By Timothy Nsubuga

4^th Oct 2010

In our story [see: Museveni’s NRA raped Acholi men in revenge] last week, we published serious allegations of how Museveni’s then NRA raped Acholi men in revenge.  In this final part of our review, we bring you more allegations including one from an Acholi elder who said he was raped for nine days.

But first, in her testimony, a young woman in the documentary also seemed to corroborate the testimonies of both Mrs Rosalba Oywa and Dr. Chris Dolan of the Refugee Law Project who made serious allegations of NRA raping Acholi men in revenge.

She said “…they started collecting both men and women from a place called “Baa Dege” and gathered them in a school called St. Martin.  They were sodomising the men and sometimes they would pick your wife while you were watching and they would dehumanise her in different ways.  They would enter any house and defecate in your water pots and even your maize floor or any foodstuff they would come across”.

The documentary [“Gender Against Men”] also said one Acholi elder was hospitalised for two months after being gang raped on nine different occasions.  In his own words, the elderly sounding man whose face was blacked out said:

“…Three men were bending me over many times over the course of nine days.  They would just come into my compound.  After stealing my goats and chickens, they would then come to sodomise me.  I know they were government soldiers.  During the act, [rape] they would not say anything.  One of them stubbed me with the bayonet on his rifle.  It’s God who helped me, otherwise I would have died”.

Dr. Chris Dolan said when sexual violence is meted out against men, it’s often seen in terms of a message that as a man who has been sexually violated, you are longer a man.  You have been made into a woman by the sexual act. “…In a very patriarchal setting, probably the most fundamental way in which you can attack a man is by saying to him you are not a man”, said Dr. Dolan.

Even the rape of women, the documentary says, is actually meant to humiliate the “enemy” men who feel obliged to protect the women.  To show them that they are as inferior to them as women are in society.

Rape against men is one of the most unreported crimes.  And because of that, there appears to be few support systems available for men raped in conflict.  Human rights activist have firmly linked this problem to among other things, the insufficient publicity that media house give to male rape.

Dr. Chris Dolan also attributes this to the fact that men, especially African men, hardly ever report rape.  “Rape is substantially under-reported by women, but men almost never report it at all…clinics, hospitals, and aid agencies dealing with sexual violence need to make provision for male victims and make it feasible for men to report [rape] without exposing themselves to public shame”, says Dr. Dolan.

The other disincentive that may explain the reluctance of men to report rape is that the Ugandan Penal Code defines rape as a crime that is only be perpetrated against a woman.  Were a man to seek legal recourse, he would have to do that under ordinary assault provisions or under the “un-natural” offences provisions which are essentially provisions against homosexuality.

The documentary also came very close to suggesting that there was cultural genocide in northern Uganda.  It says, “…slowly, economic power began shifting to women.  As camp life wore on, women began managing family finances, raring animals, and using peddle bicycles; all activities that would have been considered manly before the camps!  Men began fetching water, cooking, and gathering firewood when they could; all traditional female duties!”

UPC party President Dr. Olara Otunnu has over a period of nearly two decades consistently accused President Yoweri Museveni’s government of orchestrating both conventional and cultural genocide in northern Uganda.  The government has vehemently denied those allegations.  END.  If it’s Monday, it’s Uganda Correspondent.  Never miss out again!