Africanews
The war between rebels and government troops rages on in northern Uganda. Rebel leader Joseph Kony has been accused of abducting young men to fight for him. In the following text Alfred Latigo, one of the abductees who escaped, informs on some of his experiences. |
The conflict in Northern Uganda drags on. Following a hopeful period of peace that hardly lasted four months, rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) launched a heavy offensive from Sudan last February, followed by incursions from twin rebel group West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) despite several government announcements that the situation was under control and guerrilas had been repelled, the situation remains insecure, having paralysed much of the social and economic life of the Northern districts of Uganda, whose population wonders whether the Ugandan army can effectively deal with the unrest.
This war, which started ten years ago and went through different stages, has mainly victimized civilians. It is no exaggeration to state that thousands of ordinary citizens in Acholi land have gone through the suffering of abduction. Here is the recent witness of a man who narrates his ordeal:
Alfred Latigo (not real name) is a peasant Living in a village about twenty miles North West of Kitgum. On the 12th of August last year, when he was working in his fields with two of his sons, the three of them were abducted by a group of rebels which had just entered from neighbouring Sudan with instructions by their leader Joseph Kony to forcibly recruit as many men and boys as possible. Alfred recalls that for almost a month they were led in endless marches through different places of Kitgum district. Prisoners were tied up by ropes round their waists in groups of ten so as to make it difficult to run away. Those who dared to try or showed signs of exhaustion were made to lie down and bayonetted to death mercilessly in front of all the abductees. Feeding was scarce, only once a day and mostly raw cassava.
His group was led by rebel commander Otti-Lagony, responsible for the Atyak massacre, in which more than two hundred civilians were shot dead in April last year. After an attack by helicopter gunships from Ugandan army, in which several prisoners died as the group was approaching the Sudanese border, Alfred and the remaining abductees reached Parajok and later on Palotaka, where Joseph Kony had set up his headquarters in the abandoned buildings of the Catholic mission.
The group was sent immediately to Owiny Kibul, near Palotaka, where they underwent three months of forced military training by rebel instructors. All of them were Acholi by tribe.
According to Alfred Latigo, the heavy offensive of the SPLA against the Sudanese Army forced the LRA rebels to leave their bases in and around Palotaka and flee to Juba. After one week walking they encamped in the outskirts and then moved to a place called Aruu, sixty miles north of Juba.
Ugandan rebels received all their supplies of arms, ammunitions, uniforms, food, etc, from the Sudanese Army. In their new base, the new recruits were forced to attend lengthy addresses by Joseph Kony, who used to make hot speeches for several hours. Alfred remembers Kony saying that the Acholi are lost since they have failed to give them their support and that generation should be eliminated. Many of the rebel soldiers are young boys who have been brainwashed and become extremely fanatical and cruel. Fresh recruits, after some time, are given a young abductee girl as a wife, and told to have as many children as possible, so as to create new Acholis. Kony himself is reported to have more than twenty wives, most of them living in Juba, where he travels often. Alfred describes him as "an expert in mind control, a man who dominates by terrorising those around him".
According to Alfred, Ugandan rebels also terrorise Sudanese villages next to their bases. In a couple of occassions, some of them were sent to help Sudanese soldiers in incursions against Didinga villages.
One day in mid-March, Alfred took advantage of an occassion to escape while the group was still sleeping and run away in a village around Lamogi, West of Gulu. As soon as he could he got rid of his uniform and gun and gave himself up to an army detachment in Amuro. He was taken to Gulu barracks, where he stayed for two months. Every morning former prisoners had to stay in the barracks and at times they were called to give information to the Intelligence Officer. In the afternoons they were free to go out. American NGO World Visions provided them with clothes, blankets and some other facilities.
Last month Alfred reached his home safely where he was happy to find his two other sons who were also abducted and managed to escape. But he is still afraid. He has left his village since the rebels are around and one of their aims is to kill their escapees. For him and many other Acholis the nightmare might not yet be over for quite some time.
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