Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | 758 victims of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army-LRA insurgency West Nile region have given the government a 45-day ultimatum to respond to their compensation demands or else they seek legal redress through courts of law.
The victims issued the ultimatum on Friday through Alaka and Company Advocates, their legal representative. The claimants include people who lost relatives, suffered gunshot injuries and lost merchandise between 1993 and 1996 at the height of LRA insurgency between Karuma and Pakwach. The rebels torched several buses and lorries with people and merchandise.
In 2008, the survivors started documenting all the losses incurred and have since then presented three documents to the President’s office for compensation in vain. They want the government to compensate them 99 billion Shillings.
Some of the survivors told journalists at a media briefing in Arua city on Friday that after exhausting all avenues to reach the president for their compensation in the last 12-years in vain, they are left with the option of seeking legal redress to get compensation.
Alex Matua, the chairperson Arua Kony War Victims Association and one of those who lost his merchandize in 1992, says he is demanding over Shillings 600 million in compensation. He says his merchandise was torched by the rebels in Murchison falls national park en route to Arua.
According to Matua, their efforts to push for compensation through political leaders in the region have failed to yield results hence the issuance of the 45 days’ ultimatum to the government.
Agnes Adakuru, a dealer in medicine says she lost 13 cartons of assorted drugs in the Kony attack in November 1996 and has remained unemployed. She says all her five children have failed to complete secondary education because of the loss she suffered as a result of the attack.
She says her family is seeking compensation of 23 million Shillings for the drugs she lost during the attack.
Harriet Opisa whose father Likardo Anguvaa, a businessman from Maracha succumbed to gunshot wounds inflicted on him by Kony rebels says she was forced into early marriage after stopping in senior one since she had no one to pay her tuition. They are now pushing for compensation of 40 million Shillings for the goods lost by their father.
James Adoroti, another survivor in Pajulu in Ayivu county says he was attacked together with his colleagues in 1993 while transporting goods on a bus belonging to Uganda Transport Company-UTC. He says his brother identified as Adia disappeared after the attack and has been missing since then.
According to Adoroti, he was forced to sell his semi-permanent house to support the family and now does not know what to do. He is seeking Shillings 80 million in compensation for the loss.
Celina Taibo, a businesswoman whose husband was shot by the rebels on his way from Kampala to Arua says she was forced to secure loans to educate her children with the hope that the government will come to her rescue in vain.
Speaking in Lugbara, Taibo said her family is demanding 250 million Shillings in compensation for the loss incurred during the attack.
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