Word: acholi
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...price they have been paying has been high enough. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians, primarily from the Acholi ethnic group, have died as a result of the brutal rebellion waged by the LRA in the north of this small east African nation; 1.7 million were uprooted to camps for displaced persons. The rebels have spread terror throughout northern Uganda by massacring and disfiguring civilians, regularly cutting off the noses and ears, cheeks and lips and eyelids of their victims. The group has also abducted an estimated 25,000 children to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves. In March...
...They should be punished for what they did," Akuma says. But punishment may be a fungible term. For Akuma, like other suffering Acholi people, wants a quiet conclusion to the rebellion so that she and thousands of other northern Ugandans who took refuge in filthy, desolate camps for displaced people during the 20-year war, can return home. Says Akuma, "[the rebels] should also come back peacefully so that we can finally leave these camps." Many of the displaced believe that their tormentors should be put through the traditional justice of the Acholi people - a ritual called mato oput that...
...cultivate crops. Their homes may be gone by the time they return and, as they have no other explanation for their hardship, they have turned to religion for answers. They believe the fires to be the work of evil spirits. In northern Uganda, well over 1 million of the Acholi people live in camps like the one at Anaka. But a truce last week between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (lra) offers real hope that the gruesome, almost 20-year-long power struggle is finally over. The government may finally make good on its promises...
...performing feats of magic: causing stones dipped in oil to explode when he throws them or daubing a special oil on the feet of young soldiers to help them march dozens of miles on empty stomachs. And now that peace is slowly returning to the region, traditional Acholi beliefs may prove the best method to mop up after the brutal conflict. The struggle in northern Uganda has hopelessly blurred lines between victims and perpetrators; many of the atrocities were performed by abducted children forced to become soldiers. Partly for that reason, the communities value reconciliation over punishment, say local leaders...
General Okello forged a firm alliance with Basilio Olara Okello, the brigade commander who led the coup. The two men are related but are both members of the Acholi tribe. It was the belief that Obote discriminated against the Acholis and favored officers from his own Lango tribe that helped spark the coup. The general's greatest challenge will be to win the backing of the National Resistance Army, a guerrilla group led by former Defense Minister Yoweri Musevni, which was at the forefront of the struggle against Obote. "Forming a military government without Musevni means it cannot last," says...