Uganda: Notes On Concealment Of Genocide In Uganda: By Apollo Milton Obote- April 1990; Part V

Dr. Apollo Milton Obote, the whistle blower on Genocide in Uganda

 

Dr. Apollo Milton Obote, twice president, was first to blow the whistle on genocide in Uganda  

 

The remnants of the Okello soldierly must have concluded that the ultimatum to surrender arms within ten days was a prelude for their wholesale arrest and murder. The danger, real or imaginary, led them to follow many of their numbers- who were already in Sudan but quite close to the border in Sudan, Bazilio Okello, very much dazed in his stupidity of July 1985, took the decision to invade Uganda. His plan, as I came to learn later, was to destroy quickly the NRA and allies in Acholi and then march to Kampala.

 

What happened deserves no comment except to point out that Bazilio Okello at that time was extremely unpopular and was detested throughout Acholi land and that whether Okello knew it or not, he gave Museveni the excuse he (Museveni) wanted in order to launch and put into effect a heinous scheme he had harbored to exterminate the Northerners who, he is fond of referring to as “backward and primitive people”.

 

GULU- UGANDA: It was common knowledge that Museveni chose not to be a party in the formation of an UNLA/NRA (Uganda National Liberation Army /National Resistance Army) regime to which he had agreed as per the Nairobi Accord. Instead he increased the velocity of his attacks on the Junta and the UNLA and left no doubt whatsoever that his mission was not only to overthrow the Junta but also thereafter to “punish” the soldiery of the Junta. The said soldiery of the Junta had among them officers who had good education and above average understanding of the political and military situation then.

They cannot be expected to have known that the Junta, in order to woe Museveni and gain his support, had surrendered intact to Museveni all the military and Police armories in the Western Region way back in August 1985. They also knew that the military and Police armories in the Eastern Region had not been disturbed, leave alone ransacked, when Okello and Okello started their rebellion in July 1985. They also knew that in January 1986, it was they alone who carried arms except for heavy one from military and Police armories in the East to their homeland.

They further knew that they left in armories in Kampala not only  considerable stocks of arms but also thousands of arms in the hand of former allies of the Junta namely Uganda Freedom Movement (UFM) and Federal Democratic Movement of Uganda (FEDEMU), had joined the NRA and were also engaged in the kidnappings in Acholi land. Lastly, they knew that their former allies, Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) and Former Uganda Army (FUNA) had also joined the NRA.

The remnants of the Okello soldierly must have concluded that the ultimatum to surrender arms within ten days was a prelude for their wholesale arrest and murder. The danger, real or imaginary, led them to follow many of their numbers- who were already in Sudan but quite close to the border in Sudan, Bazilio Okello, very much dazed in his stupidity of July 1985, took the decision to invade Uganda. His plan, as I  came to learn later, was to destroy quickly the NRA and allies in Acholi and then march to Kampala.

What happened deserves no comment except to point out that Bazilio Okello at that time was extremely unpopular and was detested throughout Acholi land and that whether Okello knew it or not, he gave Museveni the excuse he (Museveni) wanted in order to launch and put into effect a heinous scheme he had harbored to exterminate the Northerners who, he is fond of referring to as “backward and primitive people”.

The invasion force did not take any NRA position, nor even border posts. The force withdrew into Sudan within twenty four hours when the invasion petered out. To Museveni, however, the invasion had not petered out but a serious and all out war had broken. This war, total war, was to be launched in Acholi and later to spread into Lango, Teso and North Bukedi with sorties throughout, Busoga. This is a zone wherein the people detested Bazilio Okello and his force intensively- and wherein the UPC had massive support.

In the first week, the NRA and allies (in fact mixed units) launched attacks on villages and homesteads throughout Kitgum District and North Gulu District (Acholi land). It was then that Museveni used words which even Idi Amin or Jean Bedel Bokasa never used: “We massacred those backward chaps”! That phrase contains all the essential elements of Museveni’s policy for the prosecution of his wars against the people. Massacres in Kitgum District and part of Gulu District forced many civilians to flee to Sudan whence they returned, armed, to defend lives and property against the outrages of a rapacious and gang- star army- the NRA REBEL,M the ominous word which Museveni justifies his massacres and earns praises of the International Community.

Media and Human Rights Organizations began in Museveni’s regime in the manner described Okello’s invasion which was confined to and collapsed at a few border areas could not and can cot be said to have been rebellion. In Museveni’s eyes, it was a rebellion despite the fact that the people (Acholi) in the Districts invaded were overwhelmingly antagonistic to Bazilio Okello and invasion force. To Museveni, however, the common factors which constituted rebellion were Okello being Acholi, invasion force was composed of Acholi or overwhelmingly Acholi and the territory attacked was Acholi land. To him, therefore, the Acholi, as a people, were in rebellion to his rule.  

 

 

 

 

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