28.06.2010 

By Staff Writer

The skulls of Luwero

The series continues!  Like we said, for the very first time in nearly a quarter of a century, Col. John Charles Ogole, the man whose name still rings loud in the minds of those who were involved in the 1981-86 war in Luwero, has finally spoken out.  In this first of a two part Luwero specific interview, Col. John Ogole has spilt some beans about the bitter battles between Museveni’s then NRA guerrillas and the UNLA government troops that he commanded in what became known as the “Luwero Triangle”. 

For a start, Ogole vehemently believes that Museveni set his sights on the presidency of Uganda way back in the late 1960s.  That he was determined to become president by whatever means possible.  Nothing would stop him.  In Ogole’s view, Museveni planned the Luwero war long before the 1980 general elections that he eventually used as an excuse to launch his guerrilla campaign.  He said, the “Luwero massacre was conceived and planned in Tanzania but executed from 1980 when he [Museveni] lost the election in his own home constituency”.

Secondly, and perhaps not surprisingly, he lays the blame for that war squarely in Museveni court, arguing that, “…the Luwero war was Museveni’s creation.  The government I served didn’t start that war; it merely responded, as it was indeed constitutionally enjoined to do, to the threat to national security that such a war inevitably posed”.

He also tells us, for the first time, when and how he got involved with what he calls “Museveni’s war” that was raging in Luwero and a few other parts of the country.  Sounding a touch emotional and visibly angry by now, Ogole also touched on the subject of the human skulls that made headlines during and after Museveni’s victory; condemning their use for what he says were “propaganda purposes” as “grotesque” and “totally against the African culture”.

When contacted for a comment on this Luwero specific interview with Col. Ogole, the same source within Museveni’s NRM-O party whose reaction Uganda Correspondent sought last week, declined to make any further comment and simply said, “…what I said last week still stands, regardless of what Ogole says in future.  Let him talk”.  An email request for comment [about this story] from the ruling NRM government that was sent to the NRM Communication Bureau [info@nrm.ug] was yet to be answered by the time Uganda Correspondent went to press.

Read this week’s Luwero specific interview [The Ogole interview: Part 2] in the “National” drop down link/section and send us your views.  Next week, we published the second part of the Luwero specific interview. Don’t miss out!  

editor@ugandacorrespondent.com