Good People of the World,
While Konyi formed its Rebel Milita group from reaction of Acholi slaughter in Uganda, this happened where their land was forcefully taken away from them that led to Human Rights Crime, Violation and Abuse with atrocities and genocide committed on Acholi people by Museveni.M23 is equally an engineered conspiracy of Kagame on Congo with the help of Museveni financing to slaughter and exterminate the Congo people to extinct from Congo through invasion with illegal occupation of Congo-land where Kagame and Museveni engaged in doing business with network sharing of Special Business Interest financing the loot on illegal access with unconstitutional unlawful occupation, raping off Congo wealth with its Natural resources against Congo peoples interest and mandate.This behavior spur corruption and impunity to alarming level inside Congo and thereby influencing unwarranted Civil war under conspiracy engineering of both Museveni and Kagame which spread the same theory of human rights crimes, violation and abuse into Kenya where many people were killed and burned alive in Luo-Nyanza during 2007/8 election gone bad.It is sad that Tanzania was recently threatened for attack by Kagame headed the same direction.
It must be known that, Museveni and Kagames acts are equally destroying the fundamental basics for livelihood and survival in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa in the use of Somali Pirating, private army of Militia Al-shaabab, Al-Qaeda and partnering with Chinese invasion in East Africa where they collude with the help of Somali's Salim Saleh who is Museveni's brother.
This behavior must be put on immediate stop by the world before worse-case scenario blows out of proportion and necessary legal action taken against President Kagame of Rwanda, Museveni and China inclusively..........without which, third world war is at boiling point about to erupt because people have reached their limit from the ongoing spread of injustices with illegal act of forced Land grabbing in the Great Lakes of East Africa where the whole of Africa is in danger of re-colonization with human extinct.
Something must be done and done fast…………….and ICC Hague is the only rallying neutral International platform where fair justice shall be dispensed and the law will fairly be heard for mutual common interest of all. This is because, big and small, all people are equal before the law and that the law must not be limited to a small man, but all people of the world who participated and financed genocide and slaughter of the poor innocent Africa must be charged and be able to compensate and pay back what they stole from the poor..........this shall be justice for all............BUT, reducing it to the local set-up, justice shall be discriminative and the whole world will never know who the real killer is.......
It is time the world must know who the enemy of human destruction is.......they are the ones spreading hate with environmental pollution and animocity amongst human race. They are the ones who hate to pay their fair share of taxes that give Government opportunity to serve all equally........and they are the ones who obstruct Love from permiating human being to evoke instinct of human morality for sharing and caring in all aspects of preserving nature to produce what there is in store for mankind in progressive and successful good life.
Opposite of love is pain and suffering.............and this is the reason people of the world must unite to stop pain and suffering but nurture love for good living.
It is worth it good people...............!!!
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson &
Executive Director for
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa
USA
email: jbatec@yahoo.com
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The Acholi of Uganda Face Starvation and Genocide
By Peter Okema Otika
Guest Commentator
There is a serious genocide being committed against the Acholi people of northern Uganda.
Hundreds of the Acholi are dying everyday. Children are abducted, women raped, schools closed while the population starves.
The situation is unbearable. The Acholi need your help, and they seriously need it now.
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have preoccupied the United States and the rest of the world so much that news about brutalities, massacres and genocide of the Acholi of northern Uganda has always been swept under the carpet.
More people are internally displaced on the African continent than in the rest of the world put together. At the end of 2003, Africa was home to an estimated 13 million of the world's 25 million Internally Displaced Persons, or IDPs. The Acholi of northern Uganda today constitute over a million of the displaced African refugees.
The surviving Acholi now number only about a million and a half. Hundreds of thousands have been massacred, maimed and displaced by their own government's troops and by rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Today, the impoverished Acholi people cling to existence in some of the most deplorable conditions known to human history.
Since 1986 when ragtag rebel leader Yoweri Museveni took power, the Acholi have known nothing but war, killings, maiming and abductions. In 1987 Museveni's troops were ordered to kill and plunder the Acholi in the name of searching for rebels opposed to his government.
The government in Kampala used its then National Resistance Army (NRA) to kill thousands of Acholi, shooting them on sight, burning their houses, raping the women and men, and plundered their crops and animals. Government troops blamed the Acholi for alleged rebel collaboration and punished them with inhuman brutalities.
While this was going on, Museveni barred local and international media from the region. This meant the international community would not know of his atrocities. And the international community does not yet know how brutal Museveni has been toward the Acholi.The government stepped up its terror against the people in 1996 when it ordered all Acholi living in their homes in the villages to vacate immediately and come to concentration camps or face the consequences. Those who delayed were bombed out of their houses using military tanks and helicopters and forced to run to the camps.
At the camps, which now confine more than 500,000 people, the government troops beat up the men, arrest them as rebel suspects and rape the women including girls under the age of 15. The people have nowhere else to go and are not allowed to leave the camp since their homes have already been destroyed by the government that should have been their protector.
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 As if the terror by Museveni's troops were not enough on the people, the rebels of the LRA also stepped up their atrocities against innocent local Acholi people. The LRA claim that the Acholi are government collaborators who should be paid in blood. The LRA rebels have terrorized the Acholi since 1990. They cut off the legs of the Acholi to prevent them from walking to report the LRA to the government. They cut off the arms because arms can be used to work for the government. The LRA amputates people's limbs to prevent them from working on Sunday because, they say, it violates the teaching of the Holy Bible. The rebels claim to believe in running their affairs based on the Ten Commandments. Worse still, the rebels abduct and turn into soldiers children as young as 5-years old. Those who cannot carry heavy loads of rebel loot are brutally killed by other children using machetes and pounding sticks. This is to instill fear in the children so that they do not think of escaping back home. The United Nations estimates that the rebels have so far abducted and recruited over 20,000 children into their ranks. Numerous non-governmental and humanitarian organizations recently wrote an Open Letter to Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, calling upon him to intervene in northern Uganda. The organizations, including Human Rights Watch, World Vision International, Christian Children's Fund, Catholic Relief Services, American Jewish World Service and Mennonite Central Committee, implored Annan to rescue the Acholi by appointing a special UN Representative to the region. To no one's surprise, the UN has been reluctant to focus seriously on the issue, and is treating the plight of the Acholi in much the same way as it did Rwanda during the genocide in which 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu are believed to have been massacred. "We, the undersigned non-governmental organizations working in international humanitarian and development assistance, human rights, and conflict resolution, write to express our strong concern about the severe and deteriorating humanitarian situation in northern Uganda caused by continued conflict between the Government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)," said the letter, dated May 7. Numerous individuals and peace loving organizations including a local coalition known as the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), have tried to mediate to bring a peaceful end to the war, but to no avail. This is because Museveni's government has always thwarted any effort that came close to a peace deal, by bombing rebel positions or pulling out the government's peace team. Time after time, negotiations have been set back to square one. The Acholi people still believe that someone, somewhere is willing to save them from two decades of terror. Sons and daughters of the Acholi are scattered all over the world, among them university deans, medical doctors, lawyers, pilots, engineers and members of the armed forces of the United States and European countries. They expect that the citizens and leaders of these nations will rally behind them to save the Acholi people back home.  Unfortunately, the United States and Britain have been the major donors and supporters of Yoweri Museveni since he came to power in 1986. The two countries have bankrolled Museveni's annual budgets and armed him to the teeth. Museveni has used these weapons to terrorize the Acholi population and scare away political opposition to his government. It is time that the leaders of the United States and Britain rethink their support for Museveni, a leader who has failed to provide for the needs and safety of the citizens of his country. It is time they stopped financing his economic and military budgets, and call for him to be made accountable to his people. Museveni has failed to bring peace not only in Acholiland but also around the Great Lakes of Africa. American and British arms and funds have allowed Museveni to spread war and terror in Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo. As you finish reading this article, remember that the Acholi have been caught between two fires – between the LRA rebels and Museveni's government troops. They are calling for your help. Go spread the news to your leaders, councilmen and women, parliamentarians, congresspersons, your priests and pastors. Save the Acholi people. It is your turn and calling to act. Peter Okema Otika is an Acholi from northern Uganda. He is the President of the African Students Organization at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, and may be contacted via email at poo1@pitt.edu |
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Congo rules out amnesty for top M23 rebels
Pete Jones 6 hours ago
By Pete Jones
KINSHASA (Reuters) - Democratic Republic of Congo has ruled out granting amnesty to some 100 senior M23 rebels, it said on Thursday, leaving open the possibility that these commanders could be pursued even after peace talks are concluded.
Talks began in Uganda last week, after the army, backed by U.N. troops, scored rare military successes in August, forcing M23 into negotiations which could lead to the majority of rebels being reintegrated into the army which they deserted in 2012.
"We have a list of around 100 M23 commanders who will not be eligible for amnesty or for reintegration into the national army," government spokesman Lambert Mende told a news conference in the capital Kinshasa.
Rebels ineligible for any amnesty were those who had taken part in multiple rebellions, were on international sanctions lists or had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, Mende told journalists.
"To reintegrate these individuals would legitimate recourse to armed violence and insurrection," Mende said. The rest of the estimated 1,700 M23 rebels would be considered on a case by case basis, he added.
M23's reaction was muted. Spokesman Amani Kabashi said the government's decision would not jeopardise the negotiations.
"The dialogues will continue," Kabasha told Reuters by telephone from M23's base in its heartland North Kivu province.
"We don't even want to reintegrate. If the talks can bring security, then we are all happy to do something else: farm, or teach, to help our population," he said.
The M23 insurgency is the latest incarnation of a Tutsi-dominated rebellion that has repeatedly tried to integrate into the Congolese army, only to withdraw. Its fighters deserted en masse 18 months ago, accusing the government of reneging on a 2009 peace deal.
U.N. investigators and the Congolese government have accused Rwanda of sponsoring the rebellion, a charge Rwanda denies.
The government stance against a blanket amnesty is supported by Mary Robinson, U.N. special envoy to the region.
"We believe that there should not be amnesty for those accused of having committed serious crimes, nor should they be integrated in the armed forces of the DRC," she said this month.
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Warlord Kony 'in a box,' U.S. war crimes chief says
Notorious Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony is "solidly on the run," just one step ahead of his pursuers, thanks to U.S. training for regional militaries hunting him, and an aggressive campaign that offers rewards for information leading to his arrest, a top U.S. official told Yahoo News.
"We've got him in a box," Stephen Rapp, the ambassador-at-large for war crimes and crimes against humanity, said in an exclusive interview.
Kony, who leads the Lord's Resistance Army, drew renewed global attention in 2012 when a 30-minute video about his activities went viral. He has been accused of kidnapping tens of thousands of children and training them to fight for him or forcing them into sexual slavery.
In 2005, Kony and some of his top deputies became the first people indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. Most have eluded capture.
"Kony continues to operate in uncharted areas, where there are no roads, and as one Ugandan commander told me the trees are as thick as broccoli," Rapp said. And "he's not someone that goes on BBC interviews and creates a frequency that you can track."
How has the United States worked to change that? In October 2011, President Barack Obama sent 100 elite U.S. commandos to train regional government forces. And the government has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Kony's capture.
"Just in recent days" the United States has had clues that the international effort has "gotten very, very close to Kony," Rapp said Wednesday.
"We've got Kony solidly on the run, we've substantially diminished his forces, the operation is carried on in a way that protects the civilians," he told Yahoo News.
The War Crimes Rewards Program has put up posters in English, French and regional languages, dropped flyers from helicopters and broadcast messages via loudspeakers in an effort to convince populations inclined to shelter some of the world's most wanted fugitives to turn against them.
The program won a significant expansion in January 2013, broadening its mandate to cover more people accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide.
The reward amount varies, Rapp explained, depending on whether the information concerns a "big fish" or a "little fish," how much danger the informant faces and other factors.
Over the past four years, the program has paid 14 rewards, averaging $400,000 each, for information about suspects on the run from international courts for the former Yugoslavia or Rwanda, he said.
"Understand: Our reward program only pays for information leading to the arrest, transfer or conviction of the individual," Rapp said. "It doesn't pay for a dead Joseph Kony … it's not a dead-or-alive bounty. It's to have him face his accusers in court."
Rapp said his efforts to bolster international support for putting war criminals on trial take him on the road 220 days a year. "Sometimes it's almost like being a fugitive, someone that's on the run because of the law," he joked.
The ambassador at large oversees the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice and coordinates U.S. policy to prevent — or respond to — mass atrocities.
The ambassador works with other countries to build support for courts and "truth and reconciliation commissions" that hold accountable those responsible and work to pave the way for national unity.
Rapp was a prosecutor in Iowa in the 1990s when he watched — from Cedar Rapids — the massacres in the Balkans and the genocide in Rwanda.
He decided he needed to be part of the efforts to bring the Rwandan perpetrators to justice — and ended up winning the conviction of two news outlets that encouraged the massacre of some 800,000 ethnic Tutsis.
"If you're a prosecutor, and you're out there trying to make the world safer for families and communities, and you see the worst crimes, you want to see a response to them," he explained. "You want to see the vicious perpetrators — the people that would destroy lives, and particularly to do it in horrendous ways — you want to see those people brought to justice and you want to see those victims repaired."
The walls of Rapp's headquarters on the seventh floor of the State Department, down the hall from Secretary of State John Kerry's lavish workplace suite, have the unmistakable vibe of bureaucracy. One hallway features art prints you might see on the walls of a not-especially-imaginative college student.
But they coexist with eye-catching posters of notorious figures like Bosnian Serb Ratko Mladic, now on trial for the Srebrenica massacre of July 1995.
Some of the fugitives have a red "x" over their picture — captured. A doorway to a classified briefing space carries ominous warnings about safeguarding secrets. There are carved wooden messages of appreciation for Rapp's work as chief prosecutor for the Sierra Leone court set up to punish atrocities during that country's civil war.
One aide, whom Yahoo News spoke to but agreed not to name or show on camera, is a fugitive hunter whose office features a corkboard with pictures of fugitives, where they are thought to be hiding, and possible contacts.
So how does Rapp relax? Or does he?
"I actually find being on airplanes between visits relatively relaxing," he said with a laugh. "And watching a movie and reading a book and thinking about other things, and sitting with friends, and joking about all of the sort of humorous things that come with working with people of different societies and different places."
"I get relaxation out of spending time with the people that share this passion, and some of its successes," he said. "It's possible, even in the midst of these kinds of things, to relax, and enjoy it, and share the joy of being alive when at the same time you face the horrors of people that have had that right to life, and decent life, and safe life cut short."
- Joseph Kony
- Stephen Rapp
- crimes against humanity
- International Criminal Court
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Thursday, 04 April 2013 20:30
Written by SAMUEL OLARA
12 Comments
I keenly followed the debate in the press between President Museveni and former FDC leader Kizza Besigye, and the two leaders must be com- mended for their bloodless fight. That said, I was astonished by Museveni's misrepresentation of the role of the Acholi people in ending the LRA insurgency.
In one of his missives, Museveni wrote that ".....the much-suffering population of Northern Uganda and North-Eastern Uganda ran to IDPs because they were protected by the Army. They did not run into exile. They had confidence in the Army and they knew they were running away from terrorists. In fact, the population was blaming us for not defeating the rebels quickly."
This could not have been further from the truth. The Acholi were the first people to take up arrows against the terrorists in 1991 with the blessing of government. I want to challenge the president by re- minding him that in 1991 he directed then Minister for the Pacification of Northern Uganda, Betty Bigombe and the former RDC for Kitgum, Mr JB Ochaya (RIP), to recruit youths to protect the civilian population from LRA attacks.
The drive to recruit, what later became known as the "Atero boys", was one of the most significant aspects of the scorch-earth policy of Operation North, led by Gen David Tinyefuza (Sejusa). Up to 6,000 youths armed with arrows, spears, machetes, and sticks, were mobilized and recruited in Gulu and Kitgum. They were then let loose against the LRA (see "Kitgum forms people's battalions," New Vision, 17 May 1991).
This action sucked the entire civilian population in Acholi sub-region right into the middle of the conflict. Predictably, the rebels, saw the "Atero boys" as key to their demise and, therefore, stepped up the terror attacks against the civilians. The NRA/UPDF happily abandoned the vulnerable population, leaving them unprotected against an unprecedented wave of atrocities (see, "Kitgum rebels burn 14 in a hut," New Vision, 4 June 1991).
Then in 1994, the government accelerated the programme of recruiting the civilians for military work although this time they were labelled as "home guards." By February, 1995, up to 12,000 Acholi youth had been given two weeks' basic training, armed and absorbed into the army ( see "Scores killed as NRA hits back," Monitor, 25 January 1995).
But, like the 6,000 Atero youths be- fore them, the home guards were under- trained and under-armed; they became an easy target for the LRA. In one case, over 200 were killed in Atiak in April 1995. After routing the guards, the LRA announced: "You Acholi are now fighting us, we shall teach you a lesson you will never forget." The LRA went as far as sending a letter to Bigombe announcing that she had "brought death to the Acholi by telling the people to rise against them."
Bigombe herself encouraged the creation of the militia groups and did her best to justify the NRA's abandonment of the militia, arguing that it was the people's duty to fight the rebels. Acholi elders pleaded with both Bigombe and Gen Tinyefuza for the militia groups to be better armed, but the NRA supplied only a handful of rifles.
The reason why the NRA abandoned the militias is not clear, but many believe it was a strategic calculation influenced by the NRA's intention to eliminate any up- rising in Acholi. Others attribute the desertion to the NRA's plan to wipe out the Acholi using Joseph Kony, the LRA leader, as the excuse.
Clearly, the LRA were better-armed. They regularly overcame the militias before terrorising the civilians. The government, through Bigombe, under the directive of Museveni, continued recruiting militias, inadequately arming them and sending them to face the LRA. Clearly, the militias became a labour reserve for the UPDF. When the regular NRA/UPDF soldiers were killed, militias were often assigned their duties.
The NRA/UPDF deaths, on the other hand, were not recorded, eventually leading to the creation of ghost soldiers from which some senior officers are alleged to have pocketed money. Also, the brutal and heavy-handed manner in which Acholi civil society leadership were treated under the guise of eliminating rebel collaborators — accelerated during Operation North.
It meant that no politician, local councillor or civil society leader ever thought of listing the names of the Atero boys/home guards in any way, shape or form making accountability very difficult. To date, no body knows exactly how many children were recruited, how many perished or how many returned alive.
From June 1987 onwards, the rural Acholi not only protested the abuse and neglect that the government troops doled out, but more frequently protested the NRA's refusal to protect them from the LRA. When the NRA did act, it avoided the rebels and conducted operations against civilians in zones suspected to harbour rebel support.
According to the now defunct Financial Times of June 29, 1987, the Acholi were "like millet between two grinding stones." In the end, through a marriage of con- venience, the NRA and the LRA rebels came to what was termed by one journalist as a "peaceful coexistence," rarely engaging each other in combat or making any at- tempt to do so.
So, the president and his government are now able to manipulate facts around Atero boys/home guards/LDUs because these groups did not have any legal recognition and their recruitment was not properly documented. Yes we can say that the Acholi were the first people to take up arrows against the LRA. However, it was out of their own will and conviction, considering that Acholi elders had assured President Museveni in April 1986 that they would support his government for the sake of peace.
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Museveni meets Acholi leaders over OPM scam
President Museveni
By Yasiin Mugerwa
Posted Thursday, March 21 2013 at 02:00
In Summary
Yesterday's meeting is said to have been brought forward after some MPs from northern Uganda launched a campaign to collect signatures to back their renewed call for the region to breakaway from Uganda.
President Museveni yesterday met Acholi leaders to help defuse anger over the abuse of foreign aid meant for post-war recovery efforts in northern Uganda and Karamoja.
The misuse of money meant for the donor-funded Peace, Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP), has triggered anxiety in the north at a time when people displaced by more than two-decades of insurgency in northern Uganda are trying to rebuild their lives.
Yesterday's meeting, held at the President's country home in Rwakitura, was a follow-up to a meeting Mr Museveni had with MPs from Acholi which took place at Parliament. In this meeting, the MPs complained that the President had refused to meet Acholi leaders to discuss development in their sub-region and the plight of their people.
Yesterday's meeting is said to have been brought forward after some MPs from northern Uganda launched a campaign to collect signatures to back their renewed call for the region to breakaway from Uganda and formation of an independent country called Nile State.
The meeting also came on the day the American ambassador to Uganda, Mr Scott DeLisi, said grand corruption was directly linked to the way the country is being governed.
European donors, who cut aid over the Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) scandal last year, have started reinstating it but the police investigation into the matter has been hamstrung by interference from senior government officials said to be interceding on behalf of some of the suspects.
When the theft allegations in OPM came up at the meeting held at Parliament, the President reportedly challenged the MPs to produce evidence implicating the OPM Permanent Secretary, Mr Pius Bigirimana, in the scam.
Mr Museveni is said to have maintained that Mr Bigirimana was a whistleblower, a claim the MPs reportedly described as "unfair" and "diversionary", and pledged protection to the people who report the corrupt in government agencies.
Unlike the previous meeting, the Rwakitura meeting was attended by MPs, district chairpersons and RDCs from Acholi Sub-region. The delegation was led by Aswa MP Reagan Okumu, who is also the chairman of Acholi Parliamentary Group. Sources said PRDP funds, land wrangles, poor roads in the sub-region and compensation for people who were killed and those maimed by LRA rebels were set to be discussed.
The MPs also want the government to compensate the people whose property was destroyed during the war.
"We want serious government intervention in the north," a member of the team, who requested not to be named told the Daily Monitor. "Our people have suffered because of the war and the government intervention has not been satisfactory. Instead of helping our people, OPM officials decided to [eat] the donor funds in the name of our people and the President is silent."
While the details from the Rwakitura meeting were still scanty, another legislator told this newspaper that the President was to take the Acholi leaders on a tour to appreciate modern farming techniques needed in the fight against poverty.
ymugerwa@ug.nationmedia.com
