44. Rwot Oywak’s personal message to Joseph KonyDownload File
Let the children who are with you come back home. Open up your hearts so that we know what you are thinking inside you. Without opening up, no one can be able to guess or dream what others think.
I ask you to open up because the parents at home are weeping for their children. Those children God is blessing you with are children of the tribe. They have parents. You all have tribes with parents and relatives. Therefore you should listen when your parents demand to know the anger you have. (1:54).
If you don’t listen to your father then who will you listen to? God gave us voices to disseminate messages among ourselves. All you know me as RWOT OYWAK JOSEPH YWAKAMOI. In the past we all struggled together that is why there is some peace in northern Uganda. Because you opened up and accepted to talk, there is peace. (2:34)
I want you to do the same, when that happens, you will see me then we shall all talk about lasting peace. There are so many children with you who are feeling cold. They are missing home.(03:01)
Even in Acholi tradition, if you fight with your sister or mother, at least some settlement is called for to restore relationships. As leaders, our main motive is to ensure that there is harmonious living. (03:26)
It’s because of the harmony that makes people determine a good coexistence. It relates to the youth, children and adults. If you are not at your father’s home you cannot say that you are at home.
Please advise me on how I can get to you. So that we determine how we can receive the children who are still with you. I say this because you are far away and not at home. So it’s only you who can direct us where we can find you. Tell us where we can find the children you want to send back to us. I know that you have people who are sick with you, please allow us to get to them so that they can get treatment to save their lives. (04:39).
We shall not come to forcefully get the people from you; it will only be you who will voluntarily hand them over. You will decide who to hand over and who to retain with you. You might still want to retain them. You will determine if you want negotiations before you come out with the people you would have retained. That will be up to you to decide. (05:00)
My brothers, allow the world to consider you people who are knowledgeable. If you release the people with you, it will demonstrate to the whole world that you are knowledgeable and you know what you are doing. It will also demonstrate to the people that you listen to advice. That will really encourage us to contribute to look for solutions in our capacity.
I just don’t want to talk from a distance, I want us to meet face to face just like you told us that if we want good things to happen then we should not just talk on radio or writing it down on paper but we should me face to face. But how do we meet? (05:59)
I am sending you a message asking you to tell me how we can meet to talk about what is going on. Having anger without talking about it does not cool anyone’s heart. My appeal to you is that you should open up your hands and your heart. So that we can receive the children who are with you. So that we give the a report to the government about what your views are. We shall also present to them the children you have released. They will be like a demonstration and truth from you. I know that you will send those people with messages to the government. If you do that then it will be the beginning of the trust and confidence. I cannot be a Rwot without people to lead. I am a Rwot of the people. (07:10)
I know that since we started talking with you there are so many people you gave me to bring back home. They are very happy and if there is a way they can communicate to you, you could have known what I mean. Some of the people are with your families. They are the children who came back home with your wives and are now settled in your homes with your relatives. Have a a heart for the people who are taking care of your wife and children very well with the hope that you will come back home. (08:31)
The idea that defectors are killed after recording their voices is not true. No one can really get a dead person’s voice to go and deceive others with like you are being told. According to Acholi tradition, it’s bad luck. For us who are talking are not dead. One time God will arrange for us to meet. (9:21)
Sit down in your command, listen to what am saying and arrange for a message so that we can be closer to you people. I am so far away but if you talk then we shall be close. You will see me.
What I want to tell you is that you need to open up your hands and your heart and speak. So that we know what is angering you. So that we can put some truth into actions. We have fought, argued and despised each other enough. Let’s not let anger distort the future of the children we have produced. Let’s not allow it to distort the future which you should have benefited from. (10:33).
Come back to your home and country and we live together while we peacefully negotiate for co-existence. This is a war which requires peaceful discussions or war just like you were forced away from your father’s home. I understand that there are some issues that let you go away. I don’t want to talk very much here but I want to appeal to you to open up and talk so that we know what is going on. Let us know where you are and what you want us RWODI and the international community to do with the spirit of restoring peace. (11:25)
It has become very difficult to make contact with you because there are no phone contacts and it’s only through the radio that we are able to speak. Unfortunately, the radio is only appropriate way communication. How will I know that you have got the message and that you are willing to have some discussions? Find a way of communicating with the people around you to get to talk to us the cultural and religious leaders. (12:09)
I also want to tell you not to continue making the countries where you are to suffer because you have no issues with those governments. You only have issues with Ugandan government. Let those countries be at peace. It makes us who are home also target and yet we are not in their countries. This makes us have fear and they will not receive you. You need to stop that.
What am saying is for the benefit of you, us and everybody for the truth and coexistence. Peace is sweet for everyone and we all need to be free to enjoy it. No one should be at peace and yet others are in pain. When shall we talk to each other? If there is anyway hope, am here waiting for a message from you so that we can talk. Very soon I will be close to you. I will need you to send someone to come and we talk So that we remove all the anger that you have on the discussion table. When do we meet our children? Please allow us to meet (14:31).
I don’t have much to say but I want to thank this radio for sending the messages to all the children who are out there and it should allow them to open up and talk about their anger. For us to begin the process of restoring relationships, you need to release the children who are there with you. So that we begin to restoring them back into the communities as we look for what else we should do about the conflict. We shall continue to coordinate with Congo, CAR and Sudan not for war but for discussions. We are totally in for talking to you. We shall coordinate with them because they are the authorities and you are in their land. Tell us what you want us to do. The problem is that there are so many tribes with you; ACHOLI, LANGO, TESO, MADI, ALUR, LUGBARA, SUDANESE, CONGOLESE AND CENTRAL AFRICAN PEOPLE. Let us all unite and repair what has been destroyed even if it might take a while to reconstruct. You tell us how we can restore all these. (16:45)
I still emphasize that God the creator is the Judge for all his creation. Pray, thank and humble yourself before him. The God of your grandfathers is your God. He made you in his image. He is the one keeping you safe. You should know that you will go back to him. Your spirit will go home after you are dead. Dead or alive, you will have to come back to your father.
Please send a message to make us be able to talk between us. Allow us to coordinate you and the government of Uganda so that we all have a common understanding of what you people want. (18:11)
We shall be the mediators to ensure that all the discussion is at the table. There we shall determine the next action. I know that you still have people you send to deliver messages. You were able to send messages to call for a peace negotiation in the recent years in Uganda and Sudan. This is the message I want to leave you with. I don’t know which phones you are using so that we can talk and work together. Please write a letter. I think that writing letters is the most effective form of communication because it was through letters that we were able to have a peace negotiation. I think we should maintain some confidentiality about what we share in the letters. That is why I want you to open up and enable us to talk. Please write your mind in the letter and send it out. Acholi people believe that if you have fear, it does not mean that you are a coward but you want to have a credible discussion for peace. (20:05)
Please send many letters, spread them to Congo, CAR, S. Sudan so that we gather the views bring them out and then send our also. For now we shall still use the radio as we think of meeting.
“My Man”, Joseph Kony, you remember you called me “your man” and I also called you “My man”. Such nick names makes people united, it would be very good for your children and other people around you to know that I spoke to you today over the radio because I know that some of the people with might not have access to the radio. Let them know that today you spoke to me the Rwot of PAJULE. So that the children can be happy. Let them start writing letters to describe where we can meet and when we should. (21:09).
I don’t have much to say. If I get a message from your people then I will consider that you have got my message. Let the good Lord protect you and guide you. Give respect to the land where you are. I am very healthy, alive and this message was my intention, not anyone’s request or arrangements. I am RWOT OYWAK, YWAKAMOI who is saying all these. If you want to call me “four four” it’s just fine, you choose the name you want to call me. It all up to you. I greet all the commanders and all the people who will accept to deliver the message to you because you might not hear this message over the radio.
This is purely an appeal to you in only one way to enable us have peace here at home, with you and the other countries. Thank you.
43. Alice Adong (a wife of Joseph Kony) asking him to stop killings and come outDownload File
The reason why am holding this little microphone is because am appealing to you who have remained in the bush. I am at home but part of me is still there in the bush because of one thing. The love we had while in the bush was true love. The life we had is different from the one am living at home. Truly, I want to send my appeal to my former boss. If you did not know how to command your troops, I would have escaped long ago. My appeal is to you Kony, so much blood has been lost, everyone everywhere is crying out your name in America, Uganda, Sudan and also Congo.
You told us one time that God is using you. A Lord’s work is blessed. I appeal to you to stop pouring more blood if truly God is using you. There were so many high profile people who were persuading you with some of the things that you never even told us but now it only you who is being hunted by the ICC. They are free. Think very critically about that. If you can stop the other lower commanders who commit a lot of atrocities in communities, then just stop them.
I still say that if truly God is using you, I have no doubt about this but what am saying is kneel down before him even if you go on top of the mountain or anywhere and pray that no more blood pours from the people.
Your name Kony has been labeled on all Acholi people. Everyone member of the Acholi community is being referred to as Kony. When you go to Kampala, they still say Kony is pouring blood. That is the most painful thing now. Even if a snake bites someone, they can even say that it was Kony who bit them. This is so painful. Kony, let society have a rest.
Pray to God because even Jesus one time sad, “God take all the burdens of my back during my last days”. But he said that because he knew that he did not have much life ahead of him. So if the end of this war is near, then I ask for the same. I could, I would open my heart right in front of you like a book to show you what I mean.
I also want to advice some commanders who order people to do certain bad things in the communities without getting directives from superiors. Burning people in houses, I never heard such an order from Kony but I see you people doing such things. You have made him guilty for that. I want to ask you to stop making other countries suffer. Remember what happened in Rwanda where one tribe murdered the other. Do you want us to suffer like them? Acholi people were not killers like that. That you must stop.
I also appeal to the Congolese people. You should now start forgiving. No one was prepared to fight this war. Even us who are talking right now did not ever think that we would be involved in the war.
I also want to appeal to the government. As the government, this war has lasted long enough. As the president of the country, have a very critical look at the conflict as a leader of a nation. For sure, we all did not expect to come back but you forgave us.
Be like a father who forgives his children no matter what they have done. Please forgive Kony for anything that he might have done. You as the head of the government, have the ability to talk to other countries to show that you have tried all other means and I have failed and suggest other methods of peace resolution. This will enable other countries to come in a assist. We are not saying that you have a weak administration because you have ruled for 20 years and if you had a weak administration, you would not have lasted this long in power.
Then I want to advice the people who defect and re-involve themselves in the LRA war. This is a very bad thing that is tarnishing the reputation of ex-combatants. They are the ones perpetuating the conflict because they keep misguiding the potential defectors from coming home.
We are suffering but just like God delivered the people of Israel, he will also deliver all of us from the suffering.
Kony, do not have fear that the ICC wants you. I know that one time God will deliver all of you who are wanted by the ICC.
I want to thank all of you and greet you all
42. Adiye Sanday (Ex-Combatant Mother Returnee) come home appeal to mothers still in bush 1Download File
I stayed for about a month and a half in GUSCO because of my leg then later was reunited with my family at home. I later came back for training in bakery. Am now a baker at GUSCO.
There is completely nothing wrong with coming back home. I heard that they keep telling you that I was killed or tortured, I want to confirm that am alive and fine. I also came back with all the children I was captured with.
I want to appeal to all the mothers who are there because I know that the war is very rough on you as mothers. I know that it is a very difficult thing to do but once you reach where you can get assistance, it will be fine for you. There are so many people who have returned to the communities, even if they kept on telling us that some people were not alive, I found them all alive and fine.
I did not meet any problems at home and am happy that am free because I was worried of how I would take care of my children. I was involved in fighting and worried for the safety of my two children.
I want to appeal to you mothers who are still there in the bush that one time we shall see each other God willingly. I know that God is the one who decides, gives and makes it happen. You all know that I was having a very rough life. When I tried to escape and I was captured, most of you saw the way I was tortured. I had already made up my mind not to try to escape again but it was God who saw my problems and even if my leg was shot in the leg and it got broken, am glad that he has kept me alive.
I don’t have more to say, everyone is fine here at home and there is completely no problem. All my children are alive.
I appeal to all of you who are still there in the bush to come back home. Everyone there knows how they will defect. You just don’t come out like that but you need to come out. I don’t have anything else to tell you.
I thank you very much
41. Amono Lilly (Returnee and Mother) come home message to mothers still in bushDownload File
MADAM PINK, AUMA. I don’t know how you are now. I remember one time when you got burnt by fire. I felt so bad and I thought that perhaps you should be abandoned in any nearby homestead. But by good chance, you got healed and I was informed that you are still alive. I don’t know what you think about escaping.
I also heard that you come from ATIAK. But even if you don’t come from ATIAK, I feel so bad about you because you are of my tribe. I want to appeal to all mothers out there in the bush because I know that it’s us mothers who suffer most in the bush.
When the aircraft is attacking, you as a mother just sleep and cover yourself so that at least the soldiers can get you. I know that they will not harm you. There are so many forces sent over there to get you back home. At least three to four, Ugandan army, UN and Sudanese army. Why don’t you use the opportunity you have now to defect by brothers and sisters?
I feel sad because I stayed in Sudan for 13 years before coming back home. I feel physically weak but my weakness started from the time I was still in the bush but not at home. I broke my leg; I was carried up to Sudan. But now am so fine in Gulu.
I appeal to all of you who are still in Sudan, Congo and other places with Kony to come back home. This should be voluntary. No one will force you. For me I did not think that I would make it but now am at home in Gulu but I feel for you.
If I did not care at all, with all the comfort I have at home I would not even say a word but it’s just because am sad, I have to talk. There are so many grown up children with you who could have been in secondary schools. For instance, MIN ODAKI’S SON.
JUMA has almost completed his ordinary level education. It’s not a secret because he is now very much ahead of life. He is doing well in school. KWOYELLO LATONI is also in Secondary school.
All these children are in secondary school. When do you want your child to start going to school?
Why don’t you pick your child and bring them at home?
Even my child who was named at the time when Can ODONGA was being killed, she is now in primary five. He would have been in primary seven this year if he did not repeat classes. Compare your child’s life there and out here. You should be heartbroken.
All the people who are able to go back to school will be assisted to resume studies. The lies being spread among you that they kill people should be dropped.
OPIO MAKASI and others will come and receive you. They are the ones who will receive you; they are now working with Ugandan army.
For us who have chosen to go back in the community with our parents and community we are very fine also. ACAMA is currently planting a lot of banana in ALERO. He has picked so much from the garden.
Come back home and start farming if you are able to, or get back to school.
It’s my sadness that is forcing me to talk to you people otherwise I would have not said anything at all. We are not happy to hear that more violence is being reported in different places. Some of you have already sent your children at home, why can’t you come and support their education?
SAIDI, I appeal to you. You are a doctor and I know you very well because I stayed with you. Listen to me.
Make up your mind. Santa is also available. She is waiting for you. She lives at their home in ACET but she is waiting for you. SAIDI, listen to me very well.
This is my letter to you all.
40. Aol Scovia (Ex-Combatant) come home messageDownload File
I know that we all have different arrangements and yours might still be ahead but you should not waste any opportunity you have. This is because you could have some fear even when there is a chance for you to escape.
That fear is normal but I want to assure you that once you come out nothing will happen to you. You will be fine just like the others who came out first.
I want to directly talk to OCABA, who is known as KANGUL in the bush. I am AOL who is also your niece informing you that am back home and am doing very well although we were abducted on the same day with you. Why don’t you come back home and be with your parents? Your parents, brothers and sisters are all alive. Why don’t you come home and see them?
You have a lot of time to come out with all the children and your wife. Just come out because you have a rank. Once you get to know where the UN or UPDF are camped, you can just come out to them. Once you reach here everything will be fine.
I also want to appeal to mothers to come out. You can still bring your children at home although I know that it might not be easy to take that decision. Once you determine that there is a safe area to defect, then just get there and come out so that you can come back home and be like all the rest of the people who have returned.
Come and be with your parents, sisters and brothers at home.
I know that what I am saying will reach you by all means whether in writing or Radio for those who can listen to it.
I want to thank you very much.
39. Priska Esther Mapouka (Returnee) come home messageDownload File
I am not dead; MARIA’s mother is also here with me. OJOK is also here, LALING is here, and MARY is also here.
You come back home, nothing bad will happen to you. They deceive you that if you are captured then you will be killed. I have a child am taking care of. It’s the only benefit I have from the bush. I pray that God helps me to have a safe delivery so that i can take care of the child. I am now five months pregnant.
I want to tell you to come back home. Nothing bad will happen to you. The SANGO, ZANDE, and all of you Acholi people, Just come back home because what you are doing is not useful. If you don’t want to come out you will be hunted all the time. How will you survive with a child?
MARIA, LALING, BUCHINGA and many more people including ANYWAR are out here. Nothing will happen to you once you come out.
I greet you all and have nothing else to tell you.