Category Archives: In the News

“Uganda’s International Crimes Division Court Attracts Massive Critique,” Uganda Radio Network, 14 July 2011

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“Uganda’s International Crimes Division Court Attracts Massive Critique,” Uganda Radio Network, 14 July 2011
http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=35292

By Joe Wacha

The War Crimes Division of Uganda High court has come under sharp criticism from some members of the public only a few days after it started trying Thomas Kwoyelo, the former LRA director of operations.

Uganda’s International Crimes Division Court has come under sharp criticism from some members of the public only a few days after it started trying Thomas Kwoyelo, the former LRA director of operations. Kwoyelo is facing 53 counts of crimes for his alleged involvement in the LRA war from 1987 to 2005, when he was captured by government forces.

However, some people in Northern Uganda doubt whether the Uganda War Crimes Division court has the capacity to competently prosecute suspects. Bosco Ocan, a resident of Layibi Techo in Gulu municipality says that he doubts the independence of the judicial system in Uganda to be able to competently deliver justice.

Jane Akwero Odwong, a former Woman MP for Kitgum district is surprised that the court does not address crimes against gender. Adwong explains that whereas many women and girls were raped and subjected to sexual slavery during the war in northern Uganda, the charges have not been brought against Kwoyelo.

Louis Odong, another victim of the war complained that the court does not provide compensation for the people who suffered from the war and either lost relatives or property. Other people suggest that holding the trial nearer to the victims, only reminds them of the atrocities they suffered during the war.

However, not everyone is against the operation of the court. Onono Onweng, the retired Bishop of Northern Uganda says that court is a test and it is only right for it to draw critiques. He however hoped it would improve overtime.

Lino Owor Ogora, a transitional justice activist says that the court needs to lead in advocating the legislation of necessary laws for reparation and other areas people feel are not presently addressed.

But Tadeo Asiimwe, the registrar of the International Crimes Division of the High Court noted that the court is a permanent institution with the capacity to prosecute all war crimes and crimes against humanity. He added that the decision to move the trial to Gulu was intended to ensure the victims of the LRA war participate in the justice process.

“Public divided over Kwoyelo trial,” Daily Monitor, 10 July 2011

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“Public divided over Kwoyelo trial,” Daily Monitor, 10 July 2011

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1197660/-/bylc79z/-/index.html

By Moses Akena

 

In Summary

About the War Crimes Division

  • The ICD is one of the specialised divisions set up in the High Court to try the commanders of the LRA and other rebel groups, who have violated human rights during the two-decade war in Northern Uganda.
    Initially known as the War Crimes Division, it was set up in 2009 by the government as part of its efforts to implement the 2008 Juba peace agreements between the Ugandan government and the LRA.
  • The division has the authority to try genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, terrorism, human trafficking, piracy and any other international crime defined in Uganda’s Penal Code Act, the 1964 Geneva Conventions Act and the 2010 International Criminal Court Act (ICCA).
  • The division may sit as a bench of three judges. The Court is headed by Justice Dan Akiiki-Kiiza and other judges are Justice Anup Singh Choudry and Justice Owiny Dolo.

As he steps into the dock tomorrow for trial by the War Crimes Division of the High Court of Uganda, former Lord’s Resistance Army colonel Thomas Kwoyelo, will write a chapter in the history books as the first commander of the rebel outfit, to be tried in the court.

The trial comes three years after the formation of the Court. The trial of Kwoyelo will also be the first for war crimes that a prosecution will take place under the Geneva Conventions Act since it was passed in 1964.

In March 2009, Kwoyelo was injured and taken into custody following fighting between the Ugandan army and LRA fighters in Ukwa, DR Congo. He was subsequently treated by the government of his bullet wounds.

He was first held in unknown military intelligence facilities, then Gulu Prison in late 2009 and has been held in Luzira maximum prison for a while.

Kwoyelo was first produced in a fully parked Chief Magistrate’s Court in Gulu in September 2009, to answer to 12 counts of kidnap with intent to murder which, was read out to him by then Gulu Chief Magistrate, Joseph Omodo Nyanga.

 

Amnesty in vail
A year later, in August 2010, he was charged with violations of the 1964 Geneva Conventions Act, including the grave crimes of willful killing, taking hostages and extensive destruction of property in the Amuru and Gulu districts of northern Uganda.

Though he applied for Amnesty last year, Amnesty Commission is yet to reply to his request. The Commission said it referred the case to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions as required under the act when individuals are in custody, for determination of eligibility.

The DPP has not responded to the Amnesty Commission’s request, raising some questions about the arbitrariness of the process.

It is not known how long the trial will but government said it will call close to 90 witnesses to testify. Cases involving war crimes and those against humanity tend to be difficult, because of the range of incidents and extended time period involved in the charges.

Since November 2010, Kwoyelo has been represented by private lawyer Caleb Alaka.

Though not one of the indicted five top commanders of LRA, Kwoyelo was captured by UPDF in battle and has since been treated as a prisoner of war.

The LRA top leadership is accused of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). And in 2005, it issued arrest warrant for its elusive leader Joseph Kony, Dominic Ogwen and Okot Odhiambo. Others Raska Lukwiya and Vincent Otti have since died.

Kwoyelo is the first member of the LRA to be in this situation and if found guilty, he will be sentenced to life imprisonment as per the Uganda’s Geneva Convention Act. It also provides a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment for the other crimes.

The impending trial has generated huge public interest in northern Uganda with mixed reaction about the trial. Gulu, where the trial will take place bears the brunt of the two-decade war.

 

Justice wanted
Mary Adibu, 61, who said she fell into a man hole while running from the LRA and broke a collar bone in Laliya, near Gulu town, says she wants to see justice done for the LRA victims.

“They should be tried because they made us suffer so much in their hands,” she said. Gulu district boss Martin Ojara Mapenduzi, said the trial should open the eyes of some LRA commanders and some senior figures in the government that they cannot commit crimes with impunity and get away with it.

He said this will help reassure the people of northern Uganda who want the perpetrators of the atrocities answer for their actions.

“I am very confident that the war crime division will do what is believed to be true justice and the people of northern Uganda are waiting to hear the outcome of this,” he said.

However, others like Lino Owor Ogora, the Team Leader Research Advocacy and Documentation at the Justice and Reconciliation Project in Gulu, Kwoyelo’s trial is selective.

“I think the war crime division really wanted to have a case on the ground because we are failing to understand why and how they arrived at Kwoyelo,” he said.

Some people Sunday Monitor talked to had little knowledge of Kwoyelo, compared to other LRA leaders like Onen Kamdulu and Kenneth Banya. Many insist that since he was following orders from his superiors, he should not be sacrificed for the ‘big fish’.

“I don’t think he is guilty because he was acting on orders from his bosses,” said a 50-year-old woman who refused to be named because she is a wife to a soldier.

LRA Victims like Ms Irene Laker argue that allowing the rebels to integrate into the community and engage in projects to help the people they maimed is more realistic.

Laker was hit by land mine planted by the LRA on her door steps.

She has an artificial right leg and she is one of the 268 members of land mine survivors association from Gulu, Amuru and Nwoya districts.

“I think they should just forgive him because for me, I am already lame and there is nothing he can do to bring back my legs,” said Ms Laker.

Critics of the trial have claimed that the fact that Kwoyelo has not been granted amnesty and is to be prosecuted is politically motivated, given that so many other LRA commanders have benefited from amnesty.


Off the hook
“For example, the former LRA high-ranking commanders Brig. Kenneth Banya and Brig. Sam Kolo Otto, as well as Lt Col. Opio Makasi, who served as the LRA director of operations, have all received amnesty under the act over the last several years. Several other LRA members who applied for amnesty were not prosecuted and instead joined the Ugandan army to fight the LRA,” said Human Rights Watch on its website.

HRW points that amnesties for crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity run counter to international law and practice, which rejects impunity for the gravest crimes. “International and hybrid international-national war crimes courts outside Uganda have rejected amnesties for serious crimes,” said the Rights body.

 

Who is Thomas Kwoyelo?

Thomas Kwoyelo is a former commander in the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who is from Acut Cama village, Pabbo Sub-county in Amuru district.

His exact birth date is not known, but is he said to have been born between 1968 and 1972.

He went to Pawel Langeta Primary School but dropped out in primary four due to lack of school fees.

His peers describe him as a jolly person. Kwoyelos’s childhood friends fondly referred to as a scooter (a famous kind of motorcycle) because of his athletic abilities. He was also a passionate performer of a traditional dance called ayije. He was also a farmer and hunter.

Kwoyelo is said to have joined the Uganda Peoples Democratic Army rebels in the late 1980s. However, when the rebel outfit was disbanded, he returned home but was reportedly arrested by the National Resistance Army (now UPDF) at the age of 17 together with his two brothers after he was found in possession of a gun. He was jailed for three years in Luzira before he was released around 1990.

Little is known of how he joined the rebels. Kwoyelo held the rank of colonel in the LRA and commanded the Sinia Brigade.

Former abductees describe him a reserved man and say he largely kept to himself.

He was injured and captured in March 2009 in a battle with UPDF in DR Congo and flown into the country. Images of a frail man, on drip as he was helped out of the UPDF plane appeared on front pages of newspapers.

“Lukodi Massacre Victims Struggle To Live With Memories,” Uganda Radio Network, 27 May 2011

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“Lukodi Massacre Victims Struggle To Live With Memories,” Uganda Radio Network, 27 May 2011
http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=33984

By Joe Wacha

The survivors of the 2004 massacre at Lukodi internally displaced people’s camp in Gulu district say they require government to urgently initiate mechanisms to help them cope with the dreadful memories of the attack.

Survivors of the 2004 Lukodi massacre in Gulu district say they are individually carrying the burden of the atrocities committed during the war due to lack of government support to heal the past.

Many of the survivors say they require truth-telling by all the parties in the massacre, construction of memorials to honor the dead, acknowledging the past and a comprehensive reparation to be able to move on from the incident.

On May 19, 2004, a group of the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels descended on the Lukodi displaced people’s after overpowering a nearby military unit and murdered over 50 people. The rebels also destroyed property, abducted scores of the IDPs, while others managed to escape with bullet wounds. Only a few huts and a memorial stone inscribed with some of the names of the people who died in the attack, stands near the ground that used to be the camp.

However, seven years after the attack, the victims complain that government has done nothing to help them recover from the traumatic incident.

Nelson Oloya, a resident of Lukodi village, on whose land the IDP camp once stood, tearfully recalls how the rebels killed his family members. Oloya ran to Gulu town. He explains that although he is now back home, memories of the past still haunt him. He says government should establish counseling services to help them overcome the trauma.

Doreen Abalo, another victim who lost her husband and three step children in the attack, explains that she is haunted by memories. Abalo explains that her only relief is when she meets with the village mates to share experiences.

Abalo says she wants the murderers to be prosecuted and government to compensate people who lost their relatives and property or got wounded. Although the Juba peace agreement between the government and LRA rebels provides for reparations for war victims, the government is yet to implement the resolution.

Barlington P’angwec, the LC5 representative for Bungatira Sub County repeated the calls for urgent reparations. He wondered how government could quickly compensate victims of the July 2010 bomb blasts in Kampala and ignore those in northern Uganda.

The UN Principles and Guidelines on the Right to Remedy and Reparation for Victims of Gross Violation also demands that victims adequate, prompt and appropriate remedies for victims.

Evelyn Akullo, a research officer at Justice and Reconciliation Project explains that the victims are struggling to find ways to deal with the past and move on with life amidst a strong need to reconcile with each other and what happened to them.

She says government should design and implement an inclusive and transparent reparations policy for the victims. Barlonyo, Atiak, Burcoro and Mucwini are some of the other massacre sites where people still wait for compensation.

“Village bank provides relief to massacre victims in Lukodi,” Uganda Radio Network, 30 May 2011

In the News

“Village bank provides relief to massacre victims in Lukodi,” Uganda Radio Network, 30 May 2011
http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=34053

By Joe Wacha

Survivors of the 2004 massacre in Lukodi Internally Displaced People’s Camp in Gulu have started an initiative to empower members economically. The survivors have started an association to provide soft loans, save and extend other financial services to members.

The 40 members say that besides the provision of the credit transactions, the local initiative is helping them to heal from the trauma associated with the incident that saw many people lose their lives, maimed and abducted by the LRA rebels.

Patrick Opira, the chairman of Lukodi Canogura Group explains that members of the group meet at his home on Wednesday every week to deposit their cash savings.

He explained that during the meetings, the members review the previous transactions before proceeding to make fresh deposits and balance the books of accounts. He said each member saves between 1,000 to 2,500 shillings weekly depending on how much they can afford.

Opira adds that they have so far managed to save 987,000 shillings since the new cycle begun in March. He said last year the group saved 700,000 shillings allowing the members to receive between 50,000 to 110,000 shillings for the members with the least and highest savings respectively.

The chairman says that the group also lends small amount of money to the members at an interest of ten percent meaning that a member who borrows 5,000 shillings pays 5,500 while the one who borrows 10,000 has to pay back 11,000 shillings.

Doreen Abalo, one of the group members says that they have been able to meet some of the basic needs through the initiative adding that they are yet unable to afford forming a Savings and Credit Cooperative organization to benefit from government-advanced loans.

To form a SACCO, groups are required to provide registration certificate, by-laws, lending policy, budget estimate and business plan among others conditions.

However, the credit facilities are not all there is to the group. Many of the members of the Lukodi Canogura Group say that the weekly meeting provides them with an opportunity to share experiences and forge forward with life.

Doreen Abalo explains that she looks forward to the weekly meetings because it provides her with an opportunity to meet with her fellow survivors and learn how each one is coping. She explains that during the meetings, the interactions help her to forget all about the sad memories of the massacre that have remained a part of her life over the past seven years.

To Abalo and other members of the community, the local initiative is a near solution to the absence of meaningful government intervention in form of counseling, income generation activities, durable support to the war victims and a comprehensive transitional justice provision.

A report last month by the Justice and Reconciliation Project emphasized the need for government support to local level community based initiative targeting reconciliation and healing.

It added that for healing to be successful among the war affected communities, the support measures targeting the healing and reconciliation processes have to be based within the communities itself and not imposed from the outside.

Until such an intervention is implemented, many communities in the areas ravaged by the two-decade LRA war will continue to yearn in vain for meaningful healing from the war.

“LRA Victims Want ICC to Share Report On Atrocities Read,” Uganda Radio Network, 26 May 2011

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“LRA Victims Want ICC to Share Report On Atrocities Read,” Uganda Radio Network, 26 May 2011
http://ugandaradionetwork.com/a/story.php?s=33953&PHPSESSID=a9da224d4ed6ee8f3e95602f7925995d

By Dennis Olaka

LRA war victims want the report on the attacks to be made public.

Victims of the LRA rebels’ massacre in Lukodi village, Bungatira Sub County in Gulu district want government and the International Criminal Court to share findings of forensic investigations into the attack in the area by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels.

This is contained in a report that was presented by Justice and Reconciliation project – JRP at a function held on Wednesday to remember the victims of the 2004 attack.

More than 60 people were massacred and dozens more injured and abducted from Lukodi when the LRA rebels attacked the area on May 19th 2004.

A team of officials from the ICC are said to have conducted investigations immediately after the massacre but the findings have never been shared. The victims say they don’t know who to hold accountable for the attack because of the absence of the report.

56-year-old Doreen Abalo, who lost her husband and many other relatives in the massacre says it is still a pain to wake up to the memories of the gruesome murder. She recalls that on that day, all family members were sleeping in a hut when they were woken up by the cries of people being butchered by the rebels at around 4:00am.

Abalo says a child rebel attacked the house ordering them out. Her husband was hit several times on the head with a panga and he died instantly.

She adds that three of her children were abducted and she has never seen them to date.

Another victim, Nelson Oloya Ibango-loch breaks down while narrating how he narrowly escaped as rebels fired several bullets at him.

“Mukura compensation report disputed,” New Vision, 22 May 2011

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“Mukura compensation report disputed,” New Vision, 22 May 2011

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/755418/mukura

By Pascal Kwesiga

FORMER Kumi district Woman MP Agnes Akiror has disputed a report by Justice and reconciliation project, a local non-governmental organisation, on the compensation of the 1989 mukura massacre victims.

Akiror described the report as false, saying it was aimed at maligning her name and President Yoweri Museveni who appointed her to deliver the compensation package.

“There should have been an element of truth telling since they are talking of justice and reconciliation. The report depicts the Government as insensitive to the victims,” she said.

The report, which was launched recently alleged that the second compensation last year was mishandled. It said out of the 47 survivors, six were compensated.

President Museveni gave Akiror sh200m as compensation to the victims during his visit to their families in 2010.

The move was part of efforts to heal the wounds left by the incident.

A total of 69 suspected rebels were suffocated to death in a train wagon by the government forces on July 11, 1989 a Mukura sub-county in Ngora district.

“The President has often apologised to us for the incident. When he gave me the money, he said it could not compensate the lost lives, but would help the victims,” Akiror said.

She produced a statement from Stanbic Bank, Kumi branch containing the list of 43 survivors, relatives and widows of the victims who received sh3m each. They received over sh127.5m.

Other documents show that 25 beneficiaries, who refused to be paid through the bank, appended their thumbprints and signatures after receiving the cash. A total of sh72.5m was spent on this category of beneficiaries.

Akiror said 15 people claimed compensation, saying they were traumatised after seeing the victims suffocating to death. They were given sh8.5m.

Five people, she added, received sh100,000 each after they claimed that they were tortured by soldiers during the incident.

Akiror also produced documents indicating that those who claimed to have been traumatised and tortured had been paid.

She attacked the authors of the report for questioning why the President came up with the initiative after several years.

“Mukura victims poorly compensated- report,” New Vision, 19 May 2011

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“Mukura victims poorly compensated- report,” New Vision, 19 May 2011

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/17/755202?highlight&q=In%20Memory%20of%20Mukura%20Victims

 

By Godfrey Ojore

A report by the justice and reconciliation project on the 1989 Mukura massacre has said compensation of relatives of the victims was poorly handled.

The report pinned former Kumi MP Jaff Akiror for excluding names of relatives who had missed out on the compensation package.

The report, compiled last year, said Akiror only paid six out of the 47 known survivors.

“This contradicts an article published in the media in January which said 88 families had been paid sh209m,” the report read in part.

The report was launched at Mukura Memorial Secondary School, which the Government built in memory of the victims.

“The President instructed the Attorney General to assess the damage and ensure full compensation to the victims and the families of the deceased. What then was Akiror’s role in the process,” the report questioned.

Lead researcher Lino Ongora said they were not happy with Akiror’s involvement because she did not conduct proper verification of the relatives of the deceased, resulting in many of them missing on the paying list.

However, Akiror rejected the report. “Did they show you bank statements indicating that I did not pay the relatives of the deceased? Didn’t they know that as an MP, I had a right to collect the money and distribute it?” she asked.

However, at the launch of the report, two old women, Tereza Amujal and Madelena Adongo who lost their sons, said they were not paid. “I was told the money was over. So I went back,” Adongo who lost her sons, John Olinga and Lawrence Oboi, said.

The Government has constructed a mass grave at the railway station where the incident occurred.
Kumi resident district commissioner Samuel Mpimbaza Hasaka received the report on behalf of the Government.

In 1989 during the insurgency in Teso region, soldiers rounded up people suspected to be rebels and herded them into a train wagon before setting fire beneath it.
About 69 people are said to have died due to suffocation.

He, however, pointed out that the report did not include the achievements done by the Government like erecting the monument, apology of the President to the people of Teso and constructing a secondary school.

“That was a stupid mistake by a few indisciplined army officers. It is regrettable and painful,” Hasaka said.

The report recommends government to bring to book the perpetrators of this horrendous act and finalise policy on reparation to provide clear guidelines for the victims of the past atrocities.

In 1989 during insurgency in Teso region, soldiers rounded up people suspected to be rebels and herded them into a train wagon before setting fire beneath it.

About 69 people are said to have died due to suffocation in the wagon.

“LRA survivors want marshal plan for region,” Daily Monitor, 28 April 2011

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“LRA survivors want marshal plan for region,” Daily Monitor, 28 April 2011

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1152202/-/c262ngz/-/index.html

By James Eriku


Amuru

April 20 is usually an important day in the lives of former displaced persons living in Atiak Sub-county in Amuru district. And for the Acholi sub-region, the day was set apart to commemorate the gruesome massacre of over 200 civilians by the Lords Resistance Army rebels in 1996, although other similar cases were committed in Lokodi, Lukome, Mucwini and Barlonyo.

The Rev. Johnson Gakumba, the chairman of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative and the bishop of the Northern Uganda Diocese, while presiding over the occasion last Wednesday, prayed that such atrocities are not repeated in the region.

 

Meaningful reparation
The bishop also urged the government to develop meaningful reparation programmes for those who died during the war, adding that the government should also initiate other efforts to improve the lives of survivors. He said reparation could be such an important component of the Juba peace talks, in particularly agenda three, where reconciliation and accountability issues sound pertinent.

Mr Jacob Nokrach, a survivor and the chairman of the Atiak Massacre Survivors Association, said government has abandoned them to NGOs. Justice and reconciliation project, an NGO in the region, is currently supporting the survivors with counselling and guidance. “Many people can now talk freely about the incident more than 10 years ago, which is a positive gesture towards the rehabilitation efforts in the region,” Mr Nokrach said.

Improving livelihood
Mr Nokrach said the commemoration of the day is important to the lives of the survivors and relatives of those who were killed in the attack. The survivors’ chairman said a Marshal Plan should be drawn by the government as the Acholi people emerged from the rubbles of the camps, saying a reparation of Shs5 million per survivor and those killed would go a long way in improving the livelihoods of the affected people.

Ms Irene Oyet, another survivor from Ayugi village, sarcastically said the only thing the attack left her with were the mutilated bodies of her siblings on their compound three hours after the rebels had left. Ms Pasca Aromorach, 18, said she grew up as an orphan after her parents were killed in the attack. She said she was left to raise seven of her siblings amid biting poverty.

“Acholi urged to shun rebellion,” New Vision, 24 April 2011

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“Acholi urged to shun rebellion,” New Vision, 24 April 2011

http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/16/753041/mukura

By C. Lubangakene and Justin Moro

THE 1995 massacre by the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in Atiak and others in Acholi sub-region should be an eye opener to the Acholi not to rebel against government.

The remarks were made on Wednesday by the Rwot of Atiak, Santo Apire, during the 16th annual memorial prayer for over 250 people killed by the LRA in Atiak.

Apire advised the Acholi to shun any rebellion against the Government.
“ What the LRA did should teach us that rebellion is bad,” Apire said.

He urged the Amuru district authorities to solve the boundary dispute between the district and Adjumani.

Apire said such disputes breed fertile grounds for insecurity in the region.
The Bishop of northern Uganda diocese, Rt. Rev. Johnson Gakumba, who led the mass, said it was unfortunate that Kony was still committing atrocities in Congo and the Central African Republic.

Gakumba, who is also the chairman of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative called upon the Government to renew peace talks in order to end suffering in the Great Lakes region.
He said military options rarely end guerilla wars.

Gakumba urged the Government to compensate those affected by the war in order to improve their lives.
He said the time for war was over and urged people to embark on reconstruction.

Mathew Akiya, the Lamwo district LC5 chairman, said the district was planning to construct a memorial site at Corner Ogwec in Lokung sub-county, in remembrance of the over 450 people killed by the LRA in 1997 and over 400 others killed and buried in mass graves during the Idi Amin regime.

He castigated the elders for fuelling land disputes, saying they were being bought to do wrong things.

Betty Bigombe, the woman MP-elect for Amuru district, urged residents to forgive the LRA for what happened in Atiak and Acholi.

The 1995 Atiak massacre survivors want the Government to compensate them like it has done in other parts of the country.

“We know that the budget reading of the 2010/2011 financial year put aside sh200m for families of victims of the 1989 mukura massacre in Teso.

While we applaud your efforts to compensate victims from this incident, we also want to be compensated,” the memorandum to President Yoweri Museveni, signed by the Atiak survivors committee chairman, George William Odong, read in part.