Representatives of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have visited the camp where 400 people were slaughtered by members of the Ugandan rebel group during a bloody attack considered the worst in nearly a decade,writes IRINnews.
LRA delegate Santa Okot said a team met the victims, widows and orphans of the February 2004 massacre in Barlonyo displaced people’s camp, 20km north of Lira town, on November 16.
– We talked to the people there. Our message as everywhere has been reconciliation and forgiveness. The people accepted to forgive and they suggested the institution of a commission to handle compensation of the people, she said.
The LRA delegation came face to face with hundreds of orphans who gathered along with hundreds of people to listen. They asked for forgiveness as people narrated the ordeal of the attack and its impact.
VOLDSORGIE
In a three-hour orgy of violence, LRA soldiers stormed the camp , home to 4,800 people, at dawn in february 2004-
They used sophisticated weaponry – rifles, rocket and grenade launchers and 12-millimetre recoilless guns – to kill and set fire to nearly 500 huts before they withdrew.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has already indicted some of the LRA leaders and one of the war crimes listed is the massacre at Barlonyo.
The LRA, active since 1988, has been widely accused of atrocities against civilians and the abduction of thousands of children, forced to serve as soldiers or concubines.
The visit was part of negotiations between the rebel group and the government, aimed at ending two decades of fighting that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced almost two million others.
