That’s the question posed to Ugandan officials by activists from a San Diego-based organization, Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda-Now! (CEGUN www.cegun.org), at the recent conference of Ugandans living in America, held in San Francisco.
Ugandans had traveled from all over the world for the annual gathering, and the government sent some ministers; Vice President Gilbert Bukenya was the keynote speaker.
It’s a wonder that the “Other Voices” panel occurred at all, given that the conference was focused on investment in Uganda, hi-tech sector development, education, health, trade, governance, and other issues.
CEGUN’s panel included members Hellen Otii, Tim A. Hardy, and chair Lucy Larom, as well as invited speaker Milton Allimadi, Black Star News publisher. It was held in a small room in the lower levels of the Hyatt Regency- Embacardero and discussed the “silent genocide” in Uganda; a genocide that has been ignored by much of the world and whose discussion was marginalized at the conference.
Larom is a 71-year old American grandmother –she lived in East Africa in the 1960s—whose passion and conviction was clear during the panel discussion: She could barely contain her emotions when she asked why non of the government officials who spoke had even mentioned the word “restitution” for the victims of Uganda’s death camps.
But from whence came these camps? The Uganda government has argued that the camps –more than 200—were created to protect civilians in Acholi region from the brutal insurgency of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). This thesis has been exposed as fiction.
The Uganda government and LRA have fought for more than 20 years; the victims have been almost exclusively innocent civilians. Some have been killed, abducted, mutilated and sexually violated by the LRA. Yet, the majority of deaths have occurred in the government-created and operated camps; from hunger, thirst, curable and treatable diseases, and human rights abuse at the hands of government soldiers guarding the camps.
The World Health Organization, a United Nations body conducted a survey, ironically, in conjunction with Uganda’s own health ministry. The findings were startling; as many as 1,000 deaths per week occurred in the government-created and government-operated camps. That translates into 52,000 deaths per year; 520,000 over the 10-year period in which most of the camps have operated. Even taking only 50% of that WHO figure still means that as many as 260,000 deaths occurred over a 10-year period.
If the camps were indeed set to protect civilians, they have failed spectacularly; if they were created to indiscriminately exterminate Acholis, the Nazis, known for precision, would have been awed. Indeed, even the LRA must have marveled at the kill-rates; their own paled miserably in comparison.
No wonder critics, including the former United Nations Under-Secretary General in charge of children in war zones, Olara A. Otunnu, have charged the Uganda government with administering “slow motion genocide” of the Acholi.
At the San Francisco conference, Richard Tordwong, an advisor to Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni was asked whether the camps had saved lives. Perhaps before thinking out his response, he said nobody thought the war would go on “for more than six months.”
This is an admission that government was aware that the strategy of confining an entire population in squalid camps, with unsanitary conditions, lack of adequate food, water, medicine and housing, was untenable for more than six months. Yet, the camps have operated for more than 10 years; the strategy amounts to mass extrajudicial murders.
Now, going on two years, the Uganda government and the LRA have been negotiating in Juba, Southern Sudan, an end to their war. The two sides have signed a “cessation of hostilities” agreement. The LRA combatants are confined in known locations outside Uganda. Presumably, a final agreement will pave the way for Acholis to return to their homes.
When asked about resettlement plans, some Ugandan officials claimed that everyone was now “free” to return to their homes and that government was not preventing anyone. The problem, said the officials, was that some survivors wanted to await the outcome of the Juba talks while others were “lazy.”
It’s mind boggling that representatives of Uganda government have yet to grasp the scope and magnitude of the crimes against the Ugandans who were confined to the death centers: the magnitude destruction of lives and property, the physical and mental suffering—certainly the threshold of crimes against humanity have been breached.
At the very minimum, the United Nations must be involved in the resettling and rehabilitation programs; it can’t be done haphazardly.
Every family returned to their land must be provided with sufficient supplies and resources to resume economic productivity, and to be able to care for themselves and their children, including education, nourishment, and healthcare and mental care, for their physical and psychological wounds. Every family should also get some form of restitution or compensation in the form of direct payments and long-term subsidies.
Government officials spoke of a possible $100 billion fund that may be raised from donors for the recovery program. These vast sums of money can’t be entrusted to officials of the current government, given the rampant corruption widely reported in Uganda, including embezzlement of monies from foreign donors for fighting HIV/Aids.
But the big question is why has the suffering in Uganda’s Acholi region not met with universal condemnation such as has been marshaled against the atrocities in Darfur?
The Uganda government in a stroke of genius has been referring to the death camps as
“Internally Displaced People’s Camps I.D.Ps”; a term which makes it sound like a center where people who have temporarily lost their homes to a fire or some other mishap seek temporary accommodations.
More importantly, unlike past genocides, including Hitler’s extermination of Jews, and more recent ones in Rwanda and Congo, where mountains of skulls provided clear evidence, Uganda’s is very peculiar. The deaths occur in camps scattered over a wide geographical distance.
The victims are not hacked to death with machetes, but allowed to die from want of sustenance and nourishment. It is the brilliant genocide. The perfect crime: or almost.
In addition to the Ugandan voices that have been laboring to expose the genocide, grass roots organizations such as CEGUN have joined the good fight; its members are demanding that their local and national officials break their silence. Soon, more grass roots organizations around the country could take up the challenge.
The San Francisco meeting, wherein a small but dedicated group of activists declared in front of Uganda officials “stop” and “never again,” may go down as the historic moment when Americans joined Ugandans in demanding an end to Genocide in Uganda Now.
BlackStarNews.com
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