Is the Government setting a good legacy for a reparations process in Uganda?

By Sylvia Opinia

On 11^th July 1989, the National Resistance Army (NRA) allegedly rounded up men who were suspected of being rebel collaborators against the then newly formed government and closed them in a train wagon where 69 suffocated to death while 47 survived. Afterwards, the Government convened a military court martial to try the perpetrators and in 1994 delivered the first part of compensation to the families of those who died. By 2001, a mass grave and Mukura Memorial Senior Secondary School were constructed. In October 2010, a sum of 200 million Uganda shillings was delivered by the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, during a public gathering, handed to the then Woman Member of Parliament, and a building intended to house a public library was completed. Media reports indicate that the President publicly apologised to the community in Mukura on behalf of the NRA soldiers.

In a separate incident, during the height of the LRA conflict in Northern Uganda, the Uganda Peoples Defence Force (UPDF), mistaking them for LRA rebels, accidentally killed six fishermen at River Aringa in Mucwini Sub County, Kitgum District. In 2011, handled by the office of the Resident District Commissioner, after consultation meetings with the affected families and elders, the families were paid an equivalent of two million shillings.

In yet another incidence of ad hoc government compensation, immediately after the heinous bomb attacks of 11^th July 2010 on world cup football fans at the Kyandondo Rugby Club and the Ethiopian Restaurant in Kampala, the government paid five million and three million shillings respectively to the families of those who were injured and those who died on that day.

This year on the 20^th of April, during the 17^th annual commemoration prayers for the 1995 Attiak massacre by the LRA, President Museveni gave Attiak Massacre Survivors Association a cash contribution of one million shillings and pledged 50 million shillings which he said was not part of the compensation but his personal contribution.

While the above and other attempts to repair harms committed to civilians by the government are well lwonder whether the government is setting a good legacy for the reparations process in Uganda. It can be argued that the Government only acknowledges and takes responsibility for crimes committed by its soldiers as is the case of Mukura and Mucwini. According to the UN Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparations all victims regardless of whether the violations are by the state or non state actors, have a right to adequate, effective and prompt reparation for harms suffered and places the primary obligation upon the state to provide reparations.

Looking closely at the circumstances surrounding these and other similar initiatives, it is questionable as to whether they meet the central principles guiding reparations.  The UN Guidelines outline some of the principles central to any reparations programme such as acknowledgement including full facts of factors surrounding the incident and acceptance of responsibility and guarantees of non repetition among others.

Since such initiatives tend to lack community consultations, apart from Mucwini, an assessment of victims needs to make them victim centered. While it is true that victims across the region in one way or the other are demanding reparations for the crimes that have been committed to them, their needs vary. For instance, in West Nile the majority of the population that was affected by LRA conflict were active as businessmen, civil servants, students etc., as opposed to Acholi, Lango or Teso where victims were varied as a result of indiscriminate attacks. It would therefore be important to consult and assess the different reparations and therefore justice needs.

It is also important for reparations programmes to be linked to other transitional justice mechanisms, such the as International Crimes Division, truth telling, traditional justice initiatives among others, in order for victims to feel that justice has been achieved. In Mukura, during a community theatre performance, the survivors and families of the victims called for reconciliation with the perpetrators through traditional ceremonies.

As the current transitional justice discourse among communities is dominated by the debate on reparations, I therefore want to reiterate JRPs position for a victim led process for a comprehensive policy based on assessment of needs to determine victimhood, and implemented through an independent body in order to reach its intended beneficiaries. This will ensure that victims of gross human rights violations are subjected to similar processes and procedures.▪

As I approach Veronica, she smiles warmly and we exchange pleasantries. When I ask her about the “Ombaci Massacre”, however, she seems  to be taken aback – her face falls and her mood darkens a little. To her the adage ‘’time heals’’ does not make any sense as time has never healed her physical and emotional wounds. As she looks back to the day when she narrowly  survived the infamous massacre in Ombaci Catholic Mission in Arua District in the West Nile region, she wonders if she and other survivors will ever be acknowledged or remembered.

In the recent past the Government of Uganda with donor support established a project for the repatriation, rehabilitation, resettlement and reintegration of reporters in Uganda costing about USD 4.2 million. The aim of the project was to assist the approximately 15, 300 ex-combatants in their reintegration into civilian life and to strengthen the capacity of the Amnesty Commission. Within the resettlement package, ex-combatants were offered counseling and referral services, cash, economic and educational opportunities as well as other support programs.

Despite the project boasting of having assisted in the distribution of 14, 816 resettlement packages to former rebels and their collaborators, the project has faced criticism because at its conception no thought was given to the victims that bore the real effects of the conflict. While the project was being implemented, some victims felt totally forgotten and that they deserved such above services even more.

Veronica shared her experience, frustration and recommendations.

The Massacre

The year was 1981, Idi Amin had been overthrown and his remnant soldiers had  regrouped and gone to the “bush” as guerrillas to begin fighting the ruling government from the West Nile region. Since the guerrillas did not have enough weaponry, except for  a few guns, bows, arrows and spears, they were overpowered by the Government soldiers who met them at Bondo (about 30km from Arua Town) and were driven northwards through Arua Town. Tensions were very high and the whole town smelt of war as many people escaped to the neighbouring Congo and Sudan.

Arua Town had become a war zone. Hundreds of civilians from surrounding villages as well as the town took refuge at Ombaci Catholic Mission about four kilometres from Arua Town in the belief that it would be a safe haven. Then the Government soldiers arrived! The day was Wednesday, June, the 24^th, 1981, the time was 10:00 am. I had also taken refuge at the Mission with my sister Ezuru Anna for two days. It was quite a calm day compared to the previous ones, but something in me sensed trouble. So my sister and I decided to leave the mission to pick a few things from home which was two kilometres from the Mission and cross over to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). As we reached home, the Government soldiers had taken firm control of the town and were shooting towards our village so we chose not to cross over into to Congo and ran back to the Mission instead.

I took cover in one of the dormitories of Ombaci College within the Mission, but when I realised it was not safe, I entered the Italian quarters believing that the soldiers would have respect for the white missionary fathers and not venture into their living space. How wrong I was. I proceeded to join about 30 people who had also taken refuge in a garage in the Italian quarters.

Soon the soldiers were all over the Mission armed with guns, long knives, logs and small hoes as the violence intensified. They began shooting, stabbing, cutting and clobbering people left right and center. They would enter every room and clear (kill) every living person be it a child or an adult and only the lucky ones survived. “Sasa fungua RPG, fungua machine gun!” (loosely translated to mean “Now open RPG, open machine gun!”) they would shout and then they would fire endlessly on people.“Leta pesa!” (“Give us your money!”) they would order people, but as the people rose up to hand over their money, they were shot instantly. They were shooting as if they were spraying nursery beds with water.

At this time, I was still in the garage peeping through the vent and my whole body shook violently as I waited for death because I knew the soldiers were coming for us. I sat next to a man who held his grandson tightly and when I saw a soldier striding towards us I then knew my end had surely come. Aiming his gun at us he shot at the man twice and he fell on me. One of the bullets hit me on my right cheek and I blacked out.

I was later rescued by Red Cross workers when I screamed out of pain as bodies were being loaded on a truck (about 2000 people had been killed). I came to my senses in Angal Hospital which was when I realised I had been shot thrice: on my right cheek, the back of my head and my left thigh. I spent nine months at the Hospital where I was operated on my cheek and my left thigh to remove the bullets. 31 years down the road I still have some fragments from those bullets in my body.

The scars

Although I survived death that time, the effects have lived with me until now and I still suffer the aftermath of that incident. I cannot walk for over half a kilometre.  I cannot engage in hard work and because of the injury to my head I cannot carry luggage. I also have to hire labour which is quite expensive. When I hear the sound of loud bangs, I usually faint and I get sudden fits which I attribute to that single day’s experience.

The frustration

When I saw that the Government, through the Amnesty Commission, was supporting and aiding ex-combatants in West Nile in a bid to cause them to put down their arms I was greatly angered. These are the very people who perpetrated the violence directly or indirectly. I wondered how the killer could be supported at the expense of the survivors or the killed.

…

Such is the frustration of victims of massacres like Ombaci, as far as reparation is concerned. To them, the various schemes of Government’s support to ex-combatants or rebels amount to impunity, since the real persons who suffered innocently have remained largely unacknowledged.

Considering the views of many of the victims we have encountered, the Gender Justice Team at JRP makes the following recommendations:

• Government’s focus should now be directed to establishing projects for the sole benefit of survivors of armed conflicts.
• Survivors of the various armed conflicts should be readily identified and their suffering/losses documented to facilitate their reparation.
• The Government should have a dialogue with the survivors to ascertain their specific reparation needs.
• The survivors of armed conflicts should be remembered and acknowledged.
• The establishment of victim or survivor groups should be encouraged.
• Memorial prayers should be held at massacre sites to preserve such memories for the younger generations.
• The Government should have a dialogue with the survivors to ascertain their specific reparation needs.
• The survivors of armed conflicts should be remembered and acknowledged.
• The establishment of victim or survivor groups should be encouraged.
• Memorial prayers should be held at massacre sites to preserve such memories for the younger generations.▪