The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1948 and came into force on January 12, 1951.
Article II of the Convention states that “In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to the members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing means intended to prevent births within the group”, (Human rights. A
compilation of International Instruments, Volume I {Second Part} Unites Nations 2002)
The deliberate demarcation of the area that has been incorporated into Rukungiri Municipality targeted the ethnic group of Bairu people who form the largest group in the area. Their ancestors arrived in the area 3000 years ago. They were joined by Bahororo (Batutsi from Rwanda via the short-lived Mpororo kingdom) around 1800. The latter were militarily strong, crushed indigenous resistance and have dominated them politically, economically and socially since then against increasing resistance as Bairu begin to understand their human rights.
Starting in the mid-1940s migrants from densely populated Kabale (Ndorwa and Rukiga) began to settle in Rujumbura and Kinkiizi. More migrants have continued to move into Rujumbura since then causing tremendous land shortage and conflicts. The indigenous Bairu people began to complain that they were losing their land, raising political tensions.
In order to create more room for more migrants and wealthy individuals who want to invest in land, indigenous Bairu peasants who have been impoverished, are largely ignorant, mostly functionally illiterate and therefore unemployable elsewhere and politically powerless and voiceless are silently and deliberately being squeezed out of Rujumbura through the following strategies:
First, they have been advised that the only way for Bairu to end poverty is to move out of subsistence farming into business in towns. They should therefore sell their land and raise cash with which to start business. Authorities would help them to divide up the land into plots for sale to the highest bidder.
Second, they have been urged to obtain loans using land as collateral without understanding the terms of the loan which carries the possibility of default and loss of their land.
Third, town authorities have been trying to raise property taxes so high that even those Bairu doing business in Rukungiri town will find it difficult to pay the taxes. This will force them to sell their properties cheaply under pressure or their properties will be confiscated for non-payment of taxes.
Fourth, there has been a quiet campaign to encourage Bairu people through so-called willing seller and willing buyer to sell their land without even consulting members of the family or relatives. Consequently, there are cases of Bairu selling their land secretly so that they do not get advice against such deals. Some have regretted after the deal is completed and possibly cannot be reversed.
Fifth, the few Bairu representatives that have protested have been threatened that if they continue to make this anti-development noise, they will not be re-elected.
Because these moves were slow to produce the desired outcomes as Bairu peasants were unwilling to sell fast, the powers that be came up with the idea of upgrading Rukungiri Township into a municipality by enlarging its size into peasant land. According to the information gathered, Municipality means that once the act of parliament enters into force (which in this case will be January 2011 if not cancelled as requested) peasants will lose ownership of their land. They will become tenants subject to the terms and conditions set by municipal authorities. Such terms may include setting high construction standards, imposing taxes and other charges beyond peasants’ means thereby forcing them to sell at giveaway prices called compensation. Experience shows that with cash in hand so many consumer demands will take precedence over investment in business. And with land frontier in Uganda virtually closed, the dispossessed peasants will automatically become landless and without employable skills penniless.
The authorities deliberately targeted Bairu peasants who are extremely poor and have no voice at all. The new boundaries show clearly that the area chosen is occupied mostly by impoverished Bairu peasants. Knowing that this move would be unpopular and a few informed voices would object, the authorities decided to take an abrupt short cut at a very delicate moment. Earlier I had been assured (and recorded the conversation in writing) by town and district council leadership that there was no such a plan.
Because of the abruptness of the decision procedures were not followed, the Local Government did not announce in advance as required that Rukungiri Township would be upgraded to a municipality. Consequently, Rukungiri District councilors did not discuss with the people they represent especially those to be affected to agree on the way forward.
Second, the authorities convened an emergency meeting of district councilors on a Friday, adopted a resolution in a hurry to upgrade Rukungiri Township into a municipality.
The following Monday, the resolution was presented to Parliament, not by the Minister of Local Government that has the mandate to do so but by the Member of Parliament of Rujumbura Constituency Major General (rtd) Jim Muhwezi in which the municipality is located. That same Monday, Parliament approved the resolution.
Clearly the procedures at the district and parliament levels were not followed. Before parliament met I contacted the Speaker by email raising objections about the manner in which the issue was handled at the district level. Following parliament’s decision I have e-mailed the Speaker more messages requesting that the decision be nullified because procedures were not followed. These messages have also been sent to the Prime Minister, the Leader of Opposition and Uganda’s Ambassador to the United Nations in New York who represents the President.
How will genocide come about should the decision stand?
First, landless and penniless people will be forced to engage in criminal activities and end up in jail thereby prevented to reproduce.
Second, poverty, hunger and malnutrition, diseases and the desire to make ends meet will expose them to dangers such as HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases etc that will result in high mortality and inability to reproduce with physical destruction in part or in whole.
Third, there will be tremendous mental harm to those affected.
Thus, given the genocidal implications of Parliament’s decision that did not follow established procedures, I once again request the Speaker of Uganda Parliament through this message to have the decision nullified especially since it has not yet entered into force. Prevention is always better than cure.