By Sam Orach

30^th May 2011: Nwoya – Mzee Emilio Odong, 72, is not a happy man in his tiny village of Panguu in Alero Sub-County, Nwoya district.  Walking like a disabled man in pain, Mzee Odong says he is not yet ready to forgive.  Why?

Well, Mr. Odong is among hundreds of Acholi men who were allegedly raped and tortured by Uganda Peoples Defence Force [UPDF] soldiers during the war in northern Uganda.  The old man says a big contingent of UPDF soldiers faulted him for ‘allowing’ Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army [LRA] rebels to pass through his home in 1995.

For that, he was clobbered with a baton and shot in the leg.  Speaking in his native Acholi language, the old man said, “…they followed a few minutes after the rebels had crossed my compound and asked me why I had not stopped them.  But I told them I had no power to stop them.  One of them then beat my backbone with a short stick and another shot my leg.  I am not yet ready to forgive them for beating me for 30 minutes in front of my hapless family.

Mzee Odong added that the soldiers later grabbed him by the hands and tied them behind his back before he was whisked away to the 4^th Division Military barracks on allegations of being a rebel collaborator.  “…They threw me in a hole of itching water and asked me tough questions.  Others tried to convince me to confess that I was working with rebels so that I could be released on bail but I refused”, the old man said.

Bribing his way out of police cells

Mzee Odong was detained for one day in the military establishment and later transferred to the police cell where he spent two months in squalid conditions.  “…My bone was broken, no medicine, no food, blood all over, and my relatives could not visit me because of fear.  I suffered until I paid a bribe of 10,000 shillings to a policeman to release me”; Odong recalled as he smacked his lips with his walking stick in hand.

Now blind in the right eye, Mzee Odong said he did not re-join his family in Panguu because nobody stayed behind in the village after his
arrest.  The northern region police spokesman Johnson Kilama however denied the old man’s allegations.  “…I was not there at the time and I know he is lying because the law is very clear.  Detention for more than two days is now rare”, Kilama said.

Mzee Odong, a local Otole dance trainer, was re-united with his family in 2001 at Alokolum IDP camp where the family had settled.  He however says he is now too weak to work for his family up keep and that he has petitioned the Resident District Commissioner’s [RDC’s] office for assistance in vain.

“…I wanted government to take my demands for compensation for what the soldiers did to me.  They disabled me.  I can’t train my people to dance.  It’s an appeal.  If they accept, fine.  If they don’t want to hear my plea, that is okay”, Mzee Odong said with bitter resignation.

Army admits mistakes by soldiers

The 4^th Division army spokesman Captain Peter Mugisha however advised Odong to write his complaint to the RDC with a copy to him so that he can be assisted.  “…You know word of mouth does not work.  He should present his complaints to the authorities.  I am ready to help him”, Mugisha said.

The army spokesman also admitted that there could have been indiscipline among some soldiers in the past and that Odong should present evidence to support his claims; evidence which the 72 year old Odong clearly doesn’t have.

What is clear is that fifteen years on, he is still trying to seek justice using his own verbal evidence for the brutality that he claims to have suffered.  END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.