By Abbey K. Semuwemba

1^st Aug 2011: From Obote, Idi Amin, to Museveni, Ugandans have been unjustifiably killed and we continue to point fingers at each other. The real problem is that we have never had a real truth and reconciliation commission to help put certain questions to bed.

Justice Oder

More so, it would have helped if the current government had released the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Violations of Human Rights perpetrated from 1961 to 1986. The Commission’s role was to inquire into “the causes and circumstances” surrounding mass murders, arbitrary arrests, the role of law enforcement agents and the state security agencies, and discrimination which occurred during that time.

That commission was chaired by Justice Oder and it was also supposed to suggest ways to make sure that such human rights violations don’t happen again in our country.  Nevertheless, going by what has happened since 1986, it looks like we shall need another commission for the period NRM have been in power.

Apart from Oder, the other five commissioners were John Nagenda (NRM), Dr Edward Khiddu-Makubuya (now NRM), Dr. Jack Luyombya (NRM and he was in the bush with M7), John Kawanga (neutral but I guess he is now NRM), Joan Kakwenzire (Women advocate and historian), and I think the current Vice president, Edward Ssekandi.

I doubt whether any of these people can help us access the contents of that report. They have all been given positions that don’t allow them to say anything bad against the government.  But the media should help us dig the contents of this report.

The then Minister of Justice Mulenga who appointed the Commission in 1986, promised that the government would not bury the findings of the Commission.  We can still push the current Minister of Justice Kahinda Otafire to release the report to the media. Ugandans deserve to know what is in that report.

I believe Uganda Human Rights Commission has a copy at their offices.  But I wonder how the rest of Uganda can access it.  I am sure it could be interesting to read and also help us find a way forward.  The Danish embassy has also got a copy because they sponsored some of the Commission’s work.

But it’s up to us to demand that the government releases the official copy of this report.  I wonder why the current opposition MPs don’t pick on these issues and raise them in parliament.  As a result, we are all in darkness about some things that happened in our country’s history.

I understand that Museveni’s heart is not in this Commission. He introduced the Amnesty Commission before the 1986 “Truth and Reconciliation” Commission finished their job. The Commission [therefore] lacked both political support and adequate funding.

Some people have been asking me why Muslim leaders are not bothered about finding out the atrocities that happened to fellow Muslims in the past.  This is not true.  Muslims are searching for answers just like any other Ugandan. Muslims have been disorganized and divided since independence such that it has been difficult to bring them together to discuss matters of importance to their community.

Muslims have been killed under different regimes but it is difficult to gather all this information to bring it into the public domain. All Uganda’s leaders, apart from Idi Amin, have been dividing and using Muslims to achieve their own political aims.  But with more organization and unity, Muslims will eventually put a stop to this nonsense.

For instance, there were some Muslims [who were] killed in Bushenyi district.  President Museveni mentions this in his book (Sowing the Mustard Seed) on page 113. Museveni said they were killed by fellow villagers who had been incited by someone whose identity was known. But Museveni does not mention the name of the villager in his book.  He however gives this [incident] as one of the reasons why Binaisa had to be dislodged from power.

Imaam Iddi Kasozi presented a paper at the Uganda Muslim Youth Assembly (UMYA) in 2008 and he talked about the murder of Muslims in Ankole and Arua. We saved the contents of this paper on the link below if anybody wishes to read it:

http://ugandamuslims.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/human-right-in-uganda-the-fate-of-the-1979-muslim-massacres-in-arua-and-ankole-paper-presented-at-umya-ramadhan-seminar-2008/ END.  Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.