An investigation has been launched into the killings of 67 Muslims in Uganda following the fall of dictator Idi Amin in 1979.
\nAnnouncing the probe, Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said a team had been set up to \u201ccarry out a thorough verification exercise of all the claims by victims of the 1979 Muslim massacre and report back within three weeks.\u201d
\nHe said: \u201cThe findings of the verification exercise will form the basis for compensation. We need to find a lasting solution to this matter.\u201d
\nThe investigation will be led by the solicitor general.
\nIn the chaos that followed Amin\u2019s fall in April 1979, gunmen attacked two villages in southwestern Uganda\u2019s Sheema district, killing 67 Muslims and dumping their bodies in the Rwizi River.
\nNine mosques and dozens of houses belonging to Muslims were burnt down and Muslim’s crops destroyed. Many were forced to hand over land in exchange for their lives.
\nThe attack came as Muslims were suspected of supporting their co-religionist Amin. Under his eight-year rule, hundreds of thousands of Ugandans were killed in political and ethnic violence.
\nRugunda\u2019s announcement on Saturday followed an order from President Yoweri Museveni to compensate families that lost relatives and property in the massacre.
\nHajji Nsereko Mutumba, spokesman for the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council, said he hoped Museveni\u2019s order would be followed. \u201cI hope he fulfills the pledge, we have been pushing it for a long time and no one was listening to us,\u201d Mutumba told Anadolu Agency. During the 2011 election campaign, Museveni promised to examine the killings but the issue was later dropped.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t persecute people just because of their faith,\u201d Mutumba said. \u201cIslam was here before Amin came to power.\u201d
\nHe claimed the government had previously avoided an investigation because \u201csome leaders in these governments were part of those orchestrating and participated in the killings\u201d.
\nUmar Kassaja Mutono, a member of the Sheema survivors\u2019 committee, said Muslims were butchered by their attackers.
\n\u201cOur people were killed using machetes,\u201d he said. \u201cThey were gathered and slaughtered like animals including children and pregnant women whose babies were cut out of their wombs.\u201d
\nSome victims had their hands or legs hacked off before being thrown into river to drown, he added.
\nKassaja said Museveni, who was defense minister in the regime that replaced Amin, was sent to investigate the killings in 1979. When he became president in 1986, seven people were imprisoned but two were later pardoned.
\n\u201cPresident Museveni pardoned two others who now live in the same village where they killed our people and this hurts us,” he said.<\/p>\n
Source: World Bulletin<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An investigation has been launched into the killings of 67 Muslims in Uganda following the fall of dictator Idi Amin in 1979.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n