Reparations ‘Te-Yat,’ Mega FM, 23 July 2011
Transcript is not available at this time.
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“Give LRA victims justice, says ex-bishop,” Daily Monitor, 20 July 2011
Give LRA victims justice, says ex-bishop,” Daily Monitor, 20 July 2011
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1204356/-/bl4ltxz/-/index.html
By Sam Lawino
Gulu
The government and Judiciary should deliver true justice to survivors of war in northern Uganda, civic and religious leaders have said. Addressing a rally during the International Day of Justice celebration in Gulu Town on Sunday, the retired Bishop of Kitgum Anglican Diocese, Macleod Baker Ochola, said the day should remind the government and its partners that they have failed to dispense justice to the victims of the 23-year-old Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion.
Government blamed
He said: “Uganda has failed to support victims and survivors of the LRA and government mayhems in Acholi yet it also deliberately refused to accept responsibilities for the crimes they may have committed.”
Bishop Ochola said: “Everyone in Uganda and the rebels must be brought to book for atrocities they may have committed against unarmed civilians during the war. It is one way through which we can attain peace and justice,” Bishop Ochola said. He criticised the government for not coming up with a clear policy on compensation of the families of those killed, and the survivors.
A programme officer with Justice and Reconciliation Project in Northern Uganda, Mr Lino Owor Ogora, said: “Justice and accountability or the quest to end impunity should not be limited to criminal prosecution.” He said there should be other solutions like reconciliation.
A programme officer for Advocate Sans Frontiere, an association of lawyers supporting the fight against impunity, Mr Vincent Babaranda, said victims of the LRA atrocities should be granted access to the ongoing trial of former rebel commander Thomas Kwoyelo in the International Crime Division of the High Court to enable them know what is being done to address injustices perpetrated against them. Kwoyelo is facing 53 counts of murder, destruction of properties and abductions, accusations he denied.
“Public divided over Kwoyelo trial,” Daily Monitor, 10 July 2011
“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.
“Mukura compensation report disputed,” New Vision, 22 May 2011
“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
“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
“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
“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.
Arua Radio Talk Show, Voice of Life FM, 23 March 2011
Arua Radio Talk Show, Voice of Life FM, 23 March 2011
Transcript is not available at this time
Teso Radio Talk Show, Etop Radio, 10 May 2011
Teso Radio Talk Show, Etop Radio, 10 May 2011
Transcript is not available at this time.
“Radio shows target LRA fighters,” Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 10 March 2011
“Radio shows target LRA fighters,” Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 10 March 2011
http://iwpr.net/report-news/radio-shows-target-lra-fighters
By Nancy Sai
As calls mount to put an end to the atrocities still being committed by Ugandan rebels, radio is increasingly playing a role in getting some of these fighters to voluntarily return home.
Despite International Criminal Court arrest warrants for the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, and his senior commanders, the rebel force continues to wreak havoc in the Democratic Republic of Congo, DRC, the Central African Republic, CAR, and southern Sudan.
The 2008 Juba Peace Process attempted to bring an end to the LRA insurgency, but Kony refused to sign the agreement, which led to forces from South Sudan, DRC and Uganda attacking LRA bases in what was known as Operation Lightening Thunder.
This sparked a new wave of bloodletting by the rebels which shows little sign of ending. Last December, Human Rights Watch claims that the LRA massacred more than 300 people in the DRC alone.
In 2010, Barrack Obama became the first US president to develop a comprehensive strategy aimed at ending the LRA’s 24-year reign of terror.
The strategy is designed to increase protection of civilians, neutralise Kony and his senior commanders, promote the demobilisation and reintegration of LRA fighters and step up humanitarian assistance to communities affected by rebel violence.
But as efforts to disarm the LRA proceed, Paul Ronan, co-founder and advocacy director at Resolve, a United States-based group campaigning for an end to LRA violence, says both a military and non-military tactics are needed to minimise the LRA threat.
According to him, as civilians are protected and LRA commanders are apprehended, a strategy that reaches out to the LRA rank and file to lay down their weapons is also important.
“Radio programmes are one of the best methods to encourage LRA fighters and commanders to stop fighting and defect from the LRA,” he said.
Uganda’s Radio Mega FM has long been running a show, Dwog Paco ( Come Back Home), on Thursday nights, calling for LRA soldiers to return to their villages and towns. The same show is aired by the state-owned Uganda Broadcasting Corporation, UBC, on Sunday nights.
The host of Dwog Paco, Oreyema Lachambel, says one way the programme tries to persuade rebels to come back is by getting comrades who have already done so to appear on air. This, he says, assures those in the bush that their return home will be welcomed.
Conciliation Resources, an international peace-building NGO, conducted a study on the return process for LRA commanders. The study interviewed 39 LRA returnees in northern Uganda, and 35 of them cited radio programmes, like Dwog Paco, to have had the most influence on their decision to come back.
Lachambel says that LRA fighters are more receptive to the programme’s urgings because, as Kony moves deeper and deeper into the bush, his men are having to put up with harsher conditions and growing isolation.
“If they listen to the programme, it makes them homesick,” he said. “We tell them the best way to find their way back.”
But while campaigners have welcomed this kind of broadcasting, many feel that something else is needed.
“On its own it is not enough,” said Kennedy Tumutegyereize, the director of East and Central Africa programmes at Conciliation Resources. “It can [only] play a facilitating role.”
Ojok Boniface, programme coordinator for Uganda’s Justice and Reconciliation Project, JRP, says Dwog Paco has served a valuable role in persuading some LRA fighters to return, but doesn’t address the problems that arise when ex-fighters have to confront their victims. Northern Uganda is facing “a dilemma of how to handle accountability and reconciliation”, he said.
His organisation encourages traditional justice methods like the mato oput, a ritual carried out by the Acholi tribe for reconciliation purposes, which promotes dialogue between LRA offenders and the communities they terrorised.
“We are now more concerned about how to unite victims and perpetrators of conflict in the spirit of justice and accountability for crimes committed,” he said. “We use radio programmes to ensure that the design and implementation of transitional justice programmes resonate within communities affected by the LRA conflict.”
The JRP disseminates information on transitional justice issues through Radio Mega’s Te Yat programme. Te Yat, which can be translated as “under the tree”, highlights the tradition of discussing community-related issues under large shady trees. JRP also works with Radio Mega to ensure dialogue on justice, reconciliation and community reactions to it feature on the Te Yat programme.
Meanwhile, a programme, similar to Dwog Paco, is launching in Sudan.
Philip Mbugo, who is behind the launch, said, “The LRA problem is dragging on” and the radio show is part of a collective effort to “bring peace and stability to the community”.
The radio programme, will air on southern Sudan’s Yambio FM. In addition to persuading LRA soldiers to return home, it will educate listeners about accepting ex-LRA returnees into their communities and participating in peace-building efforts.
While Uganda’s radio programme has been criticised for not reaching LRA fighters in remote areas, within the CAR and DRC, Mbugo insists that his show will do the job. He says most listeners in CAR will receive a weak signal, but insists a signal booster will help eliminate this problem.
“It will be powerful to cover most of the areas where the LRA are moving [around],” he said.
Nancy Sai is an IWPR-trained journalist.