Friends For Peace In Africa

by Norbert Mao
New Vision, Monday, July 10, 2006

Last week, Dr. Walter Kalin the UN Secretary General’s Special representative for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) came to Gulu. This was a look-and- see visit before a two-day workshop he convened alongside the Uganda government on the implementation of the IDP Policy.

He spent three days visiting the camps and saw for himself what about 2 million Ugandans have endured for a decade. There could have been no better preparation for the workshop. He would not be deceived by any fast-talking government official about how ‘government is doing all it can’. No spin would work.

The new minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere did not make the usual protestations. “The situation is unacceptable, totally unacceptable,” he said. Thus a combination of government, local leaders, UN agencies and NGOs
had the proper tone set for the meeting. Few workshops have been more constructive or action-oriented.

I made the journey from Gulu to speak at the meeting. My topic was “Access to Justice and Combating impunity”. During the journey many things came to my mind. The urban nature of the institutions of justice. Courts and Police stations are in towns. Rural dwellers have no access. In the camps the army has filled in the vacuum. They administer rough justice.

In the absence of police, crimes are reported to the military commanders. I thought of the enduring colonial legacy where the armed forces don’t see the protection of civilians as their primary duty but rather the enforcement of the will (nay whims) of the rulers. But these are state actors. What of non-state actors? Rebel armies — outlaws like the Lord’s Resistance Army who commit unspeakable crimes in the name of rebellion.

I recalled the visit by the Uganda Parliamentary Forum for Children to the home of the Lawirwodi of Acholi.

Children came to entertain the visitors with song and dance. One song stood out. It told a tale, a simple tale. Crocodile married Hare’s sister and took her to his home across the river. One day, Hare paid them a visit. While there he stole and ate all the eggs Crocodile had laid leaving only one.

In a casual conversation Crocodile said he needed to count the eggs. His dutiful brother-in-law offered to count them for him. Hare would keep showing the one egg he had preserved to dupe Crocodile. One...Two...Three...

Crocodile was content. All his eggs were ‘safe’. After all, his trusted brother-in-law had counted them. When time came for Hare to depart he stole even the one last egg. He bade farewell to his sister. Unable to swim, Crocodile had to carry him across the river.

Mid-way they heard a cry from Crocodile’s wife. A heartrending song:

Nyang, Nyang, Nyang Bol Apwoyo i pii Apwoyo omoko tongi... (Crocodile, Crocodile, Crocodile, throw Hare in the water and let him drown Hare has eaten your eggs...) Crocodile could not clearly make out what his wife was saying. He asked his brother-in-law to relay the message. “What is my wife saying? Is there something the matter?” Crocodile asked. “She is saying you should swim faster because a storm is coming,” Hare lied. The dutiful Crocodile obliged.

When Hare was safely ashore and out of Crocodile’s reach, he pulled out the last egg and showing it to Crocodile boasted: “Amoko tongi nyong...” (I have eaten your eggs and I have no remorse...). Former Omoro MP Jacob Oulanyah retold this tale to the visiting legislators. They went quiet each trying to find the meaning in real life for tales mirror real life.

“The greed. How ungrateful,” some said. “The impunity,” cried Capt. Sarah Mpabwa, UPDF MP.
Our community knows what it is like to suffer at the hands of warring parties. They have been killed. They have been raped.

They have been robbed of property. They have been mutilated. Their children have
been kidnapped. Despite this, they have been at the forefront offering forgiveness to their tormentors. This paradoxical stance laid the foundation for the 2000 Amnesty law. A basic law, the Amnesty Act does not require full disclosure of crimes committed. It does not demand contrition. All it requires is that one renounces rebellion.

As long as one ceases to be a threat to the ruling regime, one is immune to prosecution. It does not even go as far as the Acholi traditional rites of reconciliation, which require full disclosure and remorse. I raised this matter in my speech. Amnesty Commission Chairman Justice Onega agreed.

The Amnesty law falls short and consequently does not heal the society. Additional steps are required by the community to make the wronged and their tormentors live in peace. That is why though some LRA leaders like Maj. Banya and Brig. Kolo are said to have “returned” they cannot yet be said to have returned to the community they have wronged. They have only returned into the hands of the government. Their full return would require more than the Amnesty Certificate issued in Kampala.

That is why last week many were shocked by Kony’s denials on the BBC. In my last conversation with him he spoke differently admitting a link between his activities and the suffering of our people. At that time he pleaded inevitability. This time he went overboard. Only a merciful community knowing fully the extent of his responsibility for the destruction of innocent lives can forgive him. The government only endorses the communal prerogative of mercy.

Kony and all those who distort the truth should keep in mind the children’s tearful chorus: “Nyang...Nyang...Nyang...
Bol Apwoyo i pii
Apwoyo omoko tongi...”