SLOW GENOCIDE IN UGANDA'S SEMI-DEMOCRACY

Friday September 13, 2002 02:08

by GuluFuture.org - GuluFuture.org

The plight of almost half a million Acholi Ugandans is looking like a slow genocide.

The convenient and profitable war in Northern Uganda has marooned the Acholi for sixteen years in refugee camps which blur the line between being under government protection and being involuntary hostages to an unending war.

SLOW GENOCIDE IN UGANDA'S SEMI-DEMOCRACY

http://www.GuluFuture.org
12th September 2002.

The plight of almost half a million Acholi Ugandans is looking like a slow genocide.

The convenient and profitable war in Northern Uganda has marooned the Acholi for sixteen years in refugee camps which blur the line between being under government protection and being involuntary hostages to an unending war.

An undisciplined Sudan-based rebel force has harried the residents of Northern Uganda for years --somehow resisting the might of the Government defense forces. Some foot soldiers of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army(LRA) are but child conscripts. Yet the camps and hospitals where the Acholi take refuge have been repeatedly attacked. A recent ambush on the main road from Kitgum to Gulu left two people dead and women and children injured, when a truck and bus were fired upon and the vehicles looted. Local sources say the rebels now attack daily.

While this tragic farce continues, what of Uganda's President --and the West's favorite African leader-- Yoweri Museveni? Of late, from Gulu, in the heart of Northern Uganda, he has been personally directing 'Operation Iron Fist' against the rebels. Perhaps 'Operation Velvet Glove' is a better title for this latest offensive in Uganda's blood-stained half-hearted war --where the only loosing side are the civilians.

Museveni has also recently been talking peace --a rather unconvincing annual ritual. But his overtures to the rebels seem as half-baked as his war against them. To demand that rebels assemble in nominated locations to surrender was never going to sound to them as other than an invitation to their own slaughter.

The credibility of peace moves was further undermined when three priest peacemakers on their way to negotiate with the LRA, were followed, arrested and beaten. They were later released with claims of "poor communications" as the cause of the debacle. The Archbishop of Gulu, perhaps wisely, decided to "leave behind" the issue of the arrests.

The Archbishop's reluctance to speak frankly does not sit well in a country where outspoken opinions are the common intercourse. Yoweri Museveni oversees a strange democracy. Uganda is not a one-party state, rather surprisingly it is a no-party state. Political candidates are free to stand as individuals, but not as members of political parties. That makes for dubiously 'free' political expression and leaves Museveni as kingmaker -if not de facto King.

George W. Bush, has learned how politically useful it can be to play 'Good Guy' in the perpetual war where Bin Laden plays star terrorist. Just as Bush has Bin Laden, Museveni has Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA rebels. Perhaps both Bush and Museveni like a script with perpetual war. Certainly the war in Uganda is much easier to manage than would be the peace. An end to hostilities would soon lead to pressure for the "normalization" of politics -in other words, actual democracy.

In any event, the USA hardly seems perturbed that Museveni has run a proxy war against the China-backed Sudanese government to Uganda's north. Across the border in Sudan, the Sudanese People's Liberation Army are fighting the Sudanese Government in a mirror of the LRA's war against Ugandan Government forces. All of which has turned Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda into a killing zone for four sets of forces --two rebel and two government. Of course, most of those killed are civilians.

While the conflict has driven the Acholi from their land, elsewhere in Uganda, Monsanto is contracting land for the sowing of genetically modified foods. The Acholi's resource-rich land may be more valuable without the Acholi. Across the border in Sudan, a scorched earth zone already surrounds new oil installations.

All the while, for sixteen years, the Acholi have languished in virtual concentration camps, their fields unsown or unharvestable. Steadily, their distinguished culture is falling apart at the seams. Once the backbone of Uganda's armed forces, the Acholi are still the best educated minority in Uganda. Perhaps they are too smart for their own good. In that context, their cultural disintegration as a people, offers political insurance to the status quo.

The peace initiative of recent years by former president Jimmy Carter was sabotaged and is moribund. That failure led to no political fallout in Western support for the current Ugandan administration. Museveni is still hailed for his free-market economics. Thus the U.N., Europe and USA give a de facto green light for the slow extermination of the Acholi to continue.

There is a word for these tactics. The word is genocide. No matter how slow the extermination, the word is still genocide.

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