MEET VICTOR OCHEN A UGANDAN GRASSROOTS ACTIVIST NOMINATED FOR THE 2015 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

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BY RICHARD WETAYA

Victor Ochen, a Ugandan grassroots activist has been basking in the glow of his nomination for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize.
Ochen was nominated on the 17th of February by the American Friends Service Committee, an organization that promotes lasting peace with justice, as a practical expression of faith in action.
Online stories about Ochen and his work have been going viral and there have been congratulatory messages galore.
Venerable personalities such as Desmond Tutu, Fatou Bensouda, the International Criminal Court prosecutor, Ruhakana Ruganda, Uganda’s Prime Minister and Trust Africa, an independent foundation that works to secure conditions for Democracy and equitable development throughout the African continent, have all come forward to endorse and drum up support for Ochen.

Desmond Tutu has said Ochen is in the top pick of the bunch as regards being amongst the new breed of dynamic African youth leaders.

Ochen becomes the first Ugandan to be nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize award, which in the past has been won by eminent personalities such as former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and United States President, Barrack Obama, amongst others.
For the award, Ochen is pitted against esteemed people like Pope Francis, Ban Ki-Moon, Edward Snowden and the World Health Organisation, among others.
The winner will take home a Nobel medal and cash prize of $ 1.2 million. The winner will be announced in October.

Ochen’s nomination also comes hot on the heels of recent commendation from UNESCO.
His African Youth Initiative Network was recognized by UNESCO as a model African Youth Initiative for promoting the culture of Peace in Africa.

Ochen, founder of the African Youth Initiative Network in Lira, is credited with effecting and engaging people in the transactional Justice process, promoting youth leadership and promoting human rights in Northern Uganda.

OCHEN ON FOUNDING THE AFRICAN YOUTH INITIATIVE NETWORK

“I founded the African Youth Initiative Network (AYINET) in 2005. We have reached and screened tens of thousands of war victims. In the same breath, we have provided reconstructive medical care to over 5000 war victims from across Lango, Teso, Acholi and West Nile Regions. Most of the LRA war victims suffered physical injury and deformity due to physical trauma, gunshots, retained shrapnel, maiming, immolation, torture, and sexual abuse and were in critical medical need of reconstructive surgery and psychosocial support.Our medical work has provided an effective response to these victims, with emphasis laid mostly on women and children. We have engaged psychosocial support seeking to build safe, peaceful and healthy communities through victim empowerment, and strengthening a human rights culture. Our determination to stand up for Peace has translated into constructive non-violent responses to the horrors of ongoing conflict. Our engagement has promoted post-conflict recovery and development and has guided deeply frustrated communities towards peaceful conflict management and resolution. I hope this recognition will now draw attention to the victims and survivors of wars not only in Africa, but worldwide.
The nomination is a sign of deep respect for war victims and survivors of unspeakable atrocities. It is also recognition for those war victims who have devoted their lives to heal others," Ochen says.

ENFORCING TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND ON ORGANISING THE 2014 NATIONAL WAR VICTIMS CONFERENCE
 I have had many years of community engagement with war victims on the issue of transitional justice. Through countrywide outreaches, I have been confronted over and over again with the undeniable truth that the burden of injustice weighs heavily on communities afflicted by conflicts. Though the Government of Uganda has developed an ambitious National Policy on Transitional Justice, there are still aggrieved and frustrated victims of injustices around the country. Some victims are still bidding time for justice. Promises have been made to victims but there has been nothing forthcoming, yet these are people with debilitating physical and emotional scars.  AYINET’S transitional justice processes reflect and will continue to reflect victims’ needs and priorities. Communities throughout Uganda are prepared and willing to actively participate in the upcoming transitional justice processes. The last two years have seen us come up with a book entitled “The Long Wait”. We wrote it after engaging in discourses with victims on the issue of transitional justice. The Long Wait contains important insights into Uganda’s war victim communities and perspectives on reconciliation and recovery from all crucialstakeholders. The Long Wait offers a stage to the voices so often unheard and the pleas shamelessly ignored.Statements from Ugandan Government officials and the world’s most renowned living icon of peace and reconciliation,his Grace Archbishop Desmond Tutu,further amplify our victims’ voices,” Ochen says.

Ochen stresses that last year’s National War Victims conference awakened the desire for peace and reconciliation.
“The conference provided a platform for war victims’ exchange and presentation of their views. The victims articulated several priorities on which transitional justice should focus. Most victims anticipate results from the upcoming National transitional justice policy. They principally want issues such as the missing persons, their health needs, unconditional amnesty for perpetrators, witness empowerment and reparation to be addressed.The diversity of the participants from around Africa provoked new insights,bred new ideas and invigorated hope,” Ochen says.

Ochen’s proactive efforts also saw him organise the 2010 International war victims’ football match in Nambole to mobilize global support for victims of war worldwide.
Dignitaries who played had just attended the International criminal court review conference in Kampala. They included the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, President Museveni and other high ranking dignitaries from the United Nations.

Later on in that year, Ochen was invited for the NATO summit meeting in Lisbon, Portugal.

ON WHY DOMINIC ONGWEN SHOULD NOT BE FORGIVEN
In Ochen’s estimation, Ongwen should not be pardoned for the crimes he committed.
“He should not get amnesty. His status as a former child soldier should not overshadow his brutal and horrendous acts as a senior commander of a group infamous for sexual enslavement, mutilations and kidnappings. I was surprised that people who are saying he should be pardoned, did not mention anything about the victims whose lives, homes, education and future’s he destroyed. He killed innocent and defenseless people. Much I want to see him prosecuted, I feel sad that many of his victims and other victims of the war like my missing brother and cousin will not live to see his day of reckoning,” Ochen says.

RECOUNTING A WAR VICTIM’S GRUESOME TALE AND HOW HE HELPED

One young girl plaintively described to Ochen how she witnessed her parents and other captives getting killed. She witnessed as the bodies were cooked in a pot and how the surviving abductees were forced to eat the bodies.
“She has found it hard to cook using a pot ever since, saying whenever she tries she sees her parents inside the pot. It is sad to listen to her story. We have tried to make closure a reality for war victims like this young girl through some of our initiatives, principally psychological rehabilitation and through the promotion of tolerance, reconciliation and forgiveness,” Ochen says.

HOW THE WAR IMPACTED OCHEN’S LIFE
Ochen spent 21 of his 33 years bearing witness to the horrors of the LRA war.
As a child, he was forced on several occasions to flee the conflict.
“Around 1987-88, the LRA war intensified around our village. We were forced to flee into the bushes for fear of abduction. I bore witness as the LRA burnt homes, killed people, looted property and abducted innocent people. My parents decided to relocate the family to a camp for internally displaced persons in Lira town. Conditions in the camp were precarious and there was a daily struggle to survive. We could walk long distances without shoes looking for water and food and under great risk because the rebels were always lurking in the bushes.
The LRA abducted my elder brother, Geoffrey Omara and cousin, James Opio in 2003. It was just an hour after I had been with them. I felt culpable, blaming myself for not learning how to use a gun. I contemplated picking up a gun to try and get them back, on occasion. Our parents however had always prevailed upon us to choose the pacifist way out in lieu of war in any situation. They always pep talked us into the fact that the war would someday end and we would be fine. Around 1995, I and my cousin run errands; we burnt charcoal, ferried stones, sold fish and tilled people’s land to support our family and to raise school fees. The education we got in the camps was however mediocre. I repeatedly asked myself as a child living in an IDP camp how I would be able to impact the world around me if I was given a chance to be a leader. I remember we subsisted on only one meal a day in the refugee camp in Abia in the present day, Alebtong district. I suffered from malnutrition and diseases for long spells. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I made it through all the challenges,” Ochen says

EDUCATION
War, poverty and displacement in many ways affected Ochen’s education.
He started school at Abia primary school. That was after 4 years of displacement. Because of the war, the family kept moving and at length, Ochen joined Awir primary school. He completed his primary education from Awir in Lira. Ochen was one of the best performing pupils from Awir.
At the peak of the war, Ochen joined Lira Town College where he studied from S1-S6. Ochen was to join Gulu University but the family had financial and other pressing issues and he could not join.
Ochen had to find work. With time, he got a job at the straight talk foundation. It dawned on Ochen later that his salary could not be enough to support his family and to pay his tuition. Disappointment also set in when he failed to get the commonwealth Diploma scholarship advertised at Makerere yet he was the most deserving needy student.

After a while, Ochen enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts degree in leadership and development studies at the World University of Leadership, Uganda branch from 2005-2007.
Ochen is also a graduate of the Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellowship Programme.

FAMILY
Ochen, a father of one, was born in 1981 in Abia village, Alebtong district to Jebedayo Ogweno and the late Pophia Alum.
“My parents were the most loving people. They were not educated and they did not have money but they showered us with love. We are ten of us. Our parents taught us to work hard and to always be on our best behaviour. Discipline was a precept they encouraged us to live by,” Ochen says.

LIFE OUTSIDE OF WORK
“My life is pretty much defined by work. I do not drink alcohol and i unwind by listening to Lucky Dube’s music. Most times I sit back and lay to heart the fact that through my small endeavors, people’s lives have gotten positive,” Ochen says.

A WORD TO AFRICAN YOUTH

“Young people in Africa need to make the right choices. We have the power to make life in Africa free, respectable and peaceful. The onus is us to change the negative stereotypes about Africa. But that will call for discipline and a sense of unity and purpose. We must maintain unity and stick together because change will only come from our combined efforts. We need to dedicate ourselves to work and replace the violence and the stains of bloodshed that have spread across our continent. We must also address the question of ethnicity which has kept our continent on the dark side of history,” Ochen says.

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