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Five killed as ugandan peace march turns violent { February 25 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4435990http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=4435990
Five Killed as Ugandan Peace March Turns Violent
Wed February 25, 2004 10:42 AM ET
By David Mwangi
LIRA, Uganda (Reuters) - Five people were killed in a northern Ugandan town Wednesday when a peace march to protest the massacre of more than 200 people turned into a riot marred by ethnic lynchings and gunfire, witnesses said.
Shots crackled as security forces dispersed hundreds of demonstrators who beat three women and a man to death, accusing them of sympathizing with Lord's Resistance Army rebels responsible for the mass killing near the town Saturday.
"The latest is that one person was killed by a stray bullet, four were lynched and three injured," said army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza. "The organizers could not control their demonstration so we moved in stop the chaos."
Residents said members of the ethnic Langi community had attacked individuals from Uganda's northern Acholi tribe, accusing them of siding with the rebels who have been waging war in the north of the country for the past 17 years.
"We are not happy with the Acholi," said one Langi resident of Lira, a farmer named Goddy Anyima. "We are brothers, we are wondering why they are killing us."
A nun placed a reed mat over the body of a man who had been beaten to death and left lying in a grassy field. The body of another man lay sprawled in a makeshift shop in the town center. The army said the four people who were lynched were all suspected by the crowd to have been Acholis.
One man was shot and killed when security forces opened fire to disperse protesters who tried to break into the town's police station, smashed car windshields and wrecked offices, angry at what they said was a lack of protection against the LRA.
"The police shot with live bullets and one guy was shot dead, it was by accident," said mechanic Bulwadda Hussein, who witnessed the incident.
The body was placed in the back of a pick-up truck outside the police station and bore what appeared to be gunshot wounds.
ARMY HUNTS REBELS
Separately, the army said it had killed 21 of the rebels responsible for the attack on the camp about 18 miles northeast of Lira while pursuing them Wednesday.
"We are seriously hunting these thugs that went to the camp and killed innocent civilians," the divisional army commander in Lira district, George Ityang, told Reuters television.
Earlier, several thousand marchers waving branches and placards demanded better protection from LRA rebels after the massacre of at least 230 at the camp for people uprooted by fighting, according to a toll given by local officials.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who says 84 people were killed in the attack, has vowed to crush the LRA, led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony. Museveni has blamed the weekend attack on errors made by a local army commander.
The LRA says it wants to win a better life for the northern Acholi people, although it has not clearly stated its demands.
The movement, which has abducted thousands of children for use as sex slaves and fighters, has defied repeated attempts by the army to crush it, exploiting the long grass, swamps and forests of the north.
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