Ugandan Gunship Fratricide

[AdamCG]

MISNA (Catholic News Agency)
25/7/2003 11:39
HELICOPTER MISTAKES FUNERAL CORTEGE FOR LRA REBELS, 9 CIVILIANS KILLED

Nine people were killed “by mistake” in North Uganda when an army helicopter opened fire on a funeral cortège, mistaking it for a group of rebels of the LRA (lord’s Resistance Army). The news comes from local sources, who say that the incident took place last Tuesday, but only emerged yesterday when the army was obliged to say what happened. According to a reconstruction based on survivors’ accounts, which has been confirmed by military sources, a Ugandan army helicopter was flying over the area near the Moroto river on the border between the Lira and Katakwi districts in the north of the country on its way to support ground troops engaged in an operation against LRA rebels. At the same time, a funeral procession bearing the body of a man killed by the rebels during one of their frequent attacks came into its path. On sighting the helicopter, the mourners took fright and started to run for cover, looking for shelter in the forest along the road. By this stage, the soldiers had already mistaken them for LRA rebels and opened fire to prevent their escape, killing or seriously wounding many participants in the cortège. “It was a regrettable incident,” said the spokesperson for the Ugandan army, Shaban Bantariza, commenting upon the episode to the pro-government newspaper ‘New Vision’.
[CO]

[Gunship]

Strange how 5h!t like this even happens to the Professional / Fully Equiped / Technology proven "Land of Yankee" Pilots as well ! :E

[AdamCG]

Guns,
Maybe the Ugandan pilots are just ancient farts who need new glasses....:8


Let army address "friendly fire" incidents"
The Monitor
27 Jul 03
Editorial

On Thursday [24 July], a pregnant Gulu woman, Ms Kacilina Aunu and her 18-year-old son Francis Lakony were shot dead, apparently by government soldiers on foot patrol. The woman who was in her labour pains was being rushed on a bicycle to Gulu Hospital at 2 a.m. [1100 gmt], but that was not to be. Their lives and that of the unborn child were ended tragically with the bullets that have come to define life - and death - in northern Uganda.
Earlier on Tuesday, nine people attending a funeral in Obalanga, Katakwi district in eastern Uganda were killed by a UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces] helicopter gunship on anti-rebel operations, apparently after mistaking them for rebels. Many more were left nursing injuries.
But this is not new. There have been many more such incidents in the past that for many ordinary people in the war torn north and northeast there is no telling on which side of the conflict they will die - government or the rebel side.
While we appreciate the difficult situation under which soldiers in the north are operating, the army must start to take seriously the issue of "friendly" fire against civilians so as to avoid this continued loss of lives in the middle of an unending conflict.
Are there, for instance, defined steps which soldiers on patrol must take - like firing a warning shot in the air and only shooting at the person if he/she returns fire?
It is not enough for the army to say, like 4th Division spokesman Lt Paddy Ankunda was quoted saying on FM radio news, that the woman and her son were moving at an awkward hour, and so by inference are responsible for the fate that befell them.
Yes, the army has always provided coffins, food items and a little money for the funeral expenses of victims of "friendly fire" but that cannot be any consolation for the people caught in this conflict - that at least they will be buried decently!
The UPDF top brass and ultimately the political establishment should show remorse for the so-called "friendly fire". This remorse can only be depicted through severe punishment of the trigger-happy UPDF officers and men who are responsible for loss of these innocent lives.
Ultimately however, government must seriously pursue the peaceful option to solve the northern war because 17 years of bullets has only wrought death - to the combatants and innocent civilians.

[Sir Cumference]

Seems like the people in that area are VERY jumpy! That has to be the only reason why you would shoot first and ask questions later!

[AdamCG]

The Lord's Resistance Army claimed to have nailed a UPDF gunship a few months back, but the Kampala reporter who wrote the story was busted by the government for publishing falsehoods.

[Jangys]

Give them a "GUN" and they will shoot. Lets kill everything we see.:oh: