Secret Photos Reveal New African Horrors

what can we, as individuals who DO CARE, do about this?

Who do I contact to Help remove this Idiot from Power, he makes Sadam look like a heavenly saint.

I certainly do care.

How terribly pitiful that we have all these human beings subjected to starvation, torture and God knows what else. No one with any influence or clout gives a damn because there is nothing to be gained by our intervention. They don’t have oil fields in Uganda.

Too bad Uganda and Darfar don’t have oil. Then maybe the U.S. government would have an interest in “helping” these people. Too bad they have nothing we want. If they were white that might help too.

Please GOD help us help these people.

When is our government going to stop making money of gas and stop blowing GAS and help these human being.

It just might take an African American President TO DO SOMETHING about this…….

Its very simple, the more we know the more we can change.

This is an atrocity – humanity at its worst. How do we help – by letting the world see what is going on. Why does the US have to be the only world force – what about the middle eastern countries, asia, europe – the UN. Like another writer, if we sent troops, the leftist media would make them look like killers. yes, the middle east conflict is about oil because if the bad-guys control the oil, that means $10/gallon gas prices (or higher) as well as higher cost of goods on petroleum based products, such as plastics. I pray for the people in Uganda and Darfur. I pray that the evil warmongers of Africa will be removed.

I am embarrassed to be an American with all of these atrocities in the world. And all we see on television are stories about the troubles of celebrities, it’s a shame that’s really what most of the US cares about. All of our wasted efforts in Iraq, when we could be helping millions in Africa. Why, oh why? How about a new reality TV show where George W. gets to live for a month in one of these refugee camps?

no, i don’t care. these people are a waste of energy and resources. the less people to subjugate, the less genocide. There are too many problems here. We cannot start invading every country whose poitics we do not agree with. Saddam was a murderer and not a nice guy, but he kept those animals in iraq in their cages where they obviosly belonged.

For those people looking for the US govt to take a role in this situation (or Darfur for that matter) I ask one question.
Why does the world look to the US to solve their problems? When they need us they love us – when they dont need us they hate us.
Shame on all of you haters out there that cant get past your fellings to seet this for what it is – bad people doing bad things. We can’t stop that from happening on our own – what the heck is the UN doing? They do NOTHING at all …NOTHING. And the libs and the media just love them anyway.
Libs – look to yourselves for the root of all of these awful events in Africa. If it werent for wanting “peace” (a completely undefined term) so many people wouldnt die at the hands of people that dont want “peace”.

“You can’t solve a problem at the same level of awareness that created it.” Albert E.

Everyone is asking what you can do to solve the problems when there are so many things that need attention throughout the world.
Maybe you can’t give money, or go, but you can pray. Your prayers are a vital and essential part of a solution because God does care about these people and we have a responsibility if nothing else, to pray. Know that God does care about this ongoing geniside .

Funny how western governments use the term liberation in situations like that of Iraq, but completely disregard situations like Uganda and Darfur. Saddam Hussein was bad for America and had controlled an area rich with a commodity that Americans willingly pay$3 a gallon for. This should show the intelligent American the true nature and extent of corruption within our government and the portrayal of their actions throughout the world to the American people.
Synopsis: Iraqi liberation- American economical advantages
North Korea- We have enough rice and coal
African liberations- who cares……

Thanks to this photo report at least the true nature of the hidden genocide in Northern Uganda is being brought to the attention of the western world. Western Governments have for too long turned a blind eye to the suffering of the Acholi people. It is time the taxpayers in these countries began asking their governments why they spend their monet supporting the Uganda Government that in turn either misapproriate the funds or uses it for weapons against its own people.Why? Why? Why.

Consider this. If the “Haves” of the world wish to prosper from the “Have Nots” of the world, receive a better return on investment when they don’t have to deal with a stable governement that is concerned with the wellfare of the people. This short sighted view of payoffs and rewarding corruption assure that the country is available to have it’s riches pillaged is what leads to a world of poverty and disenfranchised people willing to join extremist organizations.

Please help Buganda and carry out the same kind of investigation so that we can expose what Museveni has done throughout the past 30 years and especially in the early 80′s in Luweero, Buganda. It makes me so bitter that he has managed to lie to the whole world about his role in the genocide in the North of Uganda and in Congo, Sudan and back in Luweero. Sam K. L. Kasozi

To Genny, I’m not playing the race card. I’m white. Racism exists in this country, it’s alive and well where I live. If Africans were white we would be helping them. But they’re just a bunch of black people so who cares? One little white girl in South America gets kidnapped and everyone in the world is looking for her yet little black kids by the hundreds lay dead in Africa with little or no effect.

African’s are not capable of governing themselves.

A glimpse of such atrocities. I’d like to see the full story and know more about the filmakers who obviously risked their own lives to bring this powerful information to light. ABC, thank you for providing this unknown information. For those of you who claim to have had insight to this and silently stood by, shame on you. This story is NOT about oil, American politics or race. It is a HUMAN RIGHTS issue. I have to ask, why does the United Nations ignore this? As usual, many people did not get the point from this short piece. Ms. Gravel and Mr. Eslocker, thank you for the eye opener. May we please know more of the story?

This story needs to be on the news. The news media needs to get back to hard investigative reporting; Report only what is known to be fact, not speculation. This story is fact, a cold, hard, devistating fact. We were convinced that we needed to go into Iraq on false pretenses. We listened to those in power tell us what needed to be heard in order to push their own agendas. Oil. These poor people don’t have that bargaining chip to get the world involved. The only way to make people care is to show them what is happening in the world. We need to come together as a nation and globally to stop poverty – in our country and others. Make the news news again, not entertainment. No more stories about poor Paris Hilton, please.

The international community’s conspiracy of silence around the horrors and the tragedy unfolding in Acholi, northern Ugand is heart wrenching and simply mind boggling. To think that fellow human beings have endured this kind of conditions for 21 years and yet the government of Uganda is being patted on the back for ‘restoring peace and obseving human rights’ in Uganda, is to say the least chilling and callulous. Thank you ABC for giving this story your due consideration, you have chosen to break that conspiracy and i commend you for a job well done.

The full horror of the ongoing genocide in Acholiland which was well planned by Yoweri Museveni BEFORE and DURING the Luwero war will only be known when the Culprit himself is out of power. The sooner the better. Other Ugandans will remember this regime (whose middle name should be NEPOTISM)as being the most corrupt and brutual in the whole of the African continent. Shame on those “democracies” who still prop up and act as apologists for this murderous dictator!

While others in similar situation, but with humanitarian intention are loosing cameras in drove, Emily seems to have escaped that treatment? Is Emily aware of a security meeting which took place three months ago in Kitgum ostensibly to clamp down on anyone found taking pictures? The truth is, Emily will not be the last to benefit from one of those carefully crafted and government-led guided tours of sanitized concentration camps meant for foreign consumptions. Had she been to Agoro, Awere, Bolo, Lagile, Kitgum Matidi, Ligi Ligi, Abia, etc., she would be singing a different tune. Other major US news organizations were in Acoli long before ABC took the bull by the horn. Your guess is as good as mine why they chose to remain silent. The Northern Uganda genocide is the key phrase for those interested in learning more about this particular crime and how to help.

I think that we need to focus on whats going on instead of Paris Hiltn. I’m ashamed that nothing is being done, for these people they are being treated like dogs. I think that if it happens here then something would have been done!!!

The fact that the Ugandan government official tried to prevent the journalist from doing their job shows that they have a hidden agenda and something to hide. They want to prevent the world from knowing what is happening in government created and controlled concentration camps in Acholiland where over 1500 Acholi die each and every week. Over 90 % of the Acholi population are forced to live in these camps where they are denied their fundamental rights and frequently abused at will by the very government that is supposed to protect them.
We should not ignore genocide on our watch.

It might be late for many voiceless but they will be thankfull you did let the rest of the world knows what has bappened and continues to unfold in the Concentration Camps in Northern Uganda-Acoliland. Africa worst murderer(Hilter of the Great Lakes) has/had defraud the west and the rest of the world that he is the kind of leader that will bring prosperities to Sub-sahara Africa. Bravo to the people behind this earnest documentary, please, ABC show to America and let the other part of the world know too

Thank you ABC…for once somebody is reporting the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the situation in northern uganda.There is GENOCIDE happening as we speak in northern uganda which has been planned and is being executed under the very eyes of the whole world and ALL THE NGOS IN NORTHERN UGANDA.Uganda has 2 sides…the north and the south.The south is what the world looks at and tells everybody this is how the whole of uganda is like.The Northern side, there is genocide happpening, 1000 a week die, hiv aids is rampant,concentration camps exists,killings continue by uganda government forces – UPDF. rICHARD

Uganda’s President Museveni suspended the Ugandan constitution in 2005 to allow for unlimited term limits. Sounds like a dictator to me! Are we so surprised to discover what’s ocurring in the Pearl of Africa?
Other Tidbits:
Uganda has been fined by the International Court of Justice for War Crimes in the DRC.
Museveni is intent on giving away as much public property as possible, including national forests. A govt. spokesperson was quoted as saying “it’s easier to replace a forest, than a factory.” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6551905.stm
Museveni’s policies are clear and spoken aloud; so who’s allowing his charade to continue? Or rather, who’s benefitting from it? Sending Ugandan troops to Somalia, “fighting terrorism” etc., etc.
In Museveni’s words:
“What is the Geneva Convention on wars! I have never read it.”
“You see when you give them (civil population in the North and East) a good beating then those who are using them will no longer use them. Since the month of January (1987), we have given them much beating especially in Lira and Kitgum Districts. And in fact the week I left (for Yugoslavia) we had given them a good blow in Gulu District. So it is going to settle down.”

It’s so sad, thank you ABC for your revealing report. I hope to see the movie.

To Jenny or someone who asked why Al Sharpston and Jessie Jackson are not out there advocating for their black brothers and sisters suffering at the hands of President Museveni. The truth of the matter is that if we simply look at the problem from a bigot’s perspective, the issues get confused. We need to understand that even within Acholi itself, there are people who for their selfish reasons support the very government who is committing genocide against the group. In the states, they call them uncle Tom. They are used by the dictator so that he can say, “You see, I have Acholis in my government. Therefore, I cannot be committing genocide against the Acholi people.” A deliberate disinformation.
I believe that many black Americans have been to Uganda. Unfortunately the first encounter many of them have is with high officials of the regime. They are wined and dined and are carefully steered away from the sore spots. Then they are fed the idea that the victims of this war are lazy, uncooth, primitive, violent, killers, etc, and therefore, basically unworthy of life. After all they are killing themselves. Easy proposition to accept by unsuspecting visitors. When talk alone does not work, the mighty dollar speaks. For example, Congressman Payne of New Jersy is believed to be a powerful lobbyist for Museveni. There is also a black American woman who is a powerful lobbyist for Museveni in Washington DC. She helped secure AGOA etc. So, you see, we cannot make sense out of the whole thing by simply looking at the color of the skin. The color of the skin is important but it only makes sense if it is considered in context, but not in the abstract. Sorry, I have so much to say that it got to be too long.

What has been going on in northern uganda is very despicable. Civilized community around the world should advise the Queen of England Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II not set foot in Uganda in november for the CHOGM and Yoweri Museveni should be investigated for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He has now started grabbing people’s land and swift action is needed

Finally, we hope that the correct questions will be asked by the international community, especially the US government–which has blindly supported the government in Kampala. I salute the film makers who went, saw, and documented.

Thank you ABC for daring to tell the other side of the not so known story. I am an Acholi mother who wants all of the stories to come out. This is the beginning point for the long road to healing and reconciliation for the whole of Uganda. People have enough intelligence to sort out the truth in this information age.
Both the LRA and the government of Uganda bear huge responsibilities for the 21 years of armed conflict and the resulting deaths, abductions, social and economic break downs. Acholi leaders as well as all Ugandans and other people of goodwill do too becuase we are witnessess to the 21 years of a humanitarian crisis of the highest kind. Even as we send our comments things continue to fall apart because the social damage is so deep that not one gun needs to be fired anymore!
21 years of destroyed lives and potential tell its own series of stories for the world. Do you want more documented evidence of the impact of this war? Go and walk through the death trap camps:the giant bottles to contain my people in.

If Bush and his cronies have it their way, WE will all be living just like the people in this picture. If you like these types of people so much, GO LIVE THERE WITH THEM. These photos are to GET YOUR SYMPATHY and are probably not even real photos. They could have been taken years ago in another country. Do you actually BELIEVE everything you see on the news???? If you do, then I have a very large bridge in my backyard that I will sell to any one of you CHEAP!

News matters. What is reported/not reported makes a difference in how we view the world and our place in it.
ABC News can and should step up, air the film, and show what life is for the people of northern Uganda. By shedding a brighter light on the realities of life in Uganda which stand in such sharp contrast to the government’s promises and claims made throughout the past 20+ years, more accountability and assistance can be made available to the people who have endured too much for way too long. Policies and practices can be based on fact, not fiction.
In reading others’ comments, it is apparent people do care. Airing the film will open more eyes, increase interest, and hopefully bring about more and better solutions.

Thank you ABC for (FINALLY)bringing this genocide to the mainstream media forum!
I hope that those of us with the power to do something about it (all voting taxpayers) will finally act instead of continuing to watch thousands of Acholi die horrifically and Luo culture slowly be extinguished both in Uganda and the Sudan.
I implore you to please expose all the real villains in this story. Kony would not exist without Museveni, and Museveni could not persist without U.S. support, both financial and diplomatic.
Shame on all of us and please, ABC, continue to report this story lest we (the USA) continue to endlessly repeat the same mistakes in Africa and around the world!

2 things:
There is oil in Northern Uganda.
Money knows no colour.

The pictures are a very good evidence for the International Court in Hague to stretch its hand more in order to indict even the people who are involved in killing the innocent citizens of Uganda today.Which kind of army is the one in the Ugandan-nation that turns against its people it is supposed to protect. I think it must be the police to get close to the people in case there is a case to be solved.
What a shameful nation we have. Whát shame and hypocrisy is even to the old democracies dine with the regime that has got blood of the people on on its hands.

ABC efforts to expose the evils men do, Must be commended by all peace loving citizens of the World.
Whereas Other International Mass Media Organization , in what can be regarded as a Conspiracy of Silence, chose to ignore the atrocities committed by Yoweri Museveni’s Military Dictatorship upon the People of Northern and Eastern Uganda, or explain away such atrocities , the ABC stood up to expose such evil. Indeed, it is often stated that Evil Prevails when Good Men and Women do nothing. My hats off to the ABC television crew who risked their lives to bring us this documentary about the Suffering people of Northern and Eastern Uganda!
Bravo for a Job well done!

It is truly brave of these filmmakers to go risk their life to go document these atrocities. If more people like them had the heart to go expose the atrocities of the world, then this world would be a better place. Thank you ABC for allowing the truth to get out.

In his address to Parliament in 2001, Museveni said that, “The chauvinism of the Acholi had to be destroyed”. This address can be found in the official records of the proceedings of the Uganda Parliament.

For those of you that think the US has no interest in Uganda, you are very wrong. It is because of this interest that our government is not taking action against the Ugandan government (and military), who is responsible for most of the atrocities. There is a genocide going on in Northern Uganda, and the US media is not covering it.

And once again the children suffer for decisions made by the adults who should be protecting them.
Thank you to ABC for giving the documentary filmmakers a forum in which to share this story.

I can’t hold back my tears each time I look at the pictures. The parpetrators will have to pay one day. The west has blindly supported this genocide by promoting Museveni and keeping him in power becuase of the word terorism. We will never forget.

Years of negotiation between Ugandan Government and the Lord’s Resistant Army (LRA) has produced nothing. The international community can help not just to bring attention to mass killings and massacres being committed by the perpetrators and yet the population is being wiped out in a systematic way and in the presence of international community.
Put yourself in the position of the victims and their families, an Acoli who has nothing but caught is crossfire. Humanitarian support going to Uganda today is a temporary solution. IDP camps have not protected the Acoli people therefore they must go back to their homes unconditionally. Today the children and horrible conditions of our land – the Acoliland is being used as bait by our own government to attract international relief of which less than %1 is used to salvage these horrible conditions. Our call for support from the international community must continue but we urge that pressure be placed on the leadership of the Ugandan Government to allow neutral peace keeping force to be deployed in Northern Uganda. This will allow the local leadership in Gulu – the northern Uganda capital to work effectively to address their issues. The chiefs and local elders must continue to play their roles but it’s less effective if there are mixed messages from the government in the name of bringing peace. LRA is being used as an alibi to continue to oppress people of this region.

I am extremely relieved that somehow, our campaign against genocide in northern Uganda, which started way back in March 1986 with NRA/Museveni’s arrival in the north is at last reaching out to the rest of the world, al beit at a slower rate. My heart bleeds for poor ordinary peoples of this region, especially the Acholi sub-region who were the first victims before it continued to Lango and Teso. That it took some of us, victims and children of these same victims all this long to take a position is unfortunate. That our people were made to consider themselves as culprits rather than victiims is unfortunate. But what would be most unfortunate is if we lost focus of the root causes, the initiators of this project – the ‘oyoo muchooli, the anyanyas,the biological substancs,,etc ‘ a bandwagon that shamefully a substantial section of Ugandans and the international community bought and jumped into; ABC efforts should supplement those of our own, Ugandans in not only demystifying NRA propaganda, but ensuring that their lies are exposed and that the minds of our peoples are liberated – the truth told! It is against this background that the UPC has been persistently calling for a truth and reconciliation commission for Uganda. Noted with interest is of course the silence and indifference of others political stakeholders on this. Reason? It would expose the experts at shooting in Luwero. It would expose the lies and tricks applied from Luwero and, using Luwero to set a base and foundation for dehuminising northern Uganda. It would expose those in some eminent supposedly, non-partisan institutions but who became experts in perfecting these schemes. It would expose the fact that when Museveni went to the north, he was not welcomed with ‘olive’ branches, but he was not hated either. He started that genocide, because it was part of an agenda, a mission that had to be accomplished. Such a Commission would make irrelevant, the false political and moral foundation that he and others stood on and, a few continue to stick on today. To get this in context, everyone should read ‘Notes on Concealment of Genocide in Uganda’ by Milton Obote, written way back in 1990, a publication Museveni banned in Uganda and one which we found so hard to interest people to read. As one of those who lobbied western governments including the US and UK administrations not only to intervene politically to end this genocide but, to agree that only talking peace was the solution, I feel relieved that at last, we now have Ugandans seated round table in Juba; that we have the AU and the UN, both of whom turned away when we approached them, now actively involved. It is a step ahead in the right direction but it can never reclaim the destruction and trauma cause. It is against this background that I believe that a truth and reconciliation commission can go a long way in creating a healing process which can also constitute a basis on which our peoples – especially those in the north, (and Luwero, truly), can begin to reclaim the bits of their lives that they can get hold of.As for Luwero, ordinary citizens were hoodwinked in order for them to direct their energy towards the wrong enemy – victims like them) Only in this way can we begin to regenerate and look forward to the future with some hope. The alternative is sharp bitterness the results of which is a vicious circle. NRA/Museveni’s criminality in Luwero, northern Uganda, my own east (Mulanda and Paya in Tororo), Rwanda, Congo etc is crude. His associates in these crimes must take equal responsibility. But, Ugandans, the only way forward to to learn these tough lessons, forgive them and gear all our energies in ensuring that these crimes a against humanity are never repeated again. The first and last time I met Oyite Ojok was when he addressed students at the International Conference Centre, Kampala on the occasion of the Youth Day Celebrations. He told the excited students that soldiers are soldiers, across the world, the behave the same, and are trained to kill, in order to defend their countries against foreign threats, not to govern. He went on to say that Ugandan students should never, repeat, never (thumping his chest) allow another soldier to deceive them (like Amin did) that they can govern, ‘not even me, David Oyite Ojok’ he emphasised. Three months later, he was dead. The political and economic future of our country (and indeed Africa) can never lie in the hands of trigger happy gunmen. Ugandans, lets’ continue with the search for peace, for democracy, for stability, for re-unification, for healing, for a fresh start – but we better learn,learn and learn hard, and avoid shortcomings of yesterday. If we opened our minds and hearts, there can never be a better lesson, a tougher one as such, than the one imposed on us by NRA Museveni and all those with whom he associated in order to perfect their Project. Let’s all reflect, For God and My Country.
Joseph Ochieno

This is very similar to Hitler/JEWS 2nd world war.
- Hitler used the word “Evacuated” for the extermination of JEWS so nobody knows the real truth.It was carefully planned.Museveni has used the words “Protected Villages” and “Internally Displaced People” as a cover up for his GENOCIDE PLAN IN NORTHERN UGANDA.
-JEWS were forcefully herded into Ghettos WITH NO FOOD, WATER,FOOD, ETC,ETC and then to concentration camps.Museveni gave acoli people 48hrs to leave their homes and go to ‘concentration camps’.Anybody found outside these ‘concentration camps’ were killed via Helicopter gunships or UPDF SOLDIERS.HOW CAN YOU HERD 1.8 MILLION PEOPLE TO ‘CONCENTRATION CAMPS’ without food, water,shelter,medicine and deny this is GENOCIDE when OVER 1000 DIE A WEEK IN THESE CAMPS??
there are 2 ‘ugandas’…the south and the north.The north is where GENOCIDE is taking place and the south is where museveni and his people live in developed and prosperous part of uganda.when you cross ‘Karuma bridge’ thats when you will begin to realise that uganda is divided into 2 parts;the north and the south.WHY HAS AMERICA AND THE OUTSIDE WORLD NOT DONE ANYTHING FOR 21 YEARS YET THE NGOs HAVE REPORTED GENOCIDE AND CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN ACOLI???
ONE DAY ACOLI PEOPLE WILL RISE AND SHINE AGAIN.
o.

It’s amazing which posts ABC News will leave up and the ones it takes down! If personal attacks and accusations are okay, people presenting facts must be allowed to have their say too.
A welcome piece of investigative journalism would be for the missing kids who have been reported as abducted. Where are they?
Everyone has seen the figures on abductees, the Government of Uganda quotes 12,000 abducted kids, the US Department of State says 66,000.
How many Acholi children are fighting in the DRC for the Ugandan Government? Eyewitnesses have seen these children. What can we do for them?
People looking for evidence about use of child soldiers in the UPDF may want to read China Kitetsi’s autobiography
The evidence is all there, question, seek and find. Remember however that for many it is already too late.

I think it would be wise to separate the political issue from the human issue, as both sides are perpetrators for violence for which there is no justification.
People dying en masse from preventable deaths alone is enough to mobilize a completely new response; for those dying, corruption tales and political jamborees in Juba are off in the distance, though they contribute to their daily demise.
How many horror stories do people need to hear and read in order to respond? It is the survivors who can best tell the story.
A journalist who got footage of the IDP camps last year said she was horrified at the footage she saw in these photos. The camps she toured looked nothing like those above. I’m glad to know that sanitization is possible only on some levels. Some NGO’s are being fooled handily and making policy recommendations accordingly, perhaps coverage like this will cause them to take a second look.

Thank you, Thank you, very much ABC News for bringing up this story.
After all that has gone on, at least some people are now willing to get the real story of the long years of war in Northern Uganda. This is a commendable effort.
I hope you and others will also now try and dig out the true stories of the wars in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Southern Sudan.
The perpertators of this genocide and tribal wars and ethnic cleansing must be held accountable to theier acts. Peace and justice must come to Northern Uganda quickly.

THIS STORY NEEDS TO BE AIRED, AIRED AGAIN, AND RE-AIRED..
As you can see by the reviews that The Last King of Scotland, many people want and need to hear this story. Let the truth be heard. Once everyone can see the facts, then it can be left up to them to decide how to act upon what they see. This story needs to be shown, and shown fast!

To Leon:
My Acholi friends look to the days of Idi Amin as “the good old days”. Small exageration – but things were better then. At least in my understanding individuals were targeted not a whole population.Or maybe because death was quick, relatively speaking. Not the prolonged year by year kind of suffering that has caused a whole new concept and reality to creep into the Acholi consciousness – Suicide.(One of the leading causes of death in the camps among women). With extreme poverty,disease and exhaustion, the daily and failing struggle for survival for onesself and ones children,(2/3 of deaths are children under 5) not to mention rape, intentional spread of AIDS by UPDF (I have read estimated rates in some camps as high as 30-50% of women), violence and desertion by husbands who turn to alcoholism as the only escape from a meaningless life.The government’s design for the Acholi is in reality coming to pass – actual repeated words, “Like insects in a bottle, we will tighten the lid and they will eat themselves”. Good I’m writing because I have a hard time saying this without crying.This is what has come to pass. What was a proud, self sustaining and rich culture has been forced to rely on tiny handouts from the World Health Organization.And the camps became, as expressed in the film “Uganda Rising”, ‘One stop shopping for the LRA’.
I was so inspired by Whittaker’s brilliant performance as Amin and the deep character study undertaken. I was hoping Whittaker would become a champion of the north(Uganda) and give a celebrity face to our cause – since that’s the only thing that seems to matter or gain attention in our twisted world.
But then I read in NY Times that at the Kampala opening Whittaker was feted by Museveni and marched down the red carpeted aisle with Museveni’s henchmen the UPDF.My scathing letter to the editor was not published. Not surprizing. So many eloquent words I have wasted in so many places. Hoping someone would listen. Hoping someone would hear.
The Scots actor, James McAvoy who played Idi Amin’s doctor, the protagonist, has in his own country been a spokesman. On visiting the IDP camps in the north with the British Red Cross his emotional comment was “It’s Hell, f****** purgatory!”At least one of them is speaking the truth.The newspaper “The Scotsman” seems to have good coverage of things Ugandan, unlike our papers.
Where is our Hollywood guy? McAvoy did say that he and Whittaker when filming were shocked at the stories of human rights abuses that they heard from Ugandans.I have got to think that Whittaker who gave us that beautiful, tender performance in “The Crying Game” has the empathy to speak the words that could move us into action.
Sorry – my rambling response was meant to be short.But hope is afoot in the world.People are mobilizing. The hills are alive with the sound of indignation and protest. It is only a matter of time.*******************************************************************ABC is in a position to burst the bubble of silence.***********************************************************************
NEVER AGAIN IS HAPPENING ALL OVER THE WORLD and I’m sure you’re as sick of it as I am.
These are my personal opinions but I am very proud to be working with an organization that is fiercely dedicated to making a difference in Uganda, The Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda…Now! I welcome any of you onto our website to explore the events, activities, and links posted there.
To all who read this blog – Your voice is so, so important. Please join the protest against injustice in the world.
Lucy Larom (www.cegun.org)

To the Administrator,
Unless someone posts materials which contain unacceptable laguage, it should not be deleted simply because it presents a contrary opinion. For example, there was a posting from Kumasi, Ghana by Otim that contained incorrect information about some of the pictures. I was going to make some comments, but now the posting is gone. Please put it back if possible. Thanks. false .

This has been happening for 20 yrs. The land in Northern Uganda is some of the most beautiful and to get it, the government is doing this. The current government in Uganda is corrupt but because they cater to western interests; they do not recieve the negative press of a Mugabe even though tthey’re doing much worse. Shame on the western governments for supporting this regime because they know full well what is really happening. If you want to help put pressure on the government

We know genocide is taking place in Northern Uganda. However, who is committing it; Is he “our” guy or “their” guy? How else would one explain the different approach to the genocide being committed on both side of the border of Uganda (21 years in the north) and Sudan (4 years in Darfur), and yet only the Sudanese one is know!

Since when did the world begin to take notice of Northern Uganda? I am sorry to say this but I feel sad that this seems to be another wasted effort. If we compare Museveni to Mugabe, it makes Mugabe look like a Nursery teacher.
What has been happening in Northern Uganda is a well known fact all over Uganda and in most parts of the world but many have chosen to ignore it and some have even condoned it because they have profited from it. At home in Ntungamo, when we see the Pajeros, now replaced by Hummers, we know who is driving them and how they came by it. Genocide is a crime and it is being committed in Acholiland in Northern Uganda but the problem is that it is not a crime in the eyes of the UK/USA because of the victims – they do not matter to those governments and the perpetrator is more important to them.
Recently the Australian PM condemned and barred the cricket team from touring Zimbabwe because of Mugabe’s human rights records but in 5 months’ time he will be sitting and dining in Kampala with none other that the Pariah himself – Museveni. What hypocricy. Oh! The Queen will also be at the table when it is not long ago that she suspended Mugabe from the same Commonwealth that she is the leader of?
Two wrongs do not make a right but surely if Museveni is allowed to host the Commonwealth in the face of such devastatingly clear evidence of genocide then what else is left of sanity and sense in this world that we live in? Pray God please help the Acholi through this tough time.

I am about to graduate from highschool this saturday, and we just watched a video in our Religion class called “invisible children”. It focuses on this very topic and we were all moved deeply by it. It makes you think about what the real issues are in this world. There is nothing in Iraq that is so important that God and everyone must be over there fighting for. There millions of helpless people in Uganda and Sudan that need our help. You cannot sit there and seriously say that we cannot do anything about it. Anyone can do anything they want. If we would just get the U.S.’s head out of Iraq’s “you know what” long enough, we might actually be able to help these people have a chance at living. This is ridiculous. If you still don’t believe me, watch Invisible Children yourself. There is, in fact, a second one coming out soon, if it is not already out. Watch it. Learn from it. Do something about it. Help them. Put yourself in their position.

Hi Ladies and Gentlemet ,what is happening in Northern Ugandam I can discribe it in a mathematic languge as double displacement that the equation need to be derive and solve in term of time(t)period(years) and dispcemet being a constant.
so mathematician let’s try work out the equation with solution to this problem.The problem in northern Uganda is a man made long term project to reduce and weekend the socity.
WHY! WHY! WHY SHOULD THE WORLD NOT FOCUS ON THE ACT OF THIS KILLING

Those who commit genocide have deliberately set out not just to murder others. They are not merely guilty of crimes against humanity – forms of criminality and inhumane acts beyond simple murder. Genocide goes further, to the ultimate depths of human perversity. Its aim is to exterminate a part or an entire category of human beings guilty only of being themselves. Genocide is explicitly intended as a “final solution” – an attempt to rid the world of a group that can no longer be tolerated. In a genocide, attacks on women and children are not unfortunate by-products of conflict, or collateral damage, in the bloodless jargon of military bureaucracies. On the contrary, women and children are direct targets, since they ensure the future of the group that can no longer be allowed to survive. with the Acholi culture no more, children left to be abducted them mowed down as rebels, HIV/AID spreading like the Arizona desert wildfire in the concentrantion camps and any form of vaccination not available to children. What chance has Acholi of posperity. The genocidaires know that even if they are no more, Acholi will and should never recover from their goal objective, extinction. An african success story indeed. Well done ABC.

1). THAT MUSEVENI AND KONY ARE BED FELLOWS. There are many ways of examining this issue. Only one is suggested here:
According to existing evidence, both men abducted, murdered and terrorized innocent people in their respective wars. Since there are numerous reports about the activities of Kony, I will provide a few evidence about Museveni’s (I can also provide similar ones on Kony)
a). Terror and massacres of Muslims in Ankole in June 1979 (Uganda Government, Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights:31).
b). Abductions and assassinations of civilians (See, for a start, Amnesty International, Uganda (August 1981;1); AI, Uganda: Six Years After Amin; Muwanga and Gombya, The Pearl of Africa is Bleeding).
c). Attacks on civilian vehicles (See Africa Research Bulletin (Dec. 1-31, 1981: 6289BC).
d). Massacres of civilians, while disguised as soldiers (Lance-Sera Muwanga, Violence in Uganda: What is Inside Museveni’s Uganda; Muwanga and Gombya, The Pearl of Africa is Bleeding. See also what Kayira reported after a meeting with Museveni at the NRA command post in Luwero:
“There were no less than 50 heads at a quick count. We found Museveni and the NRA soldiers inside the ring of human heads. He told us while pointing at the heads: ‘You see those heads? That is how I deal with those who do not agree with me’” Cited in The Pearl of Africa is Bleeding. .
e) Abductions and kidnapping (See “Uganda: The Fall of President Obote,” Africa Confidential (I think, 1985). For similar acts of terror and atrocities since he seized power, see Ogenga Otunnu, “An Historical Analysis of the Invasion of Rwanda,” in Adelman and Suhrke, eds, The Path of a Genocide; Otunnu, “The Path of Genocide in Northern Uganda,” Refuge, 17, 3 (1998); Uganda Law Society, Matters of Concern to Uganda Law Society (1990); AI, Deaths in the Countryside: Killings of Civilians by the Army (1990); AI. The Failure to Safeguard Human Rights (1992); Acholi Religious Leaders, Let My People Go (2001). See also Museveni’s address to Langi and Acholi RCs and elders New Vision, March 28, 1994. In his address, he reluctantly pointed out that “Sometimes, our own indisciplined soldiers took advantage of the breakdown of law and order caused by the rebellion and committed atrocities against the civilian population… Mass rapes and other atrocities are also mentioned in The New Vision, 29/1/1988; 22/2/1988, etc.

3). WHY THE GENOCIDAL WAR PERSISTS:
Two examples:
a). The war has become a good business for high-ranking soldiers. Some of the soldiers are Museveni’s relatives. President Museveni had this to say on the subject: “It is true that in the past army officers were doing business out of the suffering of the people of Acholi and they did not want it [the war] to end.” (See New Vision, Nov. 29, 1996). What Museveni refused to reveal was that the war has remained a very good business for some of his relatives and high-ranking officers. What is taking place in the DRC is, therefore, not new.
b). Rejection of the peace efforts. When the international community exerted pressure on the regime to negotiate with the rebels, it reluctantly agreed. However, when Betty Bigombe and Kony had reached a settlement to the conflict, Museveni wrecked the deal by order the LRA to surrender within a week (See, for example, New Vision, Feb. 15, 1994: 1-2). Museveni’s attitude toward negotiated settlements has not changed.
Does the view of one of the leading Ugandan journalists, Kevin Aliro, explain why some Ugandans are reluctant to see the genocide in Acholi? Here is what he observed during the “photo” crisis (it is a long citation because it is important):
I particularly understand the dilemma of some ordinary Ugandans who, after many years of torture and oppression, don’t want to believe that the UPDF…could even dream of such atrocities against any Ugandan… Ugandans are victims of self-denial and its associated symptoms. In their subconscious… they know the UPDF, like previous armies, are capable of all and worse.
Kevin fuerher observed that:
I was like such Ugandans. There were times when I would never believe the UPDF would hurt a fly. I dismissed the Bur Coro incident (in which innocent human beings were burried and smoked in a pit)as an ‘isolated case of indiscipline.’
He concluded by reflecting on the conspiracy of silence about the genocide:
Deep inside, we [journalists] were also afraid. Afraid of the known consequences of publishing anything that may be deemed by the powers that be as ‘damaging to the inage’ of Museveni’s sacred cow, the NRA (now UPDF). Hundreds of other incidents came and went, most unreported (Monitor, May 18, 1999: 13).

Frank F: I care to reply. That is possibly the most idiotic thing that I have ever heard. But then I read Mike’s comment, realized that he couldn’t spell Iraqis (no “e”) and recanted.

The conspiracies go on and on right in front of our eyes. Most people think conspiracies are hidden but they are out in the open if everyone will open their eyes. This is another way of getting rid of too many populus to make way for the rich who keeps getting richer to run things.

What terrifies me more than the slaughter in Uganda is the callous indifference throughout the rest of the civilized world to this, and other similiar, horrors.
We believed that through education and enlightenment mankind would walk into a utopia. All mankind needed, so the theory went, was education and new technology and the scourge of war and violence would vanish. Well, the Nazis used education to institutionalize racism and technology to invent a better oven.
The truth is that mankind is reaching new levels of depravity and bloodlust.
It is the heart of man that needs to be changed and that can only happen with a relationship with our creator. As mankind has moved further from God he has sunk deeper into the cesspool of murder, genocide, and perversion. It can only get worse, much worse.

I’m almost 75 years old, I probably will not be going over there to fight.
How do we ask young American men to go there and fight and maybe die for the powerless people of Uganda.
Do we ask our US Government to send young men there to fight? Do We send them to the many other parts of the world where this kind of insanity seems to prevail?
I am at a loss. Louis Calabro, President, European/American Issues Forum

i ma absolutely horrified at this atrocious behavour . i can not beleive that we live in the same world as them. it is not enough to just show it , somehting has to be done.

To Louis Calabro-
We don’t need to ask any American men to fight for the people of northern Uganda. There are tangible things the US and other governments can do without using force. For example, tracking and demanding transparent accountability for the donor monies that they give to the Ugandan government earmarked for aid, public health, education, etc. The camps are under the jurisdiction of the Ugandan government, so we know that their condition is a direct result the management of the camps. This leaves the people not powerless, but ‘damned’. The Acholi people have a very powerful and strong culture, however its hard to see and is transformed in such harsh conditions. Power is many times a luxury that just can’t be afforded in dire situations. Instead, lets call on those fortunate to enact honesty and integrity in their power and these insanities will not prevail.

With all the activity centered around northern Uganda it seems that it would be very timely for ABC to release this documentary.
Please google Resolve Uganda. They just put out a huge lobbying effort. Did anyone see this?
Aaron

Aaron,
Yes, I have seen the advertisement by Resolve, an organization which works hand in hand with Uganda-CAN and the International Crisis Group. They are the organizations behind Betty Bigombe’s Peace Initiative II. While it may seem that their effort is to put pressure on the US Congress to act, their understanding of the problem in Northern Uganda is very simple, but warped. They see the LRA is the main problem. Get rid of the LRA, problem solved. They apparently devised and recommended to the government of Uganda and Betty Bigombe the four pronged approach one of which was to use the Bigombe II negotiation as a tool to lure the LRA to be either surrender, be captured or killed. It worked for a while (the biggest catch being Brig. Banya and Kolo)until the LRA realized what was going on and the so-called peace negotiation collapsed. The other three approaches were: military apressure, the international Criminal Court arrest warrant and limited amnesty to surrendered LRA soldiers. They totally ignored the context in which this war is conducted, which is Museveni’s genocide project. Museveni has no intention of ending the war soon because the war is a powerful and clever mechanism of executing a slow genocide without raising the world’s curiosity, a political tool to cling onto power, a cash cow to lubricate the gears of dictatorship, an opportunistic construct to endear Museveni to the USA as an ally in the war against international terrorism etc. Unless the LRA is seen as a symptom rather than the main cause of the conflict and Museveni as the main orchestrator of conflict, the war will not end soon in spite of the very modest progress made at the Juba peace talks. In conclusion, I do not put much stock into Resolve’s call to action. If anything, they are part of the problem by painting an objectively incorrect picture of what the problem is.

Yesterday, Okot writes that the new organization Resolve Uganda is part of the problem. I think Okot should get his facts straight.
First, he writes that “their understanding of the problem is very simple, but warped. They see the LRA is the main problem.” I’d encourage Okot to visit Resolve’s website (ResolveUganda.org) and actually read the overview of the conflict. It provides a nuanced and complex understanding of the 21-year war. Furthermore, Resolve’s advocacy agenda is not just to “get rid of the LRA,” but to support peace talks, promote civilian protection and amplify humanitarian assistance. In line with ABC’s article, Resolve is actively working for an end to the displacement nightmare in northern Uganda.
Second, Okot writes that Resolve has advocated using negotiations as a tool to capture/kill the LRA. Again, it is unclear where Okot gets his evidence. Resolve (and its predecessor, Uganda-CAN) have always advocated a peaceful resolution to the conflict. They have been crystal clear that lasting peace and reconciliation require processes that empower northerners to address their grievances and participate fully and fairly in national institutions.
Finally, Okot is insistent that Resolve Uganda and other international organizations should recognize that President Museveni is at the root of the conflict. Here, Okot falls guilty of his very complaint: over-simplicity. While the Government of Uganda has certainly failed its responsibility to protect northerners (and even committed some abuses), the roots of the conflict are much more complex. They are the result of a divisive political climate, originating in British colonial policies and perpetuated by post-independence Ugandan politics.
Furthermore, Okot is wrong to suggest that the LRA is not core to the conflict. It is irresponsible to downplay the reality that nearly 66,000 children have been brutaly abducted by the rebel force. Furthermore, it is dishonest to not acknowledge that the LRA has terrorized the local population; maiming, raping and killing thousands. If he hasn’t already, I’d encourage Okot to visit northern Uganda and ask people there if the LRA is just a symptom.
Okot’s argument is unfortunately a common one by some members of the Acholi Diaspora. Legitimately, some are angry at the Museveni regime for its illiberal and often repressive practices. However, many of them have not returned to Uganda since 1986. They may therefore be out of touch with the daily struggles and suffering of northern Ugandans. Rather than listening to those voices, they continue to interpret this war in light of their political ideology. Unfortunatly, this leaves little room for fresh thinking and reconciliation.
In the meanwhile, Okot is right that some NGOs are part of the problem for perpetuating simplistic and even incorrect portrayals of this conflict. Yet, some does not mean all. Resolve Uganda is a respected advocacy organization connected with local civil society and committed to responsible advocacy for peace.
As the saying goes, one should remove the log from his own eye before removing the speck from his brother’s.
Thanks to ABC for this important article that sheds light on less-acknowledged dynamics of the 21-year war. In line with Sarah’s last posting, this knowledge should help us all to be better and more effective actors for peace. The challenge that Resolve Uganda and others are working on is how we translate our individual resolve into an innovative international movement to help end this war.

I know of some ways you can help the people of Northern Uganda. I am going to teach there for 5 weeks with Invisible Children. Its an organzization started by film students who went to Uganda and investigated about what has been going on over there and has been working to help those people ever since. you can go to http://www.invisiblechildren.com to buy t-shirts and bracelets to support their efforts. i also have a friend who went to darfur and is selling a book of stories and pictures from there and every 1,000 copies builds a well in sudan http://www.silentimages.org/

As an Acholi diaspora myself, I wish to respond to one or two points that Peter made in his post.
(1) “Finally, Okot is insistent that Resolve Uganda and other international organizations should recognize that President Museveni is at the root of the conflict. Here, Okot falls guilty of his very complaint: over-simplicity. While the Government of Uganda has certainly failed its responsibility to protect northerners (and even committed some abuses), the roots of the conflict are much more complex. They are the result of a divisive political climate, originating in British colonial policies and perpetuated by post-independence Ugandan politics.”
It is true that the root cause to conflict and insecurity in northern Uganda was ushered in by none other than President Museveni and his National Resistance Army (NRA) from 1986 onwards who targeted the Acholi as a group. When the NRA captured Acholiland 1986 they were hell bent on vengeance for alleged atrocities committed during Museveni’s brutal Luwero bush war. They created a situation where there was a total break down in law and order in the Acholi nation. Everything of value including live stock was systematically looted by the NRA. People were routinely murdered in cold blood, raped, tortured and arbitrarily arrested simply because they were Acholi.
The Acholi people who initially welcomed the Musveni administration, did not choose to fight or reject Museveni for the fun of it but out of necessity as a last resort and only way defend their way of life which was under treat from the NRA. That is why politically in northern Uganda the Museveni regime is on the fringes where it will always be. He has consistently under-performed in each and every election that has taken place in the region by staggering margins.
Had Museveni and his NRA chosen the path of peace and co-existence with the Acholi people there would not be conflict today.
It is the government of the day that must be held accountable for its actions. The British colonialist are no longer in direct control of Uganda. It is Museveni and his NRA/M who bear primary responsibility. The government of day has the responsibility to find solutions to existing problems as well as those created by previous governments. In the case of Uganda the Museveni government has instead chosen to adopt the negative politics of divide and rule that some accuse the British colonialist of. It is unlikely that the British or the UPC administration will accept responsibility for the Museveni government mistakes.
(2)“Okot’s argument is unfortunately a common one by some members of the Acholi Diaspora. Legitimately, some are angry at the Museveni regime for its illiberal and often repressive practices. However, many of them have not returned to Uganda since 1986. They may therefore be out of touch with the daily struggles and suffering of northern Ugandans. Rather than listening to those voices, they continue to interpret this war in light of their political ideology. Unfortunatly, this leaves little room for fresh thinking and reconciliation.”
This is a really very unfair accusation to label at the Acholi diapora who are themselves victims of the political chaos in Uganda. It is totally baseless.
You don’t necessarily have to live in a particular place to know what is going on. If you are interested or curious enough you can easily find out the truth.
Also you seem to forget that we live in the internet information age, where information is cheaply and freely available. Many in the diaspora are able to read Ugandan newspapers on a regular basis and other reports related to Uganda. While many in Uganda still don’t have the level of access to information that the diaspora have. So someone may be living in Europe but because of the level of access to information they have, they may know more about what is going on in Uganda than someone living there.
We have NGO’s on the ground who write reports about the situation on the ground. Many Acholi diaspora have families or relatives living in Acholiland itself. The Acholi both in Uganda and diaspora if anything are better placed than anybody else to comment authoritatively about their own situation.

I work in northern Uganda and I must say, it’s not an easy job. While I agree that a lot of atrocities have been committed to the Acholi people, I don’t like the way that these so called “film makers” exaggerate the story at this particular point in time (May 2007!). Please be informed that the situation in northern uganda has improved steadily since the end of 2005. The ongoing peace talks in Juba, which started in August 2006 have particularly given hope to the people of northern uganda. Right now, people are leaving the IDP camps and returning to their villages of origin. They can access their own farming land and ae increasingly engaging in production activities. The curfew rules have been relaxed and people can move freely between 7.00am and 6.00pm. There are no more restrictions on movement outside the IDP camps. Some people who are not yet confident of the security situation are still living in the camps, but during the day, they go out to do some farming, especially now that the rains have come. There are no more night commuters living in the town centrers and most night commuters sheds have been closed. Services for former night commuters have been shifted to the communities. The humanitarian actors are now looking to shift intervention from humanitarian/emergency, to development. i.e humanitarian actors now want to go into development oriented interventions This is all due to the relative peace that has been ushered in by the Juba peace talks initiative. The last massacre that happened in northern Uganda was in February 2004, in a place called Barlonyo.
I have also read some people’s arguments that the government of uganda is not doing anything. Please before we castigate the government of uganda, first look at your own “humanitarian workers” who come from America, UK….. on humanitarian grounds, only to reach northern uganda and behave like they are on a summer holiday. They have turned northern uganda into a holiday resort. When they come here, they live in expensive hotels, drive expensive cars and party throughout the night, yet the people they claim to serve can’t even afford a piece of soap! A “humanitarian agency” distributes 50 blankets to IDPS and makes so much noise about it in the media. They buy newspapers space and TV airtime to show the distribution of 50 blankets! If they used that money to buy more blankets for IDPs it would make sense. But the agencies are only interested in is media publicity, and they will give anything to have it!
We appreciate the advocacy efforts from all these “film makers”, but please, take some things with a pinch of salt. Many of these “film makers” especially from the Western media, are self seekers. Many are bounty-hunters who think that one day they will meet with Joseph Kony, tell on him and get millions of dollars in reward.
Please, please please, don’t sit in your air-conditioned newsrooms in America and start making assumptions about northern uganda. If your film makers were really interested in speaking out for the Acholi in northern uganda, they should have come down here about ten years ago, when the war was at its height. Right now, the humanitarian needs are many, but peace is slowly returning. What your film makers should be doing, is film population return movements, rehabilitation efforts by genuine humanitarian workers, peace talks process in Juba……
Give hope to the people of northern uganda. Stop being alarmist and misleading your audiences. Peace will return to northern uganda.
You should always try to corroborate your information. Seek information from people on the ground, not from “filmakers” who just “come to Africa” on adventure trails. So many of them have been exposed after staging acts for their cameras. Some of them get Acholi children and tell them what to say for the cameras. Read read and read. Keep yourselves updated with what is actually happening. There are many credible sources of information, other than “bounty hunters” disguised as “film makers”
United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) has a daily update on security incidents in northern uganda, find out from them the last time a violent LRA activity was recorded.
UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (UN OCHA) issues a monthly update on the humanitarian situation in northern uganda. This update can be found on reliefweb.org. Plus a host of many other sources of information, please consult them.

Peter, where do you get the figure of 66,000 children? I first saw it in a US State Department report, generally the figure reported is around 30,000, how is your figure so different from NGO’s such as UNICEF
You speak such like one who does not have family in northern Uganda. It is such an intellectual thing for you, hence the non-appreciation from many Acholi in the Diaspora.
You all are attempting to legitimate your own campaigns, save your jobs and keep the funds rolling and you’ll interpret everything to that end. As you cry wolf after the wolf has finished killing most of the sheep Peter, where is your resolve?
The neglect of the humanitarian side of the conflict is a travesty. Yes people are going home and what are they finding? Land mines, land disputes, some are going to decongestion camps which Resolve and Enough are advocating for and finding even worse situations. Policy in practice is altogether another thing and NGO’s who’ve worked in northern Uganda for over 20 years must know better. But then, a Black African is a development project, correct?

To Peter: How crafty on your part to present yourself in such a broad context: implicit representative of the “U.S. advocacy campaigns for northern Uganda.” Get real.
To Lydia M: Do you think the Invisible Children will survive the demise of Museveni’s government?

To answer Peter’s question to Eric of how one would change the work of the US advocacy campaigns for northern Uganda.
First and most importantly put pressure on the donnor countries to stop supporting the Museveni government without accountability. Especially funds going to the north SHOULD NEVER go through his hands. We know they all end up in individual outside bank accounts, i.e global funds… etc. I hope you are following the fights going on right now in Museveni’s clan, who stole what, and some people not wanting to be the scapegoats for the BIG MAN.
From late 1986 to early 1988, the wealth of the Acholi, Langi and the Iteso were looted en mass. Don’t be decieved they were looted by the Karamojong. There is now strong evidence that the beef and the cowhide ended up in Libya. ICJ should be brought in since it crossed international borders. The Acholi, the Langi and the Iteso need to be repaid.
Peter if you know an Acholi very well, unless you are one of those Johnny come lately, then ask your mentor, BB, she grew up on MALAKWANG, BOO AND LAPENA, you will come to know that these are the most hard working people you will ever meet. Give an Acholi head of household, two oxen to pull the plough, good health and a good rainy season. It will take only one season to turn things around. But ofcouse the NGOs wouldn’t like to see that.
Then there is the case of the GENOCIDE. The smaller bedfellow KONG/LRA is now with the ICC., rightfully so. The bigger bedfellw MUSEVENI/UPDF. should also be brought before the ICC., to tell us why he decided to torch people homes and grannaries and drive them to the internment camps. By the way these were just sites, upon arrival people had to put up whatever the could for shelters.
These are my suggestions for the US advocacy groups / NGOs. Stop focusing only on Kony. The world has hard it already. The bigger and the most dangerous ‘OBIBI’ to the Acholi people is still out there, a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.

Lydia suggests following the news from the UN’s OCHA. I went to the website and noted that the UnderSecretary for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes had a recent “lively” discussion with Pres. Museveni in an exchange, presumably about the status of all those incarcerated in the concentration type camp environments and what is happening on the ground now/into the future.
I would love to know more about that exchange but it was not reported on the website.
Whereas, it is an idea to go to official sources for information as part of general research protocal, it is unlikely that there will be the broad, real source of individual impacts on the ground for a people who have been nearly wiped out over a very long period. The fact that there are no real health facilities should be telling in itself. The fact that the “health” clinics in the camps have very little supplies should let one know that the Government of Uganda did not intend that its’ own people..presumably citizens of the same country as the President were meant to survive.
I also agree that there are MANY sources of information – a history of the region and the instability, war and its’ players must be regionally based. IT is most difficult for the average person to access this information. I agree that one need not sit within the borders of Uganda and be closer to the ground reality. I also agree that it is necessary to go beyond what is shown to one on a tour arranged by government officials….or go to areas reserved as “new” decongestion sites. This is clever wording indeed, perhaps to give the illusion that conditions could be bettered so that not so many homes are destroyed in the infamous fires that occur so readily there, etc. and once again leave the people with nothing.

Florence, while I understand your sadness, it is probably not due to the fact that people disagree and see things differently. Rather, it is due to your own inability to recognize and accept that criticism and disagreement come with the territory of being involved with the people’s business. By proclaiming your sadness, you in fact express your disagreement about Bigombe’s and the Invisible Children’s contributions towards peace in Northern Uganda. Other people may see it differently from the way you do. Who is right? You need to dialogue with those who see it differently to find out. Unfortunately, that cannot happen if you simply become sad and walk away. The sadness may also reflect the inability to articulate your thoughts on the issue. I am not an expert in this field, but I am just giving you my opinion based on my own experience.

As a Ugandan, it is sad and unthinkable that we still have Museveni as a president for this long. These pictures are very disturbing and will not leave you the same, would it be too much to ask why we are being shown these pictures when the world over has watched more that is more disturbing? What is the use? Someone said that ‘the more we see, the more we will be moved to do something.’ How long is this supposed to take for something to be done?
Even when there are no pictures in “A long way Gone” memoirs of the boy solidier (Siera Leone) or even in “God grew tired of Us” by Deng (former lost boy from Sudan)or even in “Left to tell” by Ilibagiza (Rwandan Genocide survivor), WE STILL CAN VISUALIZE WHAT EXACTLY AFRICA IS GOING THROUGH. Notice that all those books cited above have been written by survivers of ‘high degree human wickedness’ ‘brutality’ or how can I explain that?
Friends, stories from DARFUR and NORTHERN UGANDA have not come to the print media yet in such a big way -but know what? We know much in USA and UK than an average Ugandan who thinks Museveni is their ‘liberator.’ How long will it take the international community to realize that even when there’s no oil in Uganda or Darfur, human life is precious both before God and we-the humans? Should the world over wait for total anhilation of a tribe in Uganda or Sudan or middle East before we speak out?
Finally, if it takes nations to have oil for their citizens to be protected by international law (read US and UN…)and genocides and… to be stopped, please inform the concerned for me that Uganda now has discovered oil in Masindi and… Will this be good reason now for US and… to move in and get rid of the dictator so as to save lives? Then we have a way out! Or… is US a little bit scared of helping Ugandans get rid of the dictator b’se in the meantime they are fighting wars in the great lakes region thru Uganda (more recently Somalia) by the same Museveni? Tell them to relax -they can remove him and just put anyone who will atleast bring peace to Northern Uganda. It has been a long time people of God.

Peter, to respond to the quote below taken from your post of 28th May 2007 above:
“However, as we point out GoU complicity, we run the danger sometimes of then justifying or downplaying the atrocities of the LRA. Visiting camps in northern Uganda, I know that people are not all just being forced to stay; some are deeply afraid of LRA attacks and abductions. The LRA has caused great terror and trauma to the Acholi population. Of course, the forced abduction of nearly 66,000 children is not inconsequential.”
I think most people would agree that crimes against humanity are extremely serious and they must not be covered up under any circumstances. In that respect it’s only right and proper that such crimes must always be exposed no matter who commits them be the government of Uganda (GoU) or the LRA or whoever.
It is rather strange to insinuate that highlighting GoU atrocities somehow justifies or down plays LRA atrocities.
The way to get the government of Uganda to respect human rights is to hold it accountable for committing such crimes and not by sweeping it under the carpet.
The government of Uganda forced almost the entire Acholi population (90% plus) into camps in order to allegedly provide better security for them.
However if anything it has made the situation worse. Security in the camps is woefully inadequate. Professor Mahmood Mamdani who is reported to have visited the camps is said to have been shocked and dismayed to find that a camp of tens of thousands was only protected by a handful of poorly trained/equipped militia. Not only did the government of Uganda fail to provide security to the Acholi people but it failed to provide all other essential services expected of government such as law and order, education, health care etc for over twenty one years plus… The government simply abdicated its responsibility to NGO’s.
To make maters even worse government troops routinely abused vulnerable IDP’s with impunity. The fact that these camps are inadequately protected in the first place makes it very easy for people to get abducted.
It is also important to note that those who live in these camps are restricted in their movements. They are basically prisoners. Reports have come out to the effect that government of Uganda troops have the authority to treat anybody who for whatever reason ventures or strays out the camps as rebels who can be shot on sight.
By any stretch of the imagination the humanitarian situation in northern Uganda is an emergency which needs immediate attention and resolution since lives are being lost at an alarming rate. Some time ago parliament in Uganda voted to declare northern Uganda a disaster area. For very strange reasons known only to themselves, president Museveni and his government rejected pleas from those advocating for northern Uganda to be declared a disaster area. Declaring northern Uganda a disaster area would make it easier for the international community to come to the rescue of the long suffering people of Acholi.
On the contrary it was reported sometime ago that when lives of some people from western Uganda was briefly disrupted because of minor floods the government did not waste any time to declare the area a disaster zone. By the way the president hails from that part of the country.
Yes, people are justifiably afraid to leave the IDP’s or concentration camps to go back to their homes because they could fall victims of lawless gunmen. Incidentally what do you make of the recent reassurances by president Museveni that peace and security in northern Uganda had now been restored, the rebels have now left Uganda, the army was now strong enough to ensure that this peace is maintained and that irrespective of the outcome of the Juba peace talks the army would be capable of maintaining this peace and tranquillity.
The Geneva Convention governing armed conflict clearly forbids the targeting of civilians and the mistreatment of prisoners of war. Both sides in the conflict in northern Uganda are reported to have used child soldiers in their ranks.

It’s a pity the U.S goverment countinues to support the museveni goverment with all this information at there fingure tips.This is definately horrifying,crime against the people of northern uganda.This regime which claim to be a people supported revolution could again turn on its people.Museveni like Mugabe is a big dissappointment to uganda,his government is full thieves who have plundered the country’s wealth just to enrich themselves.Seriously Ugandans need to wake up.

When I read an assertion in “Ashes of Faith: a doomsday cult’s orchestration of mass murder in Africa”, that “African governments are just not interested in their people”, I thought the author was being unfair to the political leaders. But this sorry state of affairs so ably depicted here leaves no doubt in my mind that that brave pronouncement is indeed an understatement.

Why doesn’t the US do something about this. They are always preaching so much about humaneterianism, so WHY are they silent now???

This needs to go maintream tv to get the world to wake up! Where is Bush on this, oh I forgot Uganda has no oil & therefor in bushes eyes is not worthy of help. What a excuse Bush is as THE LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD? As the free world we need to stand up for peoples rites that we take for granted. I live in Australia & if I didnt stumble across this site I wouldnt know about this. What a discrace our governments are. I am ashamed!

Please read out confessions by Museveni’s own army on their tactics of masacres in Northern Uganda. Also read evidence found by Sudan’s authorities blaming Museveni’s army for killing people in Sudan and blaming the killings on the LRA.