LRA victims tell their accounts of living with bomb fragments

Seven minutes to 7pm, Bony Owiwo aged 13, is uprooting cassava for supper as his father Otim Okello, 54, and aunt, Mary Atim, 40, both maimed by landmines during the insurgency are seated on the verandah of the family’s grass-thatched hut in Akiteo-Bor village, Adekokwok Sub-county, about 5km from Lira town.

At his tender age, Owiwo has been taking care of his relatives for five years since his elder siblings abandoned the home due to the hard times mainly due lack of essential needs.

“I am the only one left to care for my father and aunt. I have eight brothers and sisters but they left me here. I have taken years without seeing some of them. I cook and wash clothes for my dad and aunt,” Owiwo says as he settles down to peel raw cassava for the family’s meal that evening.

Owiwo did not see the insurgency. He knows it by the post-war pain it left behind. He was born at or towards the end of the insurgency and does not remember anything about the war except stories retold by his father who lost a leg to the insurgency and still lives with landmine fragments embedded in his frail ageing body. His father walks with the aid of crutches.

Owiwo’s aunt Atim also was hit by a landmine which severely damaged her legs, spinal cord and confined to her house. She crawls to move out or return to the house.

The duo often tell Owiwo sad stories of what happened during the war and how they were disabled by the landmines planted in village paths by the warring parties. Otim and Atim stepped on the landmines as they scampered for their lives during rebel attacks on their homes or camps.

“I don’t remember anything about the war but my father and aunt told me there were rebels and soldiers fighting in this area. They showed me where bombs were being planted. My father told me he was once a member of Amuka youth fighters,” Owiwo says.

The trio are all victims of the war. But Owiwo is a victim of a war he did not witness.

He dropped out of school in Primary Two because he could not get tuition fees. He now works in neighbours’ gardens for wages of between Shs3000 to Shs15000 to raise money to buy soap, salt and sugar to support his maimed dad and aunt.

“Sometimes neighbours refuse to pay me my money after completing their work. They make me go to their homes endlessly until I give up. Some choose to pay in bunches of bananas or kilogrammes of beans. They cheat me because I am a child,” Owiwo laments.

He says on several occasions the family goes without sugar or soap when he has not been paid for his labour. Besides working in neighbours’ gardens, Owiwo washes clothes and works as a porter for the neighbours.

He carries their raw foodstuff to the market and is paid some little allowance for his labour to supplement his earnings.

Sometimes traders in a market employ him as a sales man to attract customers and is paid some commission.
“I go to town and help people in the market and they pay me some money. Sometimes, I work at construction sites but they also cheat me saying I am young. I am usually paid almost a half of what others are paid,” he says.
He says he has lost hope of going back to school. Nevertheless, he dreams of becoming an electrician. This, he believes, would make him earn more money and be able to provide for his father and aunt. But he has no clue how he will achieve his dream career.

Otim Okello
Otim praises his son for taking care of him but also turns emotional upon seeing his son who is supposed to be at school but is instead at home struggling to fend for them.

He does not blame his elder children for abandoning the home. He says there was no future for them and they had suffered enough since he was amputated in 2003.

“I can’t be annoyed about my children because they are also not well. I was taking care of them before I was shot and hit by landmine in 2002. I have been suffering for almost 20 years and I could not educate my children. I don’t know where some of my children are living,” Otim said.

“My children dropped out of school. They were living a miserable life until they abandoned my home. I could not provide for them. They were young and grew up suffering. I wish government had compensated us or educated our children,” he added.

Otim lost his leg fighting for his country but the government he was defending has never compensated him for his patriotism.

Otim was hit by a landline in Otuke District where he had gone with other youths under Amuka vigilante militia group to fight the LRA rebels. Otim and fellow youth at that time were persuaded to join Amuka militia group by local leaders and security personnel because their villages had been ravaged by rebels.

He says on that day, which he can’t remember, a few minutes past midday, LRA rebels ambushed their group as they patrolled the villages.

The youths had been recruited and trained to work as village security vigilantes and many of them had been armed by government.

“We heard gunfire and we scattered. We thought rebels had fired bullets just to scare us, yet they had surrounded us. Whoever tried to run away was shot. I took a different direction with some colleagues but I was shot in the shoulder and I also stepped on a landmine,” Otim recounts.

He remembers that about 30 of his colleagues were killed by the rebels at that spot and even those who survived with injuries later succumbed to the bullet wounds due to the harsh conditions they were going through and lack of proper medical care.

He says the survivors tried to petition court seeking compensation from government but they were unsuccessful.
He has lost hope for compensation for his sacrifice in ending the LRA insurgency because his educated compatriots have since died and he has nobody to pursue his case.

Mary Atim
Otim’s sister Atim also was hit by a landmine in early 2000 as she and other villagers were to safety.

Their camp had been attacked by rebels. Atim says rebels fired bullets into Moro Kwang camp at around 7pm and the internally displaced people fled in disarray.

“We were in a camp thinking we had been protected by the army until rebels started shooting randomly into us. We ran for our safety but I stepped on a landmine. My legs and spinal cord were damaged. I have never walked again,” Atim says.

Atim is living with a terminally disabled spine and legs. Her husband had been killed earlier during the war and she was the only one taking care of their children.

The children were taken up by relatives after she was disabled by the landmine explosion. Her children too dropped out of school because the relatives could not afford the school fees.

Aisha Binti
Another LRA war victim Aisha Binti survived the rebel bullets but her parents were not as lucky. She was hit by a landmine in 1993 as she ran from bullets that claimed lives of her parents. Her father was a driver while the mother was a gardener.

“I was about 10 years old when my parents were killed in the war. I remember we were running and my father was shot. We continued running and I stepped on a landmine. My right leg was shattered by the landmine and I regained consciousness in hospital,” Ms Binti said.

When Binti recovered, she realised her leg had been amputated. She was also informed her mother had been killed.

She was picked up by her aunt and uncle who raised her as their own child. Binti’s uncle passed on when she was in Senior Three but her aunt educated her up to Senior Four.

Ms Binti is now the vice chairperson of Northern Uganda Landmine Survivors Association (ULMSA). She is pursuing a certificate in Computer Science sponsored by Margret Orach Orech, founder of Uganda Landmine Survivors Association and International Ambassador Campaign To Ban Landmines (ICBL).
Binti is sanguine she will get a job and fend for herself after completion of her studies.

Moses Komakech
The 33-year-old living in Teso Bar Parish, Adyeri Division in Lira Municipality, lost both legs to a landmine in 2002. His tragedy came when he was digging near a road in Pader District in a place that is part of the present day Agago District.

He says rebels and government soldiers would plant explosives in busy places which, in many cases, would tragically be stepped on by civilians and blow them up.

“I was in Senior Two and our garden was near the road. I went to dig at around 8am and stepped on a landmine which had been planted in our garden. My legs were crashed and I was amputated.

I have been struggling with life. I have never received any support from government,” Komakech narrates.
He suspects some fragments could be buried in his body because he often feels a lot of pain. He says even the tri-cycle he moves on was donated to him by good Samaritans.

He blames government for abandoning him and other victims.
“My plea to government and MPs is to enact a policy that caters for war victims. Some people had families but they were left helpless and their children have suffered throughout. A policy would ensure war victims are compensated. We should at least be economically empowered. We should be helped to start up enterprises,” Komakech adds.

Tom Awer Okwir
Born in 1973, Tom Awer Okwir was incapacitated in 1998 when a pick up truck he was travelling in with a dozen other people was blown up by a landmine in the middle of a road. Only Okwir and two others survived out of the 18 occupants of the vehicle. But even his fellow survivors have since died.

Like Otim, Atim and Komakech who suffered similar fate, Okwir castigates government for neglecting the LRA war victims. He says he knows about 10 people living in remote areas with bullets and bomb fragments stuck in their bodies but have never received treatment.

“At least for me I lost one leg and I was treated by good Samaritans. Many people are still living with bullets and fragments but they have not been catered for. I lost my leg and my family has been struggling to survive. My children don’t study because they lack school fees,” Okwir speaks with sense of frustration about government betrayal.

Ministry speaks out

Ms Rose Bongole, a physiotherapist at the disability section in Ministry of Health, advises people living with bomb fragments and bullets across the country to visit nearby government hospitals for specialised treatment.

She says the ministry has employed health workers specifically to handle operations like repairing broken limbs, removing bullets and fragments from bodies in addition to offering various medical care services.

“I have been meeting people from northern Uganda especially Okwir who has been telling me about people living with bullets in their bodies. We advise such people to visit hospitals in Lira and Gulu. My role would be to supervise health experts to ensure those people are given the necessary treatment. We can’t know their fate when they are still lying deep in villages,” Bongole says.

Okwir says he has tried to communicate to people living with landmine fragments and bullets to access healthcare but the challenge is they cannot even afford costs.

“How can someone living 60km or 80km outside this town afford transport to bring him or her here for treatment? Boda-bodas charge more than Shs30,000 to go to such places. We also don’t have means to bring them to hospital because it is very expensive,” Okwir reasons.

Orech who also lost a leg to a landmine agrees with her colleagues that government has done little or nothing to help them. Orech says there are more than 800 landmine victims living in northern Uganda and other parts of the country who have not been helped and are languishing in chronic pain.

She artificial legs cost between Shs900,000 and Shs1.5m or more and the victims cannot afford the price.

“Government should have thought of projects to help us earn money so that we can cater for ourselves. Victims should have been trained in vocational skills and supported with capital. We know we can supervise each other and make good use of the money,” Orech says.

Northern Uganda landmine survivor associations is based in Lira and Gulu districts. It has close to 200 members yet other victims are not yet registered. Other victims are in the Rwenzururu area along Mt Rwenzori. These were affected by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels who were commanded by Jamil Mukulu, now in prison.

On the appeal for provision of crutches and wheelchairs, Bongole says the Health ministry does not have money to buy them because they are expensive. She however admits that amputees and other disabled persons also can’t afford the cost for the artificial limbs.

“We know a wheelchair means life for a disabled person but we don’t have funds. We are trying to lobby the Ministry of Finance for funds so that we can provide some wheelchairs,” Ms Bongole added.

She urged local leaders to ensure the plight of landmine survivors and amputees whose health is deteriorating is brought to the attention of the Ministry of Health for redress. She appealed to good Samaritans to transport the victims to hospitals as the Health ministry continues to lobby for funds.

About the war
The leader: Led by the reclusive Joseph Kony, the Lord’s Resistance Army is responsible for Africa’s longest running conflict. At its peak, the rebels’ brutal insurgency displaced nearly two million people in large areas of northern Uganda.

To date, the conflict has seen more than 10,000 people killed in massacres, while twice that number of children were abducted by the rebels and forced to work as soldiers, porters and sex slaves.

The LRA traces its beginnings to anti-government movements formed in the mid-1980s after President Museveni overthrew the regime of Tito Okello, an ethnic Acholi from northern Uganda.
Source: The Guardian