Paul Amoru, Sam Lawino & David Okumu
4 July 2009
Kampala — The northern Uganda region, just settling from two decades of the Joseph Kony-led LRA's brutal military campaign, is on the verge of slipping into another rebellion, at least according to official accounts.
Currently, public opinion is split over the army announcement that Uganda Patriotic Front, a new rebel group, is being nurtured in the thickets of Murchison Falls Park and surrounding Districts to kick President Museveni's government out of power forcibly.
This is after Gen. David Tinyefuza, the coordinator of national intelligence agencies, on Thursday described as "utter rubbish" talk about a looming rebellion, which he said is recycled outdated information.
Acholi politicians named as masterminds of the nascent rogue group came out forcefully to deny any complicity.
However, the Defence and Military Spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulayigye, who initially divulged the rebel scheme, said yesterday he spoke the truth and army investigators who dug up the now contested information are not "daft."
"The UPDF discovered what was a nascent rebellion that was about to be started by some individuals in the Diaspora with some politicians in northern Uganda," he said.
This was rather a more guarded statement from the Major compared to his explicit accounts earlier in the week that Gulu District chairman, Mr Norbert Mao was an "accomplice and adviser" to UPF, and allegedly participated in editing their manifesto.
And Mr Mao, he said, is on security watch and could be arrested after the Gulu boss penned an unexpected newspaper article admitting he knew of an upcoming rebel formation, but considered the information "trash, a threat of armchair rebels."
Although security organs never summoned Mr Mao to answer queries about why he never notified them, it is understood the momentum of the investigation prompted him to sort of confess after he lost a memory stick containing the rebel dossier.
News of the alleged new rebel group in northern Uganda came at a time when some of the communities still in camps were making final efforts to return home.
Some of them Saturday Monitor spoke said they are distressed and torn between returning home to the bloody echo of another band of gun-toting rebels or live a fairly safe but dehumanising life off handouts in IDP camps.
"I was abducted and survived death among LRA rebels and now this new group will completely kill my hope to return home," said Mr Otto Samuel, 46, a resident of Unyama trading center, once home to 21,000 IDPs.
He said the LRA fighting that lasted 20 years first began as a rumour, and that is why the latest developments are "disturbing and unfortunate."
Residents there are terrified that if they won't fall victim to heinous assaults by the emerging rebel force, as they endured under the LRA, many of them could be arrested as possible collaborators.
Already some 17 people, among them a teacher, clergyman, journalist and Prison warder, have been picked as the pioneer fighters of UPF. Only 11 have been produced in court, and the military is unable to explain the whereabouts of the others.
These include Patrick Otim, Emmy Oryem, Philip Okello, Afred Olanya, Francis Akena, John Otim, Michael Obol, Alex Okot Langwen, Patrick Okello and Jimmy Oceng.
Details of the operation show that the army first arrested two suspects in Kampala. Using information from the pair, detectives stormed the leafy Murchison Falls Park, home to elephants, Giraffe and Ugandan kobs, in commando style in September 2008.
Some six suspects were apprehended and 20 sub-machine guns found during the abrupt raid, said Capt. Ronald Kakurungu, the UPDF 4th Division spokesman. It now appears that assault was kept secret, leading to capture of nine more suspects in March this year.
Security operatives said they recovered some 20 automatic rifles, and an assortment of communication gadgets and military fatigues, making them believe a major rebellion was being born.
Gulu District chairman Mao says he does not understand why any suspect found with northern Uganda is often branded by government as a rebel while those caught in other parts of the country are categorised as armed robbers or thugs.
"The whole thing is a circus," he said, denying any culpability.
But Ms Christine Aciro, 32, a mother of six children all born in an IDP camp, says she is devastated by the news of emerging subversive activities.
"With the lull in fighting, we had started enjoying peace and freedom to till our land but I am getting too afraid to do anything, prevention is better than cure; and it appears our future will be doomed again," she lamented.
But Acholi politicians, many fearing arrest, say the alleged rebel grouping is being trumpeted as a ruse to malign and lock them up jail ahead of the expected 2011 general elections since they have in the past made it impossible for the ruling government to win votes in the region.
In Kampala, Maj. Kulayigye yesterday toned down the rhetoric saying the treasonable acts were detected before hand and effectively "nipped in the bud."
He said: "I also want to state that no politician in northern Uganda is worthy framing of a capital crime because that is not our way of work and secondly because they pose no threat at all."
The army yesterday released a list of 10 people who are allegedly behind the new rebel group. Saturday Monitor could not publish the names of the individuals for legal reasons. But they include, two based in Canada , two in UK (one of them a PHD student), and the rest in USA and neighbouring Kenya.
As the ping pong continues, questions linger on who is telling the truth.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
