1)

"That weekend dictator Museveni also arrived from Kampala with an escort of about 5.000 soldiers in eighty vehicles and assortment of weapons both big and small."

2)

"are we to be made to understand that the LRA came from their bases in the Sudan, killed people in Barlonyo and moved back to the Sudan with those heavy equipments without being intercepted by Bantariza's gallant soldiers of Uganda? That weekend dictator Museveni also arrived from Kampala with an escort of about 5.000 soldiers in eighty vehicles and assortment of weapons both big and small. What is being done with those weapons or were they just for display? The questions could go on and on."


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Vovi Uganda e.V. 
To: [log in to unmask] ; [log in to unmask] ; [log in to unmask] 
Cc: [log in to unmask] ; [log in to unmask] ; [log in to unmask] 
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 11:50 AM
Subject: RRIA Broadcast on Barlonyo Massacre


The Massacres in Northern Uganda.

 

Presented by Alex Awiny Abukha

 

Fellow Ugandans,

 

Last Saturday 21.02.2004, a terrible massacre took place in Barlonyo camp, Lira district taking the life of 220 people and more. A few weeks ago a similar incident in which more than 50 people died took place in Abia camp also in Lira district. We in the RRIA condemn the atrocities in the strongest possible terms.

 

What we witness in Lango is a continuation of what has taken place in Northern Uganda throughout the last 18 years. The regions of Teso, Lango and Acholi have all been engulfed in this war all along the 18 years. The Bahima dominated NRM-Govt is intended to finish the people in these regions of Uganda. Make no mistake: Dictator Museveni knows very well that throughout his time in tenure as the president of Uganda, he has committed crimes against humanity in the north-east and northern Uganda to an extent that it has become impossible for the people in that part of the country to pardon him incase he leaves power.

 

M7 built his power on a tribalistic foundation. He started war in Luwero by calling upon southern Uganda (Buganda and Western Uganda) to unite and flush out the Anyanyas or animals from across Karumba bridge and anihiliate them. In his own words, dictator Museveni has no regret for any northerner dying. The northerners are swines, who should be closed in a bottle and left to rot there. Is it any wonder that when independent eye witnesses count the dead bodies and confirm that to be more than 200, dictator Museveni says only 80 people were killed. Why downplay the figures? Is the world being told that to dictator Museveni, 200 people in a camp in northern Uganda who die are just to be undercounted to a figure of 80? The message between the lines is: After all it is still only too few northerners who have died. Many more than this should have died. That is dictator Museveni's feeling for northern Uganda.

 

Dictator Museveni is a tribalist, he is sectarian to the marrow. The man hates northern Ugandans like a pest. Added to this, Museveni is a killer, a murderer at that who condones the killings done by his army and always gives protection to his officers even when they commit excesses on the civilian population. Take a look at these examples: 

 

First: when Col. Katagara, a man from Western Uganda, burnt 70 Teso youth in a train Waggon in Mukura, dictator Museveni transferred him to Arua in the West Nile region. While in West Nile, that Col. Katagara instructed his army men to plant landmines and cut the lips of the people there. As soon as this was discovered in Arua, Museveni transferred the col to Gulu to continue commiting these atrocities. Katagara could commit these crimes in Gulu where dictator Museveni had sealed off the place from the press who could have otherwise reported the inhuman acts at that time. He would have loved to do the same with Abia and Barlonyo camps right now. But the world has known him and is following him with all the horrendous crimes he is committing.

 

Secondly: After the Barlonyo massacre, the commander in charge, Lt. Col Mulindwa, from the southern part of Uganda, was transferred to the headquarters ostensibly for further training. In his own words dictator Museveni says "I have not been harsher with him because he has been a good fighter especially while a battalion commander". In other words; Dictator Museveni tells us that, by transferring this man for further training, he was harsh with this failed army officer but never continued to be harsher. My God fellow Ugandans; Is transferring a person for further training really what one with a sound mind can call being harsh? Lt. Col Mulindwa commanded the battle and left more than 200 civilians dead. Besides: If this man had been a northerner, could dictator Museveni have been that lenient? Last year, an army private called Pirimundu was sentenced to death because of cowardice. Pirimundu comes from northern Uganda. Because of refusing to kill civilians who he believed were innocent, Pirimundu was to be executed. A Mulindwa, who has caused the death of more than 200 civilians is patted on the shoulder by taking him for further training.

 

For those who doubt dictator Museveni's sectarianism, it should be clear from the cited examples that Museveni is bent on eliminating the northerners in all ways possible. Cols Katagara and Mulindwa with all their crimes that everyone can see are just transferred to other places. A northerner, Pirimundu, whose only crime is cowardice is sentenced to death. Does one need more evidence?

 

My colleague Godfrey reported here a few days ago that dictator Museveni said in western Uganda that he was very happy because of his achievement in disuniting the northern Ugandan tribes of Acholi and Lango. Fellow Ugandans, dictator Museveni has not simply disunited Acholi and Lango, he is working day and night to bring an all tribal war amongst the two communities. We are all aware of the tensions in Lira over the beastly massacres in Abia and Barlonyo. We are aware of the anger that the displaced peoples in the urban centers in Lango and Acholi have. Yesterday, 25.02.2004, during the hours of demonstration, reports reaching RRIA says that some people of Acholi speaking were killed by the angry mob in Lira. We in the RRIA are very sad about that and strongly condemn it. For Museveni, it is enough to keep quiet about it. After all it is they "the northerners" who are killing one another.

 

It is a difficult moment for us all, in Lira, Apac, Pader, Kitgum and Gulu. It is also a difficult moment for us in the diaspora. It is a difficult moment for us sons and daughters of these districts wherever we may be, seeing or hearing about such a thing happening amongst our peoples. I, Alex Awiny Abukha, I am an Acholi and Godfrey Ayoo, my colleague, is a Lango. We hear and receive anger from Acholi and Lango. But of what help will it be to us, if I begin to go for Godfrey's throat and he in retaliation and a fit of anger, grabs my testicles and squeezes them in our studio here in cologne, in the stupid name of revenge? Where will we end up? What will become of RRIA? Let us not be ruled by emotions. All pertaining problems should be analyzed carefully. We should go to the root cause of the problem and come out with a solution that should unite our peoples of Lango and Acholi.

 

 

Dictator Museveni wants a tribal war because he has failed to finish the insurgency in Northern Uganda for a whole 18 years now. While fighting in Luwero, dictator Museveni would put on the UNLA uniform during the night, massacre people at that time and the next day, he would come to parade as someone who is there to deliver people from what he called an evil regime. Dictator Museveni has a force that operates in such a clandestine manner in Lango right now. Such an evil force is always bent on creating misunderstanding amongst the civilian population, electrify them and drive them to vent their anger on some intended targets.

 

I am still to be convinced that a Geurilla army, dressed in the newest Govt army uniform which not all Amuka militias have, can move with heavy military equipments, hit a camp for three or more hours and withdraw without the army attacking them or even intercepting these heavy weapons after the day's operation. Or are we to be made to understand that the LRA came from their bases in the Sudan, killed people in Barlonyo and moved back to the Sudan with those heavy equipments without being intercepted by Bantariza's gallant soldiers of Uganda? That weekend dictator Museveni also arrived from Kampala with an escort of about 5.000 soldiers in eighty vehicles and assortment of weapons both big and small. What is being done with those weapons or were they just for display? The questions could go on and on.

 

The peoples of Acholi and Lango (Our people). Dictator Museveni is out to destroy us. He may anihiliate the Acholi first and move on to Lango or vice versa or even at the same time. It is up to us (you and me) to develop our own strategy to overcome this trick. If there has been any moment that we felt we should go for a crisis meeting then this is the right one. If we can draw up a common military strategy then this can be the best alternative to the marauding UPDF in our regions. Henceforth, never think of and rely on the Kampala regime for the defense of the citizens of Uganda in the north. Dictator Museveni's major preoccupation right now is lifting the two-term limit to extend his stay in office. He is more inclined to give concessions to other peoples and groups than solve our insecurity problem. To this end, he is comfortable with continuing to have an army of occupation in our region, as is the case now.

 

I suggest that we demand for the withdrawal of the UPDF from the north and to allow us to develop our own Militia groups to protect our peoples. Believe me, if Museveni's army were not in the north, we would have solved our problems by now. We could have organized our peace talks with the rebels and arranged for peaceful settlement of the conflicts. Museveni parades to the world that he tried peace talks but the rebels are not ready for it. This is a blatant lie. The rebels have said that they tried about three times to go for peaceful negotiations but the Govt thwarted those efforts. Retired Bishop Macloed Ochola also said the same thing to us in the German city of Würzburg recently. Who does not remember the Betty Bigombe peace talk in 1994 where dictator Museveni destroyed every hope for peace when he gave the rebels an ultimatum of only one week or face his fire power? Stupid arguments always come from NRM quarters and her sympathizers that the LRA should name her team for the peaceful negotiations as Museveni has done. That is bogus. Who cannot see the trick behind that folly statement? Museveni has always said that for him he is stuck to the military option. If, for example, the LRA mention their team and some of the members happen to be in Govt or are living in the towns now, dictator Museveni would hunt such people and either kill them or even push them to safe houses because after all he is for the military solution. Is this a difficult thing to see?

 

Acholi and Langi (our people). Let us not be naïve. The UPDF is simply Museveni's watchdog. We need our own army. We need the autonomy and freedcom to develop that army. We do not need dictator Museveni's Kampala Govt to do that for us. That Govt has failed us for the last 18 years and will continue to make us suffer. We either get up, shake our feet free of the NRM shackles or we remain on our knees before dictator Museveni.

 

We have a duty to preserve our peoples, our cultures and traditions, which we should pass on to the generations to come. We must all rise up to the challenges. We in the RRIA are holding together and we will not let you down. Any Ugandan who cares about unity in our region and Uganda as a whole should be given a chance to make his contributions.

 

We need a stable northern Uganda much as we need a stable Uganda for us all.

 

Thanks for listening to me.





______________________________________________________________







BARLONYO MASSACRE



Presented by Godfrey Ayoo

 

On behalf of the staff at Radio Rhino International - Africa, the exiled members of Uganda peoples Congress, on behalf of people of Acholi and Lango in Diaspora, living outside Uganda who have asked me to communicate their condolences to the bereaved people of Lango, and on my own behalf I take this opportunity to express my deepest sorrows and condolences to the people of Lango both living in and outside Uganda following the Barlonyo massacre of 257 innocent unarmed civilians, children, women and men who were last Saturday 21st. February massacred, slaughtered, burnt like rats and squirrels  in their huts at Barlonyo internally displaced refugees camp ten kilometres away from Abiya, the location of another massacre of 90 persons about three weeks ago north of Lira Town. 

 

We condemn those who carried out the beastly attack and massacres at Abiya and Barlonyo bringing the approximate total number to 500 Lango en masse killed brutally within the last three weeks. 

 

Furthermore, we condemn the killing of unarmed four demonstrators in Lira by heavily armed Uganda Forces who used excessive and unwarranted military deployment and force shooting at the crowd with life bullets. It is revealed that some UPDF officer in Lira Military barrack revealed that the Army was planning to kill people at the demonstration, he therefore warned some members of the rally to stay away from the demonstration. It is therefore no surprise that four persons were shot dead and some lay now in the hospital with gun shot wounds.  

 

I send my wishes and message of quick recovery to those injured at the demonstration and are admitted in hospitals. However, I condemn whoever did participate in the lynching of a man previously reported to have been an Acholi, the victim of the mob lynch now identified as a brother in law to a Lango Parliamentarian from east Lango. The motivation, intention and the act makes the perpetuators as guilty as dictator Museveni and those who carried out the Abiya and Barlonyo massacre. While, I stand out to condemn reported tribal sentiments amongst Acholi and Lango, I cannot fail to notice the ackward absurd dead silence that followed the Abiya and Barlonyo Massacre. No one told me nor the people of Lango, Uganda and the international community that the Lango victims were victims of a tribal hatred or killing. We who now have the position to speak must not be wanting, but must be there at all times in all social and political weather. 

 

Irregardless of which tribe one belongs to, we the people of Lango and Acholi and the entire Uganda must conceive and treat a human being as God's climax of creation. What difference does it make if we begin to act like the oppressor and killer dictator, what difference do we make if we too follow a similar path of destructive blanket and collective blames and discrimination of a community, which would defeat the moral and noble logic of our 18 years old grievances, opposition and rejection of dictator Museveni. 

 

Each and everyone amongst us, Acholi, Lango, Teso, Lugwara, Muganda, Munyangkole, Tutsi etc have the responsibility and duty to work in the preservation and protection of human life. Nonetheless we must not shy away from fighting back against anyone, groups or a system that threatens our very existence, right to life, security, peace and development. 

 

In this regards, as I have said in my previous talks, I call upon you the victims of terrorism to investigate and establish the identities and motivation of the senseless mass killers, and once established the people of Acholi, Lango and Teso must unite and act decisively to create a new secured environment devoid of Uganda army, government establishment and collaborators and deny dictator Museveni grounds for governance through chaos, anarchy, terrorism in northern and eastern Uganda. 

 

It must now be clear enough that dictator Museveni mean harm to Acholi and Lango. As we have done before, and still do now, be warned that dictator Museveni wants and is doing everything possible to ignite a tribal war between our two tribes. We must not allow that, and if we must fight then the real battle must be against dictator Museveni who continues to deny us security and peace by rejecting the intervention of the international community in northern and eastern Uganda.  

 

Fellow citizens, my dear bereaved people of Acholi, Lango and Teso; the incidence of yesterday  whereby a careless person was killed must not be allowed to occur again. We are all brothers and sisters, we are one people, we are victims of state terror, chaos and anarchy, we are one community with one destiny. We must re focus ourselves, attentions, efforts and energy to target the Uganda dictatorship and hold him responsible for the killing in Lango to set a tribal wage between our two tribes. Killing an innocent person makes you and me not any better of, nor different from those who have killed at Abiya and Barlonyo.  

 

Though aware of the high tension, pressure and frustration and the pain of our dead kith and kin, I call for total restrain amongst the people of Lango against any un-armed peaceful persons living in our midst or travelling through our territory. I therefore call upon those listening to this broadcast to create spread words around for restrain, normalisation and brotherly co-habitation with Acholi living in Lango. If there was ever any time in the last 18 years of dictatorship that Acholi and Lango needed to unite and fight then that time is now, Dictator Museveni is our only enemy. Are you really angry, then fix it up with dictator Museveni who has caused chaos and terror for the last 18 years. It is time you and me take terror, chaos, unrest and insecurity to his doorsteps or in the trenches in east Lango where he pretends to be. Asked in an interview on BBC Net Work Africa whether he didn't feel like apologising to the victims, relatives and the people of Lango, dictator Musveni jumps back to his obsession of calling the victims of his war of vengeance as those people have been killing in Nile Mansion and in Luwero He says he knows the right time for apologising! Aren't  the Abiya and Barlonyo Massacres reasons enough for a normal and sane human being holding the office of responsibility to apologise and most likely resign in normal circumstances. To dictator Musveni we are all the same, we are those people who don't deserve apologies, we must be killed or when we are killed dictator Museveni refuses to apologise but runs back to his satanic verses of those northerners, those people, those killers. Well, if we are killers why then haven't we all fought back at dictator Museveni. Now, it is more obvious that it makes no difference not fighting back because we the northerners are those people. His military spinner, Maj. Bantarisa says five people were killed in the melee. "One person was shot; four were lynched by the mob while three others were injured," 

 

We must do all that it takes now not to allow another massacre or killing of any single Lango to take place. Your call for national and international attention and intervention will only be effective and audible if and when you revolt and paralyse either half or the rest of the country. The fool governing Uganda knows and fears chaos, let us therefore get to him and take him a share of the restlessness, chaos, anarchy and insecurity. 

 

You may be aware that today the Haitian opposition dissatisfied with their government, took major towns and are vowing to take over the capital and seat of power. We the people of Acholi, Lango and Teso threatened by massacres, genocide and extinction have the noble course and reasons for an individual, society and community to rise up and fight in the defence of our lives that our children, women, elders and the infirmed may live in security. As long as we in the north remain insecured, we must henceforth not allow the rest of the country and Kampala to carry on with business as usual while our mothers and children live in IDP camps where they are killed like insects. 

 

In a telephone interview with BBC Focus on Africa, whose audio extract we re-broadcasted on Tuesday night, the LRA Political Commissar Brigadier Sam Kolo denied the LRA carried out the Barlonyo massacre. In spite of Sam Kolo's narration of an attack on the LRA position and their counter offensive against the attackers, intelligence reports from Lango convinces me to conclude that the massacre at Barlonyo was most likely carried out by the Uganda government counter insurgency troops to prepare the Lango for the arrival of dictator Museveni in Lango, who must find them physic up braying for blood. On Wednesday morning, we missed a telephone call whose number and source indicated that it must have been a call from the LRA leadership. 

 

I am sure that Joseph Kony, Vincent Ottii and Sam Kolo are listening to Radio Rhino International Africa, and if that be the case, I call upon the LRA leadership to contact Radio Rhino International Africa, or the people of Acholi and Lango to explain their position on the Abiya and Barlonyo massacres, both of which are very essential for the relationship between communities in northern Uganda.

 

For some peculiar and very strange reasons last Saturday February 21st. 2004; the majority of UPDF and Local Defence Unit pulled out of Barlonyo leaving the security of 5000 refugees to 30 ill-equipped soldiers of Amuka Militia. The weapons used in the attack artillery etc are weapons that could not have been moved around very easily without detection. The attackers captured a (westerner) UPDF 2nd. Lt Commander of Amuka, stripped him off his uniforms and gun and set him free to return to Lira. If the enemy could kill innocent unarmed Lango, and if that was the LRA, brutal as they are reported to be, how and why did they spare the life of the UPDF commander and let him free to escape. Immediately after the Barlonyo massacre, Col. Otema Awany and Col. Mulindwa buried over fifty victims of the Barlonyo massacre in a mass grave and were intent on burying the the rest and all if the people didn't stop them! The Uganda army killed persons who were taking photographs of the slain victims of the Barlonyo Massacre. The Barlonyo massacre was carried out the morning of the day when the cold blooded satanic and evil president of Uganda terrorist and killer dictator Museveni arrived in Lango. 

 

Just last week dictator Museveni told the editors / managers of Monitor and New Vision Newspapers that the UPDF had dealt a killer blow to the LRA which now only had 50 fighters left! Who were the heavily armed men dressed up in UPDF and Amuka uniforms that committed the Abiya and Barlonyo Massacres. Dictator Museveni denies the reported number of the victims massacred at Barlonyo. Sometimes back, he denied the Abiya mass killing was a massacre. Commenting on the Barlonyo massacre, dictator Museveni says only 84 were killed, but eye witnesses, victims, priests and journalists all put the number at not less than 257 persons massacred. To him, the life of a Lango, or 84 Lango, or 257 very precious being with life is regarded as `only´ or rather we are insects. Why all the denial and cover ups, what is it that the government wants to conceal, and what has been the government's role in Barlonyo massacre? And for what reasons was it carried out? 

 

There can only be the following hypothetical answer that the killing at Abiya and Barlonyo are schemes by dictator Museveni to create more grounds for the ICC/J to try the leadership of the LRA. Some observers think that it may help to start a tribal war between his most feared enemies, the Acholi and Lango, hence relieve him of the current political pressure and an oblique political future. 

 

Well, dictator Museveni praises Lt. Col. Mulindwa for being a good soldier and field commander, hence rewards him with pledges of sending Lt. Col. Mulindwa for further military studies as a price for the Barlonyo massacre. Can the massacre of over 400 Lango be reason enough for a humane president to praise Lt. Col. Mulindwa for being a good soldier and an effective field commander?, Isn't dictator Museveni telling us the people of Lango that he is proud of Mulindwa for having massacred 400 Lango in less than thirty days. Well done son, you have done well to have shed enough blood to appease the evil spirits in me, I therefore reward you with further studies that you may learn more new skill on how to massacre more of the for the sacrificial table of the Prince of darkness. 

 

It is total folly to rely or seek for protection and security from a government that rewards a soldier for the massacres of 400 of your kith and kin. Lango has no other option but to severe ties with the central government, and whoever tries to stop you is the enemy of Lango. We still wait to see what reward Col. Otema Awany will get for the Abiya and Barlonyo massacres. A good soldier and commander would have laid down his life so that the civilians entrusted to his care may live! All the acts above demonstrate prior knowledge, premeditation and a carefully planned mass killing by the soldiers of Uganda government. 

 

I implore each and every able bodied person, women and men, retrenched, retired and active trained military personnel, civil servants, business men, religious leaders and anyone who values human life to rise up to the challenge, join and support every local security programme and apparatus put in place to liberate northern and eastern Uganda from the state of anarchy and insecurity. Aware that neither the Uganda dictatorship nor the international community will provide an expeditious intervention in northern Uganda, I call upon the victims of the war of vengeance to take matters in your own hands now, today and declare as enemies anyone or groups, or government working for the destruction of human life and property. Thus anyone and all those persons under arms bent on harming or killing innocent people is our enemy. It is enough. Anyone who for personal, very selfish reasons and cowardice propagates the notion that you must further entrust your security in the hands of a failed government or anyone who tries to deter you from protecting yourselves is an enemy and danger to your life. 

 

We the people of Acholi and Lango ought to realise that if ever we have ever been threatened, it is now more that at any time else in our history as a people and community that we must stand up united and fight back and die fighting if that be in the defence of our children, mothers, elders, the disabled, the informed, the malnourished, the sick, and entire community rather than surrender our lives to the mercy of our enemies. It is more purposeful to die fighting in the defence of our collective existence and survival. You cannot entrust your security and life into the hands of the consummate cold blooded lying president, dictator Museveni whose crocodile tears and admission of guilt on the part of his army must not be accepted, because if he seriously regretted the massacres in Lango, the suffering of the people in Acholi and the entire inhabitants of northern and eastern Uganda he could have allowed the international community to intervene in Uganda, he couldn't have praised Lt. Col. Mulindwa for have presided over the massacre of over 400 Lango in less than a month, above all dictator Museveni has guts to deny that 257 persons were massacred at Barlonyo.

 

Finally, it is absurd and most stupid of dictator Museveni to blame the UN and Sudan for the 18 years old insecurity in northern Uganda. Neither the United Nations nor Sudan asked him to renegade and breach the Nairobi Peace Treaty he signed with late Tito Okello's military junta, neither the UN nor Sudan asked him to carry out a war of vengeance in northern Uganda, none asked him to massacre people in Acholi pii, Acholi bur, Corner Kilak, he began the war in Luwero and has never ended that war which still rages in northern Uganda. None asked him to plan and carry out the genocidal war of vengeance in Rwanda, the UN never sent him to arm Congolese rebels. It is dictator Museveni who has failed the great lakes regions. Yesterday dictator Museveni dinned with Col. Gadaffi, but had it been his opponents from Uganda, he would have screamed terrorist! Finally, it was Museveni's own ego that drew Sudan into Uganda's affairs when he presented himself to Clinton and Bush as a human barrier against Islamic fundamentalism and a carrier, custodian and launching pad of the SPLA struggles in Sudan. It is too sad, because dictator Museveni 's thoughts, objectives, goals and deeds are neither Islamic nor Christian. If he is at all religious that he must be the high priest of the Prince of Darkness.

 

We remain walking with you and support you. Finally we advocate for unity amongst all the victims of the war and insecurity in northern and eastern Uganda to join hands the people back at home in the declared one week of mourning through fasting and prayer, that at the end we may get the resolved spirit and zeal required to fight for our rights to live a secured and dignified meaningful life. 

 

For the souls of our dear departed, I pray: Eternal rest give unto them O lord, May your perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in Peace, Amen. In sha lah!

 

 

 

 

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