Acholi! Which Way?
(An Expose of Events, Turning Points and Watersheds
in the Last 30-40 Years in Acholi)

Tom O'LALOBO

Mr Chairman, thank you for giving me the floor to address this conference.
Today, Mr. Chairman, will be one of the most memorable days in the history of our people; because never before have Acholi people scattered by atrocities in their homeland, come together under one roof to take stock of their position and chart a way forward. I am very glad and grateful to be here among my kindred.

I would therefore like to extend my great thanks and appreciation to those who conceived the idea of calling this Kacoke and to those who worked tirelessly to make this day a reality. I also thank those of you who have travelled from far away places to be at this conference.

Mr. Chairman, it gives me great pleasure and comfort to see friends and those who sympathise with the predicament of the Acholi people giving up their valuable time to attend this gathering. Their presence among us is reassuring and I welcome and thank them most sincerely for the sacrifice they have made to be here.

Lastly, Mr. Chairman, I am delighted that elected members of Parliament from home and other illustrious sons and daughters of Acholi have come here not only to brief us of the true picture of the situation back home but also to participate as we look for ways of helping our district. Dear brothers and sisters, you are not only welcomed wholeheartedly to this conference but into our homes as well.

Fellow Acholi, we are here at this Kacoke Madit to look for ways to save the people of Northern Uganda and in particular the Acholi people from the protracted war that has now lasted over a decade and still rages on. A war that split families and destroyed our cultural and social structure. A war that has made life in Acholi impossible. So, to meaningfully deliberate on these issues, I will endeavour to put into perspective beginning with where we have been in the past and what might have brought us to where we are today so that we may plot our way ahead with confidence.

I believe Mr. Chairman, that it was not foundation when Sir Winston Churchill described Uganda the Pearl of Africa. He must have discerned Uganda's immense untapped wealth, the most accommodating climate and fertile land, the unique socio-economic interdependence of its ethnic groups, often referred to as tribes and its enviable geographical location which make Uganda the communication confluence of Africa where east and west north and south meet. These natural assets, heritage or whatever you may want to call then, are still there for us toady. But like stepping stones which we use to cross rivers we can use these asset to achieve bigger things or rise to greater heights but if we misuse them we stumble into the river to our detriment.

Sometimes I derive great satisfaction when I recollect the football matches I played during my youth in the neighbouring districts Madi, West Nile, Lango and Bunyoro whenever they commemorated special days in their history. What was most reassuring was the cheers we received from Acholi who were working and who had become indigenous to those districts. Mr. Chairman, Acholi people were in every district and kingdom and in every department of the Uganda Civil Service and offered their services with distinction and at the highest levels. In those days there were no talks of tribalism in Uganda.

Socially, I can say with confidence, even now at a time of great tribulation in Acholi that Uganda is a colloid of tribes and will always remain so. For, our social life knows no ethnic boundary. intertribal damages among Ugandans is rampant and flourishes at all levels. However, I am very sad to say that where there had been struggle for supremacy and domination selfish interests of some of our leaders took the better of them and led them to create ethnic differences where none existed and sadly they exploited such creation for personal gains. Mr, Chairman, these have been our major undoing.

In the fifties and sixties for example, discord was created between East and West Acholi. Our leaders of that time fought each other not about where development projects should be located but rather about which personality should be appointed to what position by the District Appointment Board and other squabbles over petty matters. The outcome was that, in the era immediately before independence and soon alter independence there was slow development in Acholi and the district was denied rapid progress that should have come with unity.

Uganda after independence was the envy of many African countries. Its mixed agricultural and industrial economy afforded the people of Uganda with all weather road network comparable to none in East and Central Africa. The rural population was the backbone of the production of coffee, cotton and tobacco which were the main cash crops of Uganda in addition to producing the nation's food stock.

The government had a comprehensive Health-Care programme. A programme of building hospitals and dispensaries in every centre of population concentration with its hub and centre of excellence at Mulago Hospital, providing service next to none in the world. Schools were within reach of any Ugandan child. And many Ugandans were happy and contented with the standard of living in their country. Talking about these things may sound to the younger ears like fantasies in Alice in The Wonderland. But I must say that there was also under current of talks about nepotism and tribal differences perpetuated by disgruntled people in the local administration as well as in the central government departments, in the Police Service, in the Army and so on. These were some of the reasons leading to the coup of January 1971.

When Idi Amin took power, he realised the pivotal position that the Acholi occupied in the Security Forces and the Civil Service and quickly fabricated differences between the Acholi and each other and the Acholi and their neighbouring tribes to disorganise them and prevent any effort towards unity that might threaten his survival. Amin was a shrewd soldier. He created enmity within families and division between clans and tribes. Amin then went on with impunity to kill prominent Ugandans beginning with the Acholi people while neighbours watched with detached aloofness. Saying its none of my business! They must have done something! Until every tribe in Uganda face the barrel of Amin's guns. Aisin committed these atrocities not to favour West Nilers or the Kakwas but for his own personal gains and for his close cronies.

Eventually, Amin was toppled in 1979. He had not only transformed the Pearl of Africa into the poorest country in the world but left an ungovernable country behind. The war of liberation that overthrew him, the ill-conceived and ill-equipped transition government that followed could do no better. It further fuelled recrimination between the different tribes which split the country more than ever before.

Although political activities began soon alter the overthrow of Arvin the country was never truly unified. That time the major divisions were along party lines but within each political party there were still echoes of tribal differences. These ostensibly small differences did not give the government elected in December 1980 an easy beginning. "Obote Two Government" had in addition formidable tasks of rehabilitation and re-construction of a country socially, politically, economically and morally transformed, decimated and sectionalised beyond recognition. Many of us had hope that maybe this time we have learnt from our mistakes and that the goodwill of having an elected government would bring unity. This was not to be.

In 1985 the government elected by the people of Uganda was toppled. This time the culprits were misguided and disillusioned sons of Acholi who partly for reasons best known to themselves felt that they were not receiving their fair share of the cake and partly because they allowed themselves to be manipulated by people interested in destabilising the government of Uganda. Because the plot was ill-conceived, it crumbled within six months. And the effect was that they handed over the government, on a silver platter, to the murderous Yoweri Museveni who had killed thousands upon thousands of innocent Ugandans in Luwero and who had already fled into exile in Sweden. Yoweri Museveni came back smiling and went on to prove true to the Acholi people their proverb "Lyec oturo yen ma tale". This was a painful episode in our history. I hope, I sincerely hope that this time as we gather here to find ways of helping our people we have learnt our lesson to be thorough in all we do.

Yoweri Museveni' s NRM(NRA was established to achieve two aims. First, to destroy Obote and UPC and second to establish in Uganda a one party democracy with the force of aims if necessary. We have seen the banning of political parties in Uganda. We have also seen the promulgation of a constitution of Uganda that lawfully bans political party activities and denies the people of Uganda the freedom to participate in determining the way they are governed.

For ten years Museveni has instituted mechanism to systematically annihilate the Acholi people from the face of Uganda. He waged the war on the civil population with the purpose of inflicting maximum suffering to the people. To demonstrate Museveni' sinsidious plan one only needs to look back two or three years. One would see that villages were often attacked at the onset of rain to prevent planting of food crops or soon after harvest to collect the little that was grown.

When Yoweri Museveni crossed the Nile his military tactics changed. He never established a safe zone behind him with administration as he did in the other areas he captured. In his own words Museveni called the Acholi people animals, swine and declared that he would finish them, and thus this protracted war.

What then followed was the clean-up operation. Those who proved too stubborn to leave their villages were strafed from the air by helicopter gunship. Then comes the infantry of LDU (local defence units) who plunder and vandalise whatever remained. Houses were burnt down and harvested food in granaries were looted and what could not be taken away was set alight. Frequently, after such offensives the survivors were herded into Gulu or Kitgum towns to be raped; men, women and children alike by his hand picked HIV infested soldiers to make certain their fate with the lethal virus.

Yoweri Museveni concocted and rigged presidential and parliamentary elections to legitimised his authority and to fulfil the aims of NRM/NRA. He has continued to enact legislation to entrench his position and transform the organs of NRM/NRA into organs of the State. We have seen privatisation and decentralisation nearing completion. The quagmire that faces Acholi and the entire north for that matter, lacking as the do infrastructure that promote development such as roads, rail service, telecommunication, power and housing is colossal. Can anyone tell me how else a remote region devoid of basic infrastructure can progress? Much water has already gone under the bridge. To initiate development will, no doubt, demand very hard work, patience and tenacity from you younger and more articulate Acholi. Please come forward selflessly and dedicate yourselves to the service of the district.

What must be of great concern in our minds is that Acholi has no mechanised industries and that agriculture is the main source of income and occupation. War has disrupted life pattern in the countryside and rendered agriculture impossible and this is reflected in the agricultural output of Uganda over the years. In 1970, for example, the cotton growing districts of Uganda produced about 500,000 bales of cotton. Today Uganda is producing about 30,000 bales under Yoweri Museveni quoting from IMF figures. The same IMF purports that Uganda was registering the highest economic growth in Africa, averaging 8 per cent annually. Surely, which part of Uganda are we talking about?

Mr. Chairman, this begs all logic. Uganda with 10 million people used to produce a half a million bales of cotton annually and Uganda with 19 million people under Museveni produces 30,000 bales. What a joke!. Fellow Acholi, this is the depths to which our economy has sunk and some indication, a small indication, of magnitude of the salvage operation that lies ahead of us.

The IMF claims that the average annual Per Capita Income of Ugandan was $230 in 1996. This figure is dismal enough but who in Acholi earns even this much when they have no peace to cultivate their land and they are under constant harassment by Museveni's men? Even that little which is earned Museveni dishes them to his cronies, soldiers and civil servants. As Michael Holman wrote in the Financial Times of 25 April 96 that the Uganda Commercial Bank lent Museveni's men over 100 billion Uganda shillings. This sum, ladies and gentlemen is a huge chunk of the national income of Uganda and it is given into the hands of just a few people. I am not an economist and I need no explanation to understand that not only is cash crop production ground to zero and war has prevented our people from growing food crops for their own subsistence but that there is also no cash circulating in the district.

The one thing that is most important and must precede all is the restoration of peace and tranquillity in the north. No stone must be left unturned until peace returns. We must let the world know the real Museveni. Go out and tell everyone; in churches, in schools, in supermarkets m your work places and everywhere that Yoweri Museveni is killing our people and destabilising the region. He is responsible for the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi with the loss of countless lives. He has continued with his expansionist ambition into Zaire, Southern Sudan and now into Ethiopia. Let our other neighbours take heed and not be complacent because Yoweri Museveni has invidious plans to destabilise its neighbours.

As I conclude my submission, I call out to all Acholi people to unite because we share a common goal and we have a common destiny. I call upon all the people of Acholi, in particular those of us who enjoy peace and tranquillity of our host countries to understand the value of peace and tranquillity to the development of a nation and to use whatever is learnt to enable us to work together for the benefit of Acholi. I want you to realise that you have acquired skills in various fields that can be fruitfully employed for development of our district. There are Doctors, veterinarians, teachers, lawyers, diplomats, bankers, engineers, economists, nurses and paramedics, accountants, managers, professional soldiers, businessmen and businesswomen, mechanics, politicians, administrators, investors you name them we have them all. Come forth, each according to your skills and profession to create peace to Acholi. Identify the needs of our people. Use your skills and contribute to the development of Acholi.

There is a slot for each and every one of us to chip into. This does not mean that I do not subscribe to the axiom that "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts" but rather if the sum of its parts is attainable, then we must be satisfied with it. I will end by saying, be warned, there will be many people some will be our own brothers and sisters who will insinuate our good intentions to cause division between us and work to create disunity among the districts in the north.

Thank You