16 August 2009
Kampala — The former UN under secretary-general for children in armed conflict, Dr Olara Otunnu, has rattled authorities in Kampala, announcing he has gathered substantial evidence to incriminate President Yoweri Museveni's government on charges of attempting to wipe out the northerners.

Dr Otunnu, who is expected to return to Uganda on Saturday, told the BBC Network Africa programme in an interview on Wednesday that the national army, UPDF, during its military offensive against Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, committed "atrocities, other human rights abuses and genocide in northern Uganda."

"This is a matter of public record. I will produce all the evidence that testifies to those crimes and I will produce them in public," Dr Otunnu said, dismissing suggestions he was risking possible prosecution for maligning the ruling National Resistance Movement government.

This latest in a series of charges by Dr Otunnu is the most specific threat yet and will leave the government in a delicate position: either force the matter by going to court where the claims could be verified or otherwise, or challenge its accuser to provide evidence out of court.

What Dr Otunnu's persistence will no doubt do is resurrect long-held suspicions of a diabolical plot to annihilate the populations of northern and far eastern Uganda which views were touted as the reasons that provoked the various insurgencies that wracked those parts of the country.

In the east, the Mukura massacre, in which a government army Major ordered his troops to lock up and suffocate hundreds of Iteso men in a train wagon is just one of the more prominent pieces of evidence usually advanced to propagate this view. In the North, the late 80s brutal mopping up operations by the government army which saw ugly incidents like the Bur Coro killings always come to mind.

President Museveni has in recent months suggested that the former senior UN diplomat could be interrogated by authorities over what he said are seditious statements - that he is fond of repeating - as soon as he lands at Entebbe International airport.

But Dr Otunnu said: "I am not afraid of going back to Uganda; I have nothing to be afraid of, I have committed no crime. I have only been a critic of the [Museveni] regime."

"I will produce evidence, chapter by verse to back up what I am saying."

This latest twist to the running verbal war between Dr Otunnu and the government appeared to catch officials in Kampala unprepared and triggering mixed reactions. Although the army leadership expressed indignation over the "recycled and absurd" remarks, government ministers were more guarded.

"What he is saying is total rubbish," said Lt. Col. Kulayigye, the defence and military spokesman, adding: "If government forces were committing genocide, how then could civilians run away from rebels to them for sanctuary?" Lt. Col. Kulayigye said Dr Otunnu served in both the Obote II government and Gen. Tito Okello Lutwa junta "that massacred Ugandans", and he has "no moral right whatsoever to talk against human rights records of the UPDF."

The army spokesman, without giving specifics, however, acknowledged that some errant officers deployed to quell the northern uprising committed "isolated crimes" for which they were promptly prosecuted. Asked if the government was prepared to press charges of sedition against or challenge Dr Otunnu's alleged evidence on genocide in the North, deputy Attorney General Fred Ruhindi said "I don't know."

Government Spokesperson, Mr Kabakumba Masiko, however, said whereas she has never been involved in any meeting to discuss Dr Otunnu's expected homecoming or his allegations, "if there are issues that require action, action will be taken."

In the Wednesday interview, Dr Otunnu put the United Nations on the spot for obtaining information on systematic killing of civilians allegedly by the Ugandan military in the North of the country and choosing to sit on the damaging information.

Amnesty International, a UK-based human rights group, in a report released last year said while fighting the Joseph Kony-led LRA insurgents and the Ugandan military terrorised and randomly eliminated civilians perceived to be rebel collaborators. The army has since denied those allegations but the latest claims could potentially resurrect debate on the need for a commission of inquiry to unmask what each side - the UPDF and rebels - did during the protracted insurgency.

The army in 2005 managed to dislodge the rebels from northern Uganda, forcing them to flee to Garamba national park in northeastern DRC from where they are reported to be carrying out their signature brutality on Congolese civilians and Sudanese, especially in the Western Equatoria province.

The LRA leadership has refused to sign onto a final peace agreement negotiated after two years of talks with the government of Uganda and mediated by the Government of South Sudan. The rebels, who are accused of conscripting thousands of children, murdering thousands more, raping, maiming and forcing the disruption of life in the north that at one time saw two million people herded into congested, unhygienic and disease-ridden camps, want the indictments dropped before they sign anything. The vicious LRA leader Kony, who together with four other senior rebel commanders was indicted by International Criminal Court (ICC) in July 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity, has among others insisted that the UPDF is responsible for the said crimes.

This claim has been repeated in different forms by other individuals who have urged ICC chief prosecutor, Moreno Ocampo, to investigate both sides to this two-decade long conflict. The UPDF, however, denies it killed civilians or committed any other crimes deliberately or as a weapon of war.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Sam Kutesa told the Daily Monitor early in the week that Dr Otunnu was free to return to Uganda using any travel document and that government would give him a visa - and later a passport upon arrival.

Dr Otunnu has hinted at contesting for the presidency of the Uganda Peoples Congress in that party's upcoming national delegates conference. This race has so far drawn in no less than four aspirants including Lira Municipality MP, Jimmy Akena, the son of the party's late leader and two-time president of Uganda, Dr Apollo Milton Obote. Dr Otunnu is also reportedly being courted by the main Opposition party, Forum for Democratic Change in what observers think is a bid for them to launch a joint, and more formidable, onslaught on President Museveni's grip on power in 2011.

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