When A Gunman Speaks, You Listen - FN XV August 2012
Located in Lamwo District, Palabek is one of the sub-counties in Northern Uganda whose residents have experienced multiple incidences of violence and repeated abuses of human rights. By virtue of its location at the Uganda-South Sudan border, Palabek witnessed both consistent military presence as well as frequent crossing and movement by the LRA while the surrounding area systematically turned into a battlefield.
This report focuses on Palabek’s history and records from 1986 to the present based on victims’ testimonies and information provided by interviewees. It offers an in-depth description of the incidents of violence committed by the LRA and NRA, focusing on key concerns frequently raised by respondents. The report concentrates on instances of torture and killing by the warring parties, including the impact and consequences on the civilian population. It also reveals how Palabek’s communities suffered mass displacement due to this violence.
A survivor of the helicopter bombings in Angica B displays a bomb shell from the helicopter gunship, and survivors display injuries they received at the hands of the LRA.
In June 2003, the LRA infiltrated Teso sub-region in eastern Uganda for the first time. The civilian population and the government army were caught unaware, a factor which had disastrous humanitarian implications. In line with their trademark pattern of atrocities, the rebel soldiers carried out killings, abductions, maiming, looting, rape burning and pillaging. By the time the UPDF repulsed them almost 8 months later, approximately 90% of the population in Teso sub-region had been displaced into internally displaced persons (IDP) camps, several thousand children had been abducted and thousands of people had lost their lives and property. This report explores the impacts of the LRA incursion into Teso sub-region using case studies and victims’ testimonies from Obalanga sub-county in Amuria district, in addition to making recommendations to relevant stakeholders.
Erratum:
Please note that the following change have been made to Field Note XIV
The heading:
“Appendix D: Identity Cards of Some of the Victims Who Perished in theHelicopter Gunship Bombings in Angica B and Morungatuny”
has been ammended to read
“Appendix D: Identity Cards of Some of the Victims and Survivors of the Helicopter Gunship Bombings in Angica B and Morungatuny”.
The memorial monument stone in Lukodi remembers those who died in the massacre
On the 19th of May 2004, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) raided the village of Lukodi, and carried out a massacre that led to the death of over sixty people. Lukodi village is located seventeen kilometers north of Gulu town, in Gulu district. It is one of the many villages in northern Uganda that suffered from persistent LRA attacks, leading to the death of several people. Northern Uganda has been under conflict for over twenty years, as a result of a civil war waged mainly between the rebels of the LRA and the Government of Uganda (GoU). The impacts of the conflict have been devastating, characterized by the displacement of over 1.8 million people into IDP camps, loss of lives, and abduction of over 38,000 children by the LRA to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves.1 Lukodi, like many other villages in northern Uganda, was severely affected by the conflict, leading to the displacement of the inhabitants of the village who were forced to seek refuge in the congested camp of Coope2 for three years. The people of Lukodi were able to begin returning to their homes as a result of the relative peace which ensued in northern Uganda after the conclusion of the Juba peace talks in November 2008.
This report reconstructs a narrative of the Lukodi massacre and the major events that unfolded on that fateful day of 19th May 2004. The documentation centered on learning the experiences of this community prior to and during the massacre, the impact the massacre had on the population and the transitional justice challenges they continue to face today. It tells the story of a people that suffered from a horrible attack on their village in 2004, and were subsequently displaced for almost three years. It further looks at the current reintegration challenges faced by the people of Lukodi, now that the people are returning from displacement and trying to rebuild their lives, but in the process have to struggle with daunting resettlement challenges, in addition to complex questions on how to approach issues of reconciliation between victims and alleged perpetrators within the community. Many war affected communities in northern Uganda are faced with a similar scenario as they struggle to pick up the pieces of their lives in the wake of the conflict, characterized by difficulty to cope with their trauma, and challenges in the pursuit of their justice and reconciliation needs, specifically the need for accountability and reparations.
This report also briefly reflects on the visit and investigation carried out by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Lukodi. As revealed by respondents, the Office of the Chief Prosecutor and the Ugandan Police visited Lukodi several times in the wake of the massacre, with the aim of gathering evidence for the case against the LRA. The report shows that, however well intended this intervention may have been, it has failed to serve the justice needs of the people in Lukodi. Rather than providing them with a solution, the ICC intervention has left the victims with more questions than answers regarding how to approach the question of accountability for perpetrators. Giving the victims a voice, this report therefore makes suggestions to the policy makers, practitioners and other stakeholders on how to address accountability issues using more appropriate means.
The report finally concludes with recommendations to the Government of Uganda and other stakeholders, in line with views and opinions gathered from the people of Lukodi. The people of Lukodi call for reparations, sharing of the findings of the official investigations carried out after the massacre, support for community reconciliation initiatives and a truth-telling process in which the community, the LRA and the Government of Uganda will take part. These views are shared by many war affected people all over northern Uganda, and therefore require the attention of the stakeholders in question.
Train tracks in Mukura near where the infamous train wagon sat
On July 11, 1989, the 106th battalion of the National Resistance Army (NRA)1 allegedly rounded up 300 men from Mukura and other surrounding areas and incarcerated some of them in train wagon number
C521083. These men were suspected of being rebel collaborators against the NRA regime, but there is little evidence to suggest that most of them were anything other than innocent civilians. Trapped in the crowded train wagon, trying not to trample on one another, the men struggled to breathe, and by the time they were released after more than four hours, 69 of them had suffocated to death, while 47 of them survived.
Twenty two years after the occurrence of this massacre, the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) reconstructs an account of what took place, using narratives from survivors, in order to bring the concerns of victims to the attention of the Government and other stakeholders. Through our interactions with survivors of the massacre, we learnt that besides constructing a memorial mass grave in which the dead were buried, the Government also supported the construction of the Mukura Memorial Senior Secondary School and a public library in memory of those who lost their lives.
This report aims at providing a narrative of key events leading up to the massacre, based on the testimonies of survivors, and explores the major initiatives which were used by the incumbent Government to promote accountability, healing and reconciliation for the families of the Mukura victims and the survivors from the train wagon. A central finding of this report is that most of these initiatives to provide reparation—though likely well intentioned—were implemented in an untimely manner, with little involvement and consultation of the victims and in times of increased political incentive for Government. As such, the people do not attach much significance and ownership to structures such as the mass grave and Mukura Memorial Senior Secondary School. The report concludes with lessons learnt and recommendations aimed at improving the implementation of future post-conflict transitional justice (TJ) initiatives which the government may undertake in other parts of the country, such as northern Uganda which has recently emerged from conflict.
On October 23rd 2002, an estimated forty-four fighters of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) entered Omot sub-county from Par Samuelo Acak, near the river Agogo. They were given instruction by their LRA Commander, “as soon as we cross the river, abduct whoever you come across until we reach Corner Gang pa Aculu in Opota Trading Centre.”3 The team, consisting mostly of young soldiers, first moved North East, abducting twelve people in Lawal Ode, an additional eight people in Lalur Onyol and finally another twelve people were abducted from Latin Ling before they reached the point of slaughter.
The Opota Trading Centre at Corner Gang Pa Aculu was the site where twenty-eight people lost their lives in the brutal and dehumanizing Omot massacre. People were murdered, cut into pieces and then placed in cooking pots in front of dozens of witnesses.
This report is the first systematic documentation of the massacre that took place in Omot. Eight years later, the community has far from achieved reconciliation and restitution. The people of Omot have been stripped of their right to justice; the wrongs committed against them unacknowledged by Government or LRA, no system of redress has been explored. What is more, the community is divided. Victims of the massacre continue to resent the clan of ‘Samuel’, a young resident who was recruited by the LRA and then later ran away with a gun, leading ultimately to the Omot massacre as retaliation. The community does not feel they have been compensated by Samuel’s family for the deaths that occurred as a result of his desertion. In Omot, it is important for support to be provided for community reconciliation.
As Long as You Live, You Will Survive recommends that the Government of Uganda:
Formally acknowledge the Omot massacre of 2002 as well as all other massacres that have occurred in communities in Northern Uganda;
Recognize and redress their failure to protect Ugandan citizens from the LRA attack;
Hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes;
Support local approaches to justice and reconciliation that will address tensions within;
Provision of reparations;
Provision of a memorial designed and constructed with victims.
A former LRA Major is accepted back by the community in Pajule
Simon Watmon was abducted as a young father of two small children by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in 1996. After 5 years and at the rank of a junior commander, he risked everything to return home via Sudan. Settled back in Pajule, he encountered many of the same challenges faced by all those who escaped: poverty, stigma and rejection by his family. Rather than be defeated by these, Simon emerged as an informal leader amongst his peers and is today recognized as a peace builder at the community level.
This Field Note documents the experience of Simon. It is a case study of how former Lord’s Resistance Army captives are not just victims, but can also be agents of social change and reconciliation. His story is illustrative of previous JRP reports: With or Without Peace: Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration in northern Uganda and Sharing the Burden of the Past: Peer support and self help among former Lord’s Resistance Army youth. These two reportsoffered insights into the challenges currentlyfaced by returning combatants and how apeaceful and successful disarmamentdemobilization and reintegration (DDR)process, and coping with the devastatingimpact of the twenty year conflict in NorthernUganda, could take place.
A girl carrying water walks on top of the mass grave at Barlonyo
Twenty-six kilometres north of Lira town in northern Uganda, a quiet displaced person’s camp called Barlonyo lies inconspicuously next to the River Moroto. The tranquil setting belies its horrible distinction as the location of one of the largest single massacres committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army during its 23-year insurgency. In the space of less than three hours on the late afternoon of 21 February 2004, over 300 people were brutally murdered by LRA rebels and an unknown number were abducted.
Camp residents were burned alive inside their huts, hacked to death with machetes, stabbed with bayonets, clubbed with sticks and shot as they fled. The bellies of pregnant women were slit open, their not-yet-formed babies thrown into the fires. Others were abducted and marched north into Acholi-land. Many died in captivity of violence, sickness, or starvation. The ultimate fate of several abductees remains unknown.
This Field Note documents what happened in Barlonyo on that fateful day when LRA Commander Okot
Odhiambo ordered his soldiers to “kill every living thing.” The victims of Barlonyo beg for justice; not only for the unimaginable acts of the LRA, but the lack of protection afforded the civilian population that day, and in the absence of acknowledgment of what happened there. The Government of Uganda must forward a comprehensive justice strategy that addresses wrong doing and heals the wounds that continue to divide the country.
Two residents stand at the site where their sons were killed in the massacre
In the early morning hours of 24 July 2002, the villages around Mucwini awoke to the bloodied corpses of 56 men, women and children. The massacre was a deliberate and ruthless retaliation by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) after a local man they had abducted escaped from them with a gun. After they were finished with their ‘work,’ the LRA wrote a letter to the populace, blaming them for the massacre and threatening more killings if the stolen gun was not recovered.
In the aftermath of the massacre, the victims accused the escaped man of purposely orchestrating the massacre to resolve a long standing land dispute between his clan and that of the majority of victims. Since the massacre, both clans have ceased relations and have threatened retaliation if the issue is not resolved using the traditional mechanism of Mato Oput (drinking the bitter root). The victim clan demands the payment Kwor, or death compensation and the elders have busied themselves trying to cool tensions. In the absence of formal justice, the victims attempt to come to terms with what happened using what is available to them: traditional justice mechanisms.
The aftermath of the Mucwini massacre is an important case study of the justice and reconciliation challenges facing peace builders as the Juba Peace Talks conclude. Documenting the events of the massacre and attempts by victims to come to terms with it, this Field Note identifies three important lessons for understanding the impact of violence on community level relations in northern Uganda, and the prospects for transitional justice. First, it illustrates how the local victim population copes with the aftermath of gross atrocity in the absence of accountability. Secondly, it suggests the need to revisit the potential role of traditional justice mechanisms to resolve local conflicts. Finally, it highlights how the war has exacerbated underlying tensions around land ownership.
Dominic Ongwen was around ten years old when he was abducted on his way to school by the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). He was trained as a ‘child soldier’ to fight against the Government of Uganda and forced to kill, mutilate, loot from and rape civilians. He became so efficient and fearlessly loyal to his superiors that he was eventually ‘promoted’ to the ‘inner circle’ of the LRA. In October 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Ongwen for crimes against humanity, including massacres and the abduction and enslavement of children. As such, Ongwen is the first known person to be charged with the same war crimes of which he is also victim.
Ongwen’s case raises vexing justice questions. How should individual responsibility be addressed in the context of collective victimization? What agency is available to individuals who are raised within a setting of extreme brutality? How can justice be achieved for Ongwen and for the victims of the crimes he committed?
From July to October 2007, Quaker Peace and Social Witness (QPSW) and the Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP) conducted qualitative research with ex-LRA fighters on the subject of peer support and reintegration in northern Uganda. These in-depth discussions revealed a number of pressing insights on how to conduct a peaceful and successful DDR process.
