The site
A reflective poem by a Kenyan activist who visited Mukura Massacre Memorial site in Soroti region of Uganda where on July 11, 1989, the 106th battalion of the National Resistance Army (NRA) allegedly rounded up 300 men from Mukura and other surrounding areas and incarcerated some of them in a train wagon. These men were suspected of being rebel collaborators against the NRA regime, but there is little evidence to suggest that most of them were anything other than innocent civilians.
THE SITE
We came, marched to remember the vanquished, our mortal enemy the date was six.
We also came, to retrieve from the wagons our sons to bury the date was the nineteenth.
We also came again, to campaign and to seek your vote, to remain in office, must have been in the year Twenty Eleven.
And so we came and reminded you of our sons, that our eyes were still wet with unwiped tears because of our sons numbered over sixty. We sat , anxiously waiting for an acknowledgement of what happened.
We also expected some form of repair to our damaged souls and so you dispatched your agents to wipe the tears of the loyal widows with thousands or did I hear millions?....to retain us in Office... No need to remember the dead, some of whom may not have been innocent anyway….. and must have died in combat…. In train wagons…
Then you hastily ordered the contractors to come up with something which they called Date Six
And also move with speed to equip the structure with books for the children…
Then I noticed that the structure call Date Six was crumbling under the weight of deceit and disuse.
I also heard that the area becomes flooded by both national and local party which completely obscures and befuddles what is it that the people should remember and what they should forget.
And so the two massacre memorials stand defiant and in mockery of each other… telling different stories of what really happened and what needs to be remembered or forgotten ..
(For more details about Mukura Massacre follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/mv2nvhs )