The National Economic Empowerment Dialogue (NEED) leader and former Presidential candidate, Joseph Kabuleeta has increasingly become outspoken on the happenings in Karamoja.
While speaking at a NEED conference yesterday, Kabuleeta alleged that atrocities are happening to the people of Karamoja by the UPDF intentionally to wipe them out of their resource rich land and he has further named it a "silent genocide"
This morning on the Fatboy Show, Kabuleta said that the 462 people, including women and children, were bombarded by the UPDF aircrafts in their homes in the guise of taking out cattle rustlers.
“I used the word silent genocide and I chose my words carefully because this is a very resource rich area. There have been instances of trucks leaving with minerals and returning with sachets of waragi and that’s all part of an intoxication and destruction of the people because they commited a crime of settling in a very resource rich area,” he said.
“It is the curse of being in a resource rich area and a curse of having a leadership which will be destroyed for the purpose of resources. What we are talking about in Karamoja has been happening for a long time. The only difference is that NEED built a team of coordinators and trained them to take pictures and document them so that when we bring them up, we are not just telling stories,” he added.
He alleged that UPDF is dismantling families by taking men and teenagers to military detachees. Over 2000 men and children are being forcefully transported from their homes to Kampala leaving a landmass of unoccupied land which is now being claimed by people in the first family because it's rich with gold and other minerals.
He also said that during their operations in Moroto and interactions with people in the region, it is the norm for one to be shot. Whether young or old.
Fatboy wondered if it is an issue of a few UPDF officers trying to profit from the situation, but Kabuleeta asserted that it's within the entire system.
He said that in the disarming process, UPDF promised to give security to the Karamajongs and asked them to give up their guns, which they use to protect themselves from the Turkana and Pokot rustlers.
“They provided security in the process of the disarmament. But as soon as it was done, they withdrew the security. They had told them to take their cows to military detachments at night and would be picked in the morning and so many accepted. But as soon as the cattle reached the detach, they were sold to the cattle dealers. People lost as many as 300 to 400 head of cattle and all this is documented. We have our coordinator on ground with a whole file of pictures and documents showing the aerial bombardment of homesteads. It's an atrocity for which somebody has to be charged because you can't do this to a whole generation of people.” he explained.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy, Olive and Sarah every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.