Friends For Peace In Africa

Thursday, 22nd June, 2006

The recent General Convention of the Episcopalian Church in the USA made global headlines on women and gay clergy but it also heard a controversial presentation from the retired Bishop of Kitgum Macleod Ochola. He told the convention, the American part of the Anglican communion to which the Church of Uganda belongs, that there had
been genocide in northern Uganda for the last 20 years.

Ochola said that both the UPDF and the LRA were responsible as well as conditions in the IDP campus. Obviously the war in the north has been a terrible tragedy but it cannot be called a genocide. Genocide means 'the deliberate extermination of a people or a nation'. The term was coined after the Nazis killed seven million Jews during the second  World War. Hitler actually wanted to create a world where there were no more Jews. This cannot be said of northern Uganda.

Whatever the failings of the army in ending the rebellion, whatever the difficulties in the IDP camps, there has been no attempt to kill all Acholi and Langi in Uganda. There are many senior Acholi in both the army and government. Were there many Jews in Hitler's government or in the SS?

The IDP camps were initially established by the army in Gulu in 1996 but after 2000 many camps arose spontaneously as people fled the LRA's terror campaign. Even today many people are reluctant to leave the IDP camps as government tries to decongest them. How then can the IDP camps be instruments of genocide? It is also absurd to insinuate that the LRA and the UPDF bear equal responsibility for the killings of civilians.

The word 'genocide' may impress foreigners but Ugandans abroad should realise that it is a false accusation that can fundamentally damage the country's international reputation.

No-one should claim that there is genocide in northern Uganda.