LIRA DISTRICT MASSACRES

To: Chairman PPC

Cc: Chairman PRC

Cc: Chairman NOC

Cc: PPC Members Abroad and Bureaux

From: AMO

1. The Managers of Radio Unity FM in Lira rang yesterday 25 February with a request that I make a broadcast in Lwo language. I accepted to do so today at 9pm your time. The broadcast has been cancelled by the dictatorship's Lira Security Committee on the ground that the situation was very tense and no one, worst of all Milton Obote must be allowed to fuel it further through FM Radio broadcasts.
2. Earlier today, I was rang by a UPC member in Lira who told me that officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrived in Lira before and during the well attended public demonstrations against the dictatorship held on Wednesday 25 February. He reported that although the demonstrators were peaceful, the size of the crowd intimidated the Police and the UPDF. One Lango said to be brother-in-law of Omara Atubo who wore a photo of a gun on his chest and was shouting that the Langi were being massacred because they were stupid, was lynched. He reported that Agents of the dictatorship immediately after the killing of Atubo's relative began to tell journalists that there was an uprising against any Acholi in Lira and that some Acholi had been killed when nothing of the kind occurred. I checked this report and several others told me of no uprising against or killings of Acholi.
3. In my broadcast I was going to appeal to the people in Lango to accept that massacres first in Abia and in Barlonyo were the deeds of the UPDF. My reasons include the following: -
1. Museveni, now campaigning to violate the Constitution in order to be President for Life is overwhelmed by problems and has designs to make the problems of the LRA to be Lango versus Acholi problem by ordering the UPDF to massacre the Langi so that they blame all Acholi because the LRA is led by Acholi men.
2. Museveni is an expert in causing divisions and factions where none exists. The people in Lango know how Museveni has been using some people in Lango to cause a faction in the UPC. Elsewhere, Museveni has used Francis Bwengye to cause a faction in the DP; and used Mayanja Nkangi to cause a faction in the CP.
3. Museveni, as an incompetent Commander-in-chief of the NRA and now the UPDF has failed in over 18 years to defeat or disable the rag-tag LRA. He does not want International Peacekeepers but wants the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate what he can order the UPDF to do and then show as atrocities by the LRA. Massacres at Abia and Barlonyo both in Lira District were therefore committed so that Museveni can tell the ICC of numbers killed by LRA when the slaughter was done by the UPDF posing as LRA on Museveni's orders. The massacres he ordered at Abia made Museveni to contact and alert the ICC. The massacres at Barlonyo occurred when Museveni was in the vicinity and on Sunday or by Monday and Tuesday, the officials of the ICC were already in Lira. Since the killers used some heavy (support) weapons available only to the UPDF and not to the LRA, the ICC in their investigations must start with when and at what time they received reports about massacres at Barlonyo. Since the massacres were committed at night on Saturday 21 February, any report of the massacres at Barlonyo received by the ICC in Europe during that day or night or very early on Sunday is suspect and could only have been sent by the Museveni dictatorship who had ordered the massacres. For the ICC to with-hold any such information, will not only condemn its investigations but also condemn the ICC as an organisation engaged in cleansing the Uganda dictatorship so that the dictatorship can continue to massacre citizens of Uganda.
4. I was going to make a very strong appeal to the people in Lango not to and never to think that the Acholi are their enemy. I was also going to request the people to remember the foundation of representation in Parliament which the UPC built namely that whatever may be the number of MPs, every Lango MP is expected to be a person who articulates the concerns of the people of Lango. I was going to urge the Lango MPs to speak out and to realise that whether the massacres were committed by the LRA as being claimed, it is the dictatorship who has the Constitutional responsibilities to protect the lives and property of the citizens they must blame and take to task.