Tag Archives: truth-telling

Situational Brief on Truth-Telling in Northern Uganda

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On Tuesday 18th July 2012, the Justice Law and Order Sector (JLOS) released its long awaited study on traditional justice and truth-telling. The one day launch event took place at Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala. The report contained findings of a study on traditional justice mechanisms of tribes all over northern Uganda, and truth telling mechanisms. The report made policy recommendations on adoption of a national policy on truth-telling and traditional justice.

Following the launch of this report, JRP’s Community Documentation department decided to conduct a brief situational analysis on truth-telling within local communities, to analyze local perceptions and opinions on the subject. The situational brief has eight questions assessing the areas of:
• Community members’ knowledge on truth seeking process;
• Relevance of a truth seeking process
• Types of truth they would like revealed
• Timing of the truth seeking process and whether it is overdue or not
• Methodology; truth commission vs local level truth telling
• Leadership; who do they think should lead the process
• Consequences of a truth seeking process
• Voluntariness; Whether the process should be voluntary or not.

The situational brief was conducted in Awach, Koch-Goma, Lukodi, and Gulu Town. Read the findings below (PDF format):

Situational Brief – Current Perceptions on Truth-Telling in Gulu District

Community members during the Mucwini community dialogue

When Two Elephants Fight: Reflections from the Mucwini Community Dialogue

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Community members during the Mucwini community dialogue
Community members during the Mucwini community dialogue

It is mid-morning on a beautiful, sunny Sunday, June 6, 2010. Residents of Mucwini, mostly men, are chatting away, seated in small groups at the trading centre. Meanwhile others, mainly women and children, are returning from church, most likely heading to their homes to prepare meals for the family. It is the season for mangoes, and children seem to be more interested in the seasonal fruits than going straight home to eat the meal prepared by their mothers.

Under the famous mango tree shade in the compound of one of the elders in the area, located just about 20 metres from the sub-county headquarters, two large public address system speakers, mounted by the JRP and Mega FM team, are playing loud local music by Acholi artists and attracting curious passer-by. This mango tree shade is a favourite spot in the area for hosting community events. Today’s gathering is part of a series of community dialogues organised by JRP in collaboration with Mega FM, a popular radio station in Northern Uganda. Later the opinions recorded here will be fittingly aired on Mega FM’s ‘Te-yat’ programme, meaning “under the tree,” a reference to Acholi traditions of discussing important issues collectively under the shade of a tree.

The discussions put a lot of emphasis on the need for all stakeholders to build on the Acholi traditional justice principles that involve compensation, truth-telling and symbolic ceremonies for the dead. Community members also urged each other to find ways to forgive one another and go back to start living as one people so that they can set good precedence for their children.

To access the brief, click here

A community member during the Mucwini massacre memorial service, 2010

Statement by the Mucwini Massacre Memorial Committee: In conjunction with the 8th Annual Mucwini Massacre Memorial Service

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A community member during the Mucwini massacre memorial service, 2010
A community member during the Mucwini massacre memorial service, 2010

In the early morning hours of 24 July 2002, our villages awoke to the bloodied corpses of 56 innocentmen, women and children. The massacre was a deliberate and ruthless act of retaliation by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) after they claimed that one of our own members who had been abducted escaped with their gun. In cold blood, the rebels rounded up our community and randomly selected some of our friends and family members to be murdered by axes, hand hoes, machetes and logs. Some women among us were painfully forced to participate in clubbing to death their own children.

Eight years later, the person or persons responsible for the Mucwini massacre remains controversial, unresolved and unacknowledged. The massacre divided us and further fuelled longstanding conflict between the Pubec and Pajong over a piece of land where both parties claim ownership. As a result, the relatives of the alleged perpetuator still live in the camp, as they have been denied access to the said land. While the mediation team headed by the Rtd. Bishop McLeord Baker Ochola has tried to forge some kind of reconciliation among the alleged parties to this tension, most of us feel left out in the process as few families are being included. The families of the 56 people who died still live with immense trauma; psychosocial and physical difficulties; biting poverty; the burden of meeting the educational and basic needs of numerous orphans; and a generation of elderly who have no one to care for them, yet some have the responsibility to take care of orphans.

To access the statement, click here.