rustlers 144 PART FOUR CLEANSING CEREMONY 155 PART FIVE GIGANTIC FRAUD 158 CONCLUSION 171 APPENDICES Appendix One 173 Appendix Two 188 Appendix Three 192 Appendix Four 194 Appendix Five 195 ________________________________________ INTRODUCTION 1. In 1971, there was a military coup in Uganda. The International Media called Idi Amin, the leader of the coup, a gentle and harmless giant for about two years, when, in fact, Amins reign of murder and terror began on the first day of the coup. The international community and the Human Rights Organization took the cue from the media and, with the exception of Tanzania and Zambia, also saw nothing wrong with Amins murder and terror. Amins crimes were therefore effectively concealed for two years. Today, Uganda, under Musevenis militarist regime, has had a state of genocide since 1986. However, Africa and the rest of the world speak a language which Ugandans, who have been and are in the throes of massacres, find it difficult to accept as human language; the language which cleanses Museveni and his militarist regime. The objectives of these Notes are to place on record the evidence of the concealment of the genocide by the international community, media and Human Rights Organizations. 2. On 28th February, 1990, an academic from Oxford University and I exchanged views on some agonizing and distressing events which have been and are still the lot of Ugandans as well as on the attitude of the international community, media and the Human Rights Organizations. During our conversation, I learned of the International Symposium on Uganda due in May 1990, at Queens University, Ontario, Canada, and that the sponsors were World University Services of Canada -Queens Local Committee. Ten days later, a Ugandan living in Zambia brought to me the Prospectus of the Symposium. 3. It is to be hoped that the organizers of the Symposium will succeed in their aim: The Search for Peace in Uganda and that they would be able to confirm or reject, to quote the Prospectus, the myth that with the departure of Idi Amin and Milton Obote everything in Uganda is now fine. The organizers have an uphill task: Africa and the entire International Community, since January 1986, have been saturated with propaganda, biased reportage, and down-right disregard of the facts of the situation in Musevenis militarist Uganda. The International Media and Human Rights Organizations such as Amnesty International, Minority Rights Group and International Alert have painted and continue to paint Museveni and his regime in glowing colors that to them there is no myth. According to them, Uganda, under Museveni, is rapidly recovering from the agonies of the past and there is much improvement. 4. These Notes present the opposite view that Uganda, under Musevenis regime, is a Police State where: • Genocide has been and still reigns even as I write; • Entire villages have been and continue to be destroyed by soldiers of the regime as legitimate and proper action against rebels; • Foodstuffs in the fields and in granaries in the so-called war-zones have been and continue to be uprooted, burnt or destroyed allegedly to deny succor to rebels; • Water wells and boreholes in the war-zones have been either poisoned or dismantled; • The entire livestock in several Districts have been looted by the National Resistance Army (NRA), the soldiery of the Museveni regime; • In the Districts of Gulu, Kitgum, Lira, Soroti, Kumi, a large part of Tororo and now Kasese - (population 2.8 million 1979 census) - where the NRA soldiers have wrought their greatest havoc, those not massacred, arrested or detained are forced by the soldiers to go to Concentration Camps where many die on various accounts of torture, and from lack of food, water, medication and protection against inclement weather; • Women in the Concentration camps and in the war-zones are at the mercy of the NRA soldiery to abuse as they fancy; • Soldiers known to be infected with contagious diseases including the deadly HIV are posted to these Concentration camps where they are free to mix and abuse the female inmates. The Concentration camps are in fact cauldrons of genocide where the vulnerable groups (the children, pregnant women and the elderly) are taken to die. The list in not exhaustive. 5. I am acutely aware of the venomous attacks which befall anyone who dares to point out and provide evidence that under Museveni, Uganda is a Police State. In 1987, for instance, I wrote a Paper entitled Massacres and the Reign of Terror in Uganda. I pointed out that Museveni and his army was engaged in orgies of carnage and destruction which traverse the whole country, from East to West and from North to South. The evidence I presented was not even given a cursory examination by those who speak loudest about human rights. On the contrary, it was twisted and turned round to heap attacks on me. The wars in the North and East were totally disregarded and I was called to account for the Luwero war as if the past and not the present must always be the issue. In other words, the present day massacres must not be exposed or discussed at all. 6. My 1987 Paper is now a prohibited document in Uganda and Kagenda Atwoki, the Administrative Secretary of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) is now on trial for being in possession of it. Atwoki had been reported by the BBC as having said that Musevenis well known wars were wars by the regime against the people. He was arrested and detained but was later charged with being in possession of a prohibited document despite the fact that the Paper had never, to date, been gazetted as prohibited in accordance with the Uganda law of sedition. Atwoki remains charged illegally but the real reason for his suffering is because he dared to expose Musevenis massacres. 7. The detention of Serra Muwanga, an erstwhile friend of Musevenis and Chairman of the Uganda Human Rights Activists, is another case in point. Muwanga had given an interview to African Concord which the Magazine published. Museveni was bitterly irritated that Muwanga had expressed concern on gross violations of human rights by the National Resistance Army (NRA) - Musevenis personal army which now rules the country. Muwanga was detained and placed under hardship regimen. On release, and in poor health, Muwanga was warned by a senior officer in the NRA that the NRA does not arrest a person twice; the meaning of the warning was that the sentence for a second arrest is death. He took the advice and left the country. Museveni has justified Serra Muwangas arrest, detention and flight by saying that Muwanga had criticized the army - his number one instrument and rule of genocide. 8. Museveni has promulgated a law which prohibits not only the pointing out of the shortcomings of or crimes committed by the NRA but also the publication, in whatever form, of the identity or existence of any NRA regiment in any particular area. To dare to point out any shortcoming or crimes of the NRA is to criticize the NRA and that in itself is a serious and greater crime than, say, if the NRA had buried people alive or herded them in houses and then burnt the houses which genocidal practices are quite common in the so-called war zones. The walls of protection which the international media and Human Rights Organizations have erected to protect the regime are such that Museveni, like the mythical James Bond, is thereby licensed to kill and to do whatever he likes with the lives of the citizens of Uganda. 9. Chapter three of the Constitution of Uganda has provisions for the Protection of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms of the Individual. Although he has not suspended this Chapter, Museveni rules as if the provisions of the chapter do not exist and his regime and army have no obligations whatsoever to observe or attempt to observe those provisions. War of aggression is Musevenis chosen method of gross violations of human rights. Under cover of war which he himself instigated, the NRA has massacred Ugandans on a mega-scale. Under cover of wars, political activities have been banned and comments on the deeds of the NRA are not permitted. In an interview with the BBC in July 1989, Museveni said: - ...unfortunately for the BBC the war has ended, so you will not have much to report - it is ended. (Focus on Africa - BBC Magazine 1989). Yet in the month of February, this year, his own Propaganda Newspaper, New Vision, edited by his friend and accomplice William Pike, was reporting the forceful uprooting of 80,000 people from their homes in Kasese District in the far West to concentration camps in order to leave the villages free for artillery bombardment and strafing and thereby destroy homes and foodstuff allegedly to deny succor to rebels.
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 07:55:08 +0000
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