Dr Besigye promises to probe Teso killings
FDC presidential candidate Kizza Besigye (C) with party president Mugisha Muntu at a mass grave site at Ogooma in Kumi District yesterday. PHOTO BY ERIASA MUKIIBI
Kumi- Forum for Democratic Change presidential candidate Kizza Besigye yesterday promised to inquire into the killings that resulted from insecurity in Teso sub-region and other parts of the country.
Dr Besigye had visited what residents of Ogooma village in Nyero Sub-county, Kumi District, say is a mass grave in which more than 300 people killed during the insurgency that followed President Museveni’s ascent to power in 1986 were buried.
“We shall have a truth and reconciliation commission where we shall inquire into everything that happened in our country,” Dr Besigye said at Ogooma, “We must inquire into it so that those responsible are known.”
An unknown number of people were killed in Teso sub-region during the counter-insurgency war the government forces waged in Teso as Mr Museveni sought to consolidate his hold onto the country between 1987 and 1993. The residents blame many of the killings on National Resistance Army soldiers.
Calls for inquests into war-related deaths in different parts of the country, including Luweero Triangle, Acholi and much of northern Uganda, have been rising for years, with Uganda Peoples Congress president Olara Otunnu being a strong advocate of the inquiry.
Maj Gen Mugisha Muntu, a former army commander and now FDC president, said at the mass grave site: “We have not had a government with the courage to exorcise the ghosts of our past.” He said the FDC government will deal with the issue.
Dr Besigye called on the people of Ogooma to back him as a way of ensuring that such problems are solved.
“That is why this election is not an ordinary election. It is a liberation process,” Dr Besigye said.
He repeated his pledges to re-stock Teso, revamp agriculture and improve education and health.
Before visiting the mass grave site, Dr Besigye visited the boundary between Nyero and Mukongoro sub-counties in Kumi District, which cars cannot cross.
According to residents, Shs1b was committed to building a bridge over Okokoro stream to connect the two sub-counties about 10 years ago but nothing has been done.
On his final day of campaigns in Teso, Dr Besigye campaigned in Kumi and Bukedea districts.
