Bitter tales from the bushes of Luweero Triangle
The skulls at various war memorial centres. Photo by Racheal Mabala.
Paul Lubwama loses his cool whenever one mentions the January 26 National Resistance Movement celebrations, which were postponed to today. However, unlike some people whose grouse against the celebrations revolves around wastage of resources, Lubwama’s reasons and concerns are inundated with gloom, grief and bitter memories of the war.
He rewinds to the events in the 1980s that he never thought would claim all his six family members. A portrait that was taken on Christmas Eve of 1979 is the only remaining memory of them.
He adds that with the escalation of rebel activities in presentday Luweero and Wakiso Districts, things started taking another shape on both sides.
Each group—the government troops and the rebels—had a specific character and means of persuasion to win over the local population and those who refused to take sides were viewed as enemies and were threatened, which led to the killing of many “innocent” people who wanted an ordinary life but walked a middle road.
“Day time was always for the government troops, while rebels always advanced in the night. However, as a tactic of war and as days passed, rebels began camouflaging in government army uniforms, stormed villages and acted anyway they desired to tarnish the government’s image,” Lubwama narrates.
On the night of August 10, 1984, a group of men dressed as government soldiers and speaking in Kiswahili raided their home in Wabusaana village and took away his father, whom they asked questions he never understood because he did not speak the language.
In the process, his mother and five siblings escaped into the nearby shrubs, leaving behind Lubwama, who was then 13, and had been a recruit of the rebels as a spy on Obote’s men. He associated with Obote’s soldiers during the day.
Little did he know that while he was away, “Obote’s men” had made a stopover at his home and had discussed some matters at length with his father, according to his elder brother, who died later in the war.
But according to Lubwama, while the government troops had earlier visited his home, they could not make a return at night because it was not their practice, which leaves a possibility that his father might have been killed by the same rebels he worked for.
Luweero Triangle, located to the north of Kampala, was where Yoweri Museveni led the National Resistance Army, to the bush in 1981, following his defeat in the 1980 elections, to fight “bad governance” until 1986, when he assumed power.
More still, Luweero Triangle is commonly remembered for the brutal killings, particularly of civilians during the war, which are mostly blamed on Obote’s government. But, little from this war has been chronicled to give a proper account of the killings that stretched across Kiboga, Nakaseke, Nakasongola, Mubende, Mityana and Wakiso. What is clear though, greater Luweero remains in a state of poverty, with unemployed youth, the sons and daughters of fighters and heroes whose skulls are being eaten away by termites in memorial graves dug by President Museveni’s government after he took over power.
Those who survived the war by what they call the “grace of God”, the five years remain an unforgettable and unforgiveable period.
Who is accountable?
This is the big question whose answer you will not get from either party in the conflict. The rebels now the government in power, blame the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), who were the government then, and are prompt on reminding the population in those areas about what Obote’s men did to them.
UPC, on the other hand, has also never stopped calling for an investigation into what happened in Luweero and who was responsible. Yet many who witnessed the events have since decided to keep quiet, some are patiently awaiting justice for the looting, mysterious and brutal killings of civilians, disappearance of many people, use of child soldiers—most of whom died, the list is endless.
Rebel invasions versus government troops atrocities
John Kasozi (not real names), an elder in one of the villages in Luweero was also part of the guerilla movement, says the two groups killed people indifferently in large numbers and used different methods.
For example, the rebels had a tendency of grabbing people in their homes, especially at night, dragging them to the forests, ferociously interrogating them about their relationship and information they held on government troops, establishments and plans, and later hacking them, he narrates.
He adds that their signature killing method consisted of blindfolding people, stripping them naked, and then hacking them one by one to death using axes and spears, among others.
Citing examples of who actually did such in the bush and their current whereabouts in or outside government, he notes that, the rebels mostly killed civilians to grab their property, their cattle and their food gardens.
He further claims that, in certain instances, the rebels wore government troop uniforms and conducted night raids on civilian homes to scare them off their property or acquire information from them.
In certain instances, they took away able bodied but mostly teenage children, whom they trained and used on the frontlines. This allegation is attested to by a former guerilla, who has since fallen out with the government but sought anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
Mysterious deaths and disappearances
Mr Kasozi also affirms that the rebels were responsible for the disappearance of many people, who were linked to the Obote regime, held information that was considered an asset in the struggle while others were taken away for reasons still unknown.
According to some letters and documents copied to the Ministry of Luweero Triangle and Office of the President, families whose members disappeared have continued to write, demanding for explanations. But none has ever been replied to.
According to one official, who was in the NRA and now serving in the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), and asked not to be named, most of the people were buried in the forests where they were killed, “in order not to paint a bad picture to the struggle”. However, the government has denied the claims.
Assassinations in the rebel movement
Initially, the guerilla struggle was instigated by the 1980 vote rigging and Obote’s authoritarianism, joining was not on the basis of tribe or denomination. They were bound by a common cause, especially in the early years.
Yet towards 1985 and to the ultimate capturing of power, things started taking a different course on tribal lines, now that a bigger composition of the guerrilla leaders were from western Uganda and some, Rwandese.
Suleiman (other names held), now a veteran recounts that, at this level, it became clear that the rebels had little in contrast with the Langi-dominated government, so most fighters considered pulling out.
“We were fighting tribalism yet it was growing in the bush, which signaled that it would become something big if we got into power”.
As a manifestation, many Baganda rebel leaders, who had been used to win hearts to their side began disappearing and others dying mysteriously, “which the rebel leaders attributed to the government but was not true,” Sulaiman says.
One other incident on how tribalism manifested itself was the killing of Andrew Lutaakome Kayiira in 1987, another guerrilla, who like Museveni, had taken to the bush to fight Obote, under his Uganda Freedom Movement (UFM].
Kayiira was a Muganda, likewise based in what is now Wakiso District and had been instrumental in winning over the hearts of many Baganda even in places where Museveni had remained unpopular, Sulaiman recalls.
He further allages that after the two (Museveni and Kayiira) struck a deal to return the Kabaka and kingdoms banned in 1966, towards 1986, government security operatives targeted Kayiira’s men; most of them were killed, others went into hiding while Kayiira himself died later.
Obote’s merciless men
According to many accounts, survivors accuse the UPC government of waging an open war in Luweero Triangle, butchering every human living thing they came across, looting, torching property, though utmost openly and without disguising as the rebels did.
Use and death of child soldiers
Although the rebels have denied using child soldiers, there are many tales of parents still grieving for their sons who died in the line of fire on the side of the rebels, yet they were ill-trained trigger happy young boys.
One such witness is Steven Kasibante (not real names], who joined the war in 1983 after the guerilla war disrupted his education at the age of 10. Although he has preferred to remain silent on what happened during the war, after surviving two assassination attempts in the 1990s, which pushed him to a quiet village life in Kiboga.
He recollects how he joined a group of 15, his age mates, after being persuaded by their acquaintances who joined earlier and were now fit for combat.
“We were as soldiers on the frontline, used to spy on government establishments, helpers in the camps but only a few of my colleagues survived for more than three years yet they kept on recruiting more, time and again,” he said.
