Memories still fresh 26 years after Atiak massacre

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | 26 years ago on April 20, 1995, Vincent Otti commanded rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA and massacred 301 civilians by shooting in Atiak.

Otti who was the Deputy of the LRA Commander Joseph Kony ordered the killing of innocent civilians in his village to prove the might of the LRA and as a warning to the government of Uganda.

The rebels first overpowered an army barracks and killed 12 soldiers before capturing the residents, including women and children. They gathered their captives at Ayugi river before Otti ordered his men to screen his relatives, pregnant women and children.

After screening the captives, Otti allegedly ordered the remaining hostages to sleep on their tummies while looking down before he clapped his hands to give green light to his soldiers to start shooting at the people mercilessly.

Joseph Akena Gonzaga, who was 9 years old at the time of the attack recalled that he witnessed how women and men of the village wailed and begged Otti for mercy in vain. He said the rebels shot at the people indiscriminately and the memory has never vanished from his mind.

Paska Aromorach who was 12 years old in P.3 at Atiak Primary School at the time of the incident and now aged 37, says she witnessed how her mother was shot and how she wailed among others until she breathed her last.

Fred Okot, now the chairperson of Atiak massacre site where 150 names of those killed during the attack have been inscribed told URN that Otti’s heinous act remains an indelible scar in the hearts of many survivors who have chosen to remain silent.

Amuru Resident District Commissioner Geoffrey Oceng Osborn who hails from the area and was still a teenager at the time of the attacks revealed that they lost 27 family members in the brutal attack which remains fresh in their hearts.

Among the 301 people killed, there were 57 students of Atiak Technical School. Several teachers and other civil servants of Atiak sub county local government also died in the hands of the rebels while a dozen others were taken hostage and have never been seen again.

The Atiak community annually commemorates those massacred as a way of celebrating the lives of their loved ones who were killed by the LRA. However, the memory remains fresh in their minds and the scars of agony continue to ravage the survivors.

The same year, President Yoweri Museveni donated 7,200 iron sheets to the bereaved families and those whose huts were burnt down but the intervention did not serve the purpose because many families were in concentration camps without land and they sold off the irons sheets.

Museveni also contributed 50 million Shillings to the women savings group in the area but the money has largely evolved in the hands of market vendors. The government also pledged to construct Lwani Memorial College to promote education in Atiak but the plan is yet to come to pass.

The Atiak massacre is among dozens of bloodbaths carried out by the LRA rebels across Northern Uganda during two-decade-long armed rebellions. Others notably include Lukodi in Gulu where 60 people were killed, Pajule in Pader (193), Abok in Oyam, Barlonyo in Lira and Omot in Agago district.

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URN