Museveni's Diabolical Design to Exterminate the Acholi Polity

P. O. Box 30349
KAMPALA

5th October 2002

To : Special Representative of the Secretary General
United Nations Organisation for Great Lakes Region
Att.: Ibrahim Fall
New York

Your Excellency

On behalf of the people of Acholi, we the undersigned elders write to
prompt the attention of the United Nations Organisation, ( to be
channeled to the appropriate UN organ for action) other International
Human Rights and Peace Activists and the people of Uganda at large
about the persistent ingenious diabolic design of to exterminate
the Acholi polity. The people of Acholi have been assiduously
monitoring the response/action of the Movement Government to the
insurgency in the North.

The operation so far conducted manifested and still manifest a
systematic, comprehensive sinister implementation of meting human
rights abuses, tortures and extra-judicial killings of the Acholi to
depopulate them. The Movement Government has been and is still
employing a variety of violent methods whose results unfold a salient
plan to wipe out the Acholi by refusing to accept genuine peace talk
and using arrogant provocative language against the rebels which make
them react by launching attacks against innocent civilians, torching
their houses, abducting them, conscripting them to fight, and
eventually exposing them to be killed by the UPDF.

This pleases the Movement Government and the power to be because the
rebels abduct and kill the Acholi. The abducted Acholi are exposed
to fight and the UPDF kill them (the Acholi). The end result is that
the rebels inflict all human sufferings on the Acholi and kill the
Acholi. The UPDF also fight and kill the Acholi who are forcefully
abducted by the rebels. Thus successful ingenious implementation of
the Movement Government of Museveni vow to wipe out the Acholi. We
request that the appropriate UN Organ should voice the concern of the
people of Acholi to the Movement Government and the authority and
also cause investigation on the abuse of all human rights-related
issues such as massive killings by both LRA and UPDF. The LRA
abduct, torture and kill the innocent Acholi claiming they are
fighting the Government of Museveni. Meanwhile to the Movement
Government, such killings are helping to accomplish their vows
(Museveni's) to wipe out the Acholi by violent killing rather than
dialogue or peace-talk.

We now wish to give the genesis and chronology of events to expose
the diabolic design to depopulate and eventually exterminate the
Acholi polity:

Fear of Secret Plan to Decimate the Acholi

In 1986 when Kampala fell to Museveni, the late General Bazilio Olara
Okello expressed fear that Yoweri Museveni had a secret plan to wipe
out the Acholi people from the map of Uganda. Many leading Acholi
dismissed Olara Okello's ominous statement as " unfounded fear of a
defeated soldier" But it is now obvious that Bazilio Olara Okello was
right. In fact the secret plan to decimate the number of Acholi
people began as soon as Museveni was sworn in as President of Uganda.
In order to appreciate the current fears of the Acholi people, we
need to review Museveni's rule from 1986.

The Arrival of Museveni's NRA Soldiers in Acholi

When Museveni's NRA soldiers entered the Acholiland, they were
received well like in other parts of Uganda. When the dust of battle
settled, the NRA Field Commanders who appeared to behave decently
appealed to ex-UNLA soldiers who had then melted away into the rural
areas to report to nearby Army Units. The Field Commanders swore
that, since the change of the government was already completed, no
solider would be harassed individually. The Acholi elders themselves
supported the Field Commanders' appeal and urged their sons to
respond as requested.

The first few UNLA soldiers who reported to the NRA Field Commanders
with their guns. They were treated very well. The NRA Commanders told
them to choose either to join the NRA or to go home and live as free
citizens. Very few ex- UNLA soldiers opted to join the NRA. The
majority opted to go to their parents or wives in the rural areas to
start new life as farmers. They were issued with Certificates of
Clearance and happily returned to their respective families.

The Cause of the Rebel War in Acholiland

In May 1986 when the ex-UNLA soldiers had generally settled to begin
to cultivate their own food crops, a Military Spokesman went on Radio
Uganda with a terse radio announcement in which all ex-UNLA soldiers
were ordered to report to the Army General Headquarters, Kampala or
any nearby Army Unit, within ten days without fail. No reason was
given for the radio order. This unexplained order scared the already
settled ex-UNLA soldiers as they recalled what Idi Amin did to the
Acholi soldiers who responded to the same type of order, announced
over radio after his military coup against Milton Obote in 1971. For
this reason many hesitated to report as ordered.

As a result several NRA platoons were sent to the rural areas to hunt
down the ex-UNLA soldiers. The NRA soldiers on that mission began
immediately to commit heinous crimes against the unarmed civilians
such as cold-blood murder of young men, rapes of mothers, wives and
sisters of the ex-UNLA soldiers, arson and robbery of clothes and
other household items. Some of the arrogant NRA soldiers even went to
the extent of defecating into the water pots of the Acholi peasants.
The life was made unbearable for the ex-UNLA soldiers and other young
men. They could not sleep in their huts at night. Thus the start of
resistance.

The same kind of persecution was carried out in Lango and Teso sub-
regions. For this reason, the ex-UNLA soldiers and other untrained
young men from Acholi, Lango and Teso were forced to enter the bush
simultaneously and the rebel war began in the three sub-regions as a
defence against the violent onslaught of the NRA.

At the end of August 1986, Yoweri Museveni went to address the Acholi
people about the rebel war in Gulu. Many elders thought he would
disown the evil activities of the NRA soldiers and order the Field
Commanders to stop the persecution. But alas! Museveni instead
roundly condemned the ex-UNLA soldiers and vowed to wipe them out
with guns. He severely swore never to talk peace with what he called
the criminals "who have no cause to fight for ". He refused to listen
to complaints from the Acholi elders against the NRA soldiers. So
according to Museveni, the cold-blood murders, the rapes, arson and
robbery of household properties were not cause enough to prompt
resistance. Hence, he began to execute his vows of wiping out the
Acholi as follows:-

1. The first plan to wipe out the rebels was given to 35th
Battalion, which was exclusively made up of Dr. Andrew Kayira's UFM
fighters. But Kayira recalled that in January, 1981 when other
democrats wanted to form a new movement to dismantle the UNLA in
order to create a national army and pave a way for the introduction
of genuine democracy, Museveni refused to join a new united front
because he wanted to dismantle the UNLA in order to establish his own
private army as we can see today. For this reason, Dr. Kayira advised
his commanders to link up with the rebels and give them (the rebels)
guns where possible. So, instead of fighting the rebels, the 35th
Battalion began to supply guns to the rebels. This treachery was
discovered in September,1986 and the whole of 35th Battalion soldiers
were rounded up and taken to Lira and their fate remained unknown. In
fact the weapons which Eric Odwar used for the Corner Kilak Battle
were supplied by Kayira's UFM fighters who then constituted the 35th
Battalion. This thwarted the execution of Museveni's vow to wipe out
the Acholi using the 35th Battalion.

2. The second plan was the appointment of David Tinyefuza to
specifically wipe off the rebels. He established his Headquarters in
Lira to give him an opportunity for intensive military operations to
deal with the Acholi. To prevent the World from knowing the
diabolical actions of Tinyefuza's forces, four northern districts of
Apac, Gulu, Kitgum and Lira were sealed off from April to July 1991.
Many innocent inhabitants were killed in cold blood and other 18
leading politicians were arrested, among them a Cabinet Minster, Hon.
Daniel Omara Atubo and National Resistance Council Members, Hon.
Zachary Olum and Hon. Irene Apio Julu. This second attempt decimated
the Acholi population but did not wipe out the rebels.

3. When it became obvious that Museveni's vow to use the
military option could not work, he hatched out another strategy to
execute his vow by ordering Betty Bigombe and the late J.B. Ochaya to
use the Acholi people themselves to wipe out the rebels. The two
officials forced the Acholi to kill their own sons and daughters. To
achieve this, the Acholi were organized into the so called" Arrow
Brigades" armed with bows and arrows, spears, pangas and stones and
ordered them to mop-up what they termed thugs and rebels. This third
attempt also failed but prompted the rebels to adopt new tactics of
attacking non-military installations such as schools, dispensaries,
etc. and also of abducting civilians and cutting off their ears, lips
noses, etc.

4. At this stage it was already clear that Museveni and his
Government were systematically applying various methods which could
help him to realize his vow to wipe out the rebels militarily instead
of talking peace. However, some leading Ugandans impressed upon him
to accept dialogue or peace talk with the rebels. So Museveni
reluctantly conceded and said any person willing to talk to the
rebels would do so while on his part his option remains the military
means. Mrs Bigombe then began the process of talking peace with the
rebels. She made some headway but before achieving any tangible
result, Museveni ordered her to stop talking with the rebels and he
gave an ultimatum of 7 days for the rebels to surrender or they would
be wiped out militarily. The peace talk attempt was jeopardized and
the avowed military strategy was held on.

5. The fifth plan to wipe out the rebels was effected by forcing
all Acholi to vacate their homes in the rural areas and settle in
concentration camps near Army Barracks. This method was similar to
the one used by the Nazi Germany to exterminate the Jews. In the
camps many Acholi lost their lives due to various causes like lack of
food, proper shelter, lack of water, drugs, etc. Many set-up of the
camps were such that the UPDF were in the centre as if being
protected by the people instead. But Museveni stuck to his vow to
wipe out the rebels with his guns.

6. When many people began to question the suitability of the
military option to put an end to the rebel war, Museveni claimed that
he was about to wipe the rebels out but whenever the rebels were
cornered, they would slip out from the cordoned areas and escape to
Southern Sudan. For this reason, due to pressure from the USA, the
Sudan Government permitted Museveni to follow the rebels into the
Sudan. What came out of this military expedition is any body's
guess. But the end result is the current death, abduction and all
sort of suffering being borne by the Acholi.

7. "The Operation Iron Fist" did not finish off Kony's army in
the Sudan. As a consequence, Museveni now orders the whole population
of Acholi to leave their homes and move to concentration camps, to
live there in appalling conditions. Those who never lived in the
concentration camps before were ordered to move to towns within 48
hours. No shelters have been provided no food, no sanitary
arrangement for them. They have to leave the little foodstuff they
kept in their granaries, with perishable sweet potatoes and perennial
foodstuff like cassava and various crops were to be left in the
fields. With the El Nino around the corner, how will these people
survive? We feel this is a method still to cause more death to the
Acholi and depopulate them.

8. The fact, which must be borne in mind, is that over 90% of
the rebels who are to be mowed down with lethal weapons are the
children who were captured and taken to the bush against their will.
For this reason, Museveni's military option is inhuman. It is unfair
to mow down these captives instead of looking for a peaceful way to
rescue them. We ask for the intervention of an appropriate organ of
UNO to impress upon Museveni to accept genuine peace talk and also
show good will from him as a person and from the Movement as a
Government.

Museveni and the foreigners who are supporting him must realize that
it is not possible to rule with guns forever. When Germany was
defeated, it was subjected to harsh treatment under the
infamous "Treaty of Versailles" Did it last long? No. British is
ruling the Irish by force. Is there peace? No. Genuine peace can only
prevail in any country if the rulers refrain completely from making
enemies concentrate on eliminating all social causes of unhappiness
and to provide freedom from oppression and freedom from economic
wants.

Because of very poor sanitary facilities in the camps and moral
degradation induced by the mobile battalions of Museveni's UPDF,
communicative diseases such as HIV/ AIDS, TB and others are rampant
among the population in the camps and, through contacts, these
diseases always spread to the rest of the population rapidly. Now
Museveni is ordering many more people of Acholi to be condemned to
the same situation. Thus the vow to wipe out Acholi polity is on
through diseases.

No doubt, the suffering the population in Acholiland has been
experiencing throughout Museveni's rule so far is a collective
punishment, which is against the International Law. We, therefore,
earnestly appeal to the International Community to come to the rescue
of the Acholi population from the grave genocide situation being
perpetuated by Yoweri Museveni. President Museveni must be made to
talk peace with the rebels in order to bring lasting peace throughout
Uganda for the benefit of all.

Onyanga Odongo Leon. L Obonyo
(Gulu District) (Kitgum District)

CC. The Secretary General, Africa Union
All Heads of Diplomatic Missions in Uganda
All Religious Leaders in Uganda

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