Persons who survived deadly raids carried out by members of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in northern Uganda will soon use social media to tell the world their story.
Justice and Reconciliation Project (JRP), a Gulu based local Non- Governmental Organisation and a RNW, a Dutch media organization have partnered to launch a social media platform dubbed ‘‘Let’s Talk UGANDA’’ for the survivors of LRA attacks to tell share their experiences.
Under the Citizens’ Voice project, the survivors will use social media platforms such as twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook among others to tell their stories.
RNW also plans to stream community dialogues the two organisation will hold with massacre survivors in Lukodi and Odek, all in Gulu district, as well as other towns in Uganda. Some of the content of the dialogue will be shared on the websites of RNW and JRP.
Vincent Oyet, the Secretary of Lukodi Memorial Massacre Association in Gulu district told a press conference in Gulu on Wednesday that they will use the social media platforms as advocacy tool. Oyet said they will take the opportunity as survivors to share their experiences for their voices to be heard by the world. According to Oyet, people around the world are still green about what happened on the evening of May 19, 2004 when the LRA struck.
Nancy Apio, JRP’s Gender Justice Research Officer says the platform will widen the conversation about what happened in northern Uganda.
Apio noted that challenges faced by war survivors always ends in the communities but the new media will generate new discussions. She added with time, this will spark a national debate that will go a long way in aiding the formulation of transitional justice police as well as reparation policy.
Lukodi is one of the sites of LRA massacres where over 50 civilians were killed during an attack on internally displaced persons’ camp.
Currently, it is only Dominic Ongwen, the former LRA Sinia Brigade Commander who is facing trial for an alleged role in the attack which left dozens dead and thousands maimed.
