Barlonyo Massacre

Ayugi Sylvia was breast feeding her newborn when it was cruelly taken by a rebel soldier and swung against a wall until it died.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel then through her husband to the ground, held him down while beating him before cutting off his head with a machete.

The rebel then threatened to cut off Sylvia’s head when someone said she could be useful carrying equipment for them, which is what she did.

She said: “They beat my child against a wall and then lay down my husband and chopped off his head.

“I carried their bags for a week before the other side rescued me and brought me back to the village.”

These were two of 301 people butchered by LRA troops at around 5pm on February 21 2004 after they defeated the 11 man Amuka militia protecting the displacement camp of Barlonyo 26 km north of Lira town in northern Uganda , which had a population of 11,000.

A band of mostly women LRA soldiers overpowered the government reserve troops and fled leaving the people to be burned alive in their huts – with anyone who left being hacked to death.

The 800 others ran for their lives to inform the government army who got their recruits to the scene hours after the LRA had gone with the loot of 200 kidnapped boys and women slaves to carry their equipment.

Sylvia used to own the land were now 301 innocent people from the Barloonyo displacement camp, are buried in a mass grave.

She said President Museveni told her during his visit to the sight that he would compensate her, but she is still waiting for it.

A memorial now stands where the massacre occurred at the height of LRA brutality – which has seen tens of thousands of people killed, raped and abducted.

Chairman of the camp Odongo Patrick said the plaque on the monument incorrectly reads 102 deaths by the LRA terrorists – because he was there and saw 301 bodies.

It is believed the government tried to play down the number of deaths.

Patrick said the LRA came from three different directions to attack the small barracks – defeating the government troops within five minutes.

He was first to be told to flee so he and others ran for their lives.

He said: “When some rebels reached the camp they told people to stay in their houses.

“Then they started to set fire to them and were using pogs and machetes to hack anyone who got out, and then would throw them back into the fire.

“Anyone who remained in the camp was killed.

“[Government] reinforces came at 10pm but by that time the rebels had already left.

“In the morning we found bodies littered everywhere – some were burned. Those who got serious injuries were taken to hospital.

“After the attack the president came and made several promises that were never fulfilled.

“They included building schools, nurseries, a medical centre and to repair the road leading to the camp.”

Patrick lost his 56 year old mother, 72 year old father and 36 year old sister when they were killed by the LRA in the attack.

His two children were abducted to become child soldiers, but they later returned.

“People were heartbroken. They had no hope,” he said.

Since then the camp has been re-built itself into a happy community, but one that that very few services.

Trocaire are funding a new campaign for the camp next month that will includes providing animals, crops, seeds and could also include the introduction of solar lighting – as they have no electricity and rely on candle light at night.

The Ugandan government believe they have identified the LRA leaders in the Barlonyo massacre – and one of the suspects was shot dead by LRA leader Richard Kony.

Kony shot him when he returned to him with the terms of a peace agreement he did not like.

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) is a mob of barbaric killers led by Joseph Kony, who was part of a rebel group in the mid-eighties.

Kony has said he wants to rule Uganda under 11 commandments that are mix of his own psychotic thoughts with the Muslim and Christian faiths.

His commanders have amassed an army of tens of thousands of young boys abducted from their homes since around 1996.

They are trained through fear and intimidation to kill with knives, machetes and guns.

Often they are abducted, trained and then brought back to their home village where they are ordered to shoot or hack to death members of their own families and village.

The LRA are notorious for their sick barbaric methods of killing people.

The actions of the LRA, which escalated to enormous scales at around 2004, resulted in the Ugandan Government deciding to force all innocent villagers up north to move to special “displacement camps.”

Almost 2 million people were put in these camps and today, despite a ceasefire in Uganda, just about half have returned home, only to find their villages and land in ruin.

The majority of the rest fear a return of the LRA.

The LRA are currently held up in a jungle hideaway in the DR Congo, where just before Christmas 2008 combined forces of Ugandan, Sudanese and Congolese soldiers attacked them, which resulted in the LRA deputy leader Okot Odhiambo being injured.

This has also resulted in the LRA attacking innocent villagers in the DR Congo and Sudan as they flee.

These military operations are being assisted by a small group of US military liaison officers appointed before George Bush junior ended his presidency.