The Universal House of justice has shared with us a copy of
a letter dated January 11, 1980, from the Hands of the Cause of God residing in
the Holy Land to the Hands of the Cause of God throughout the world. We hope
this will allay any concerns the friends may have had over the circumstances
surrounding the death of our beloved Hand of the Cause, Enoch Olinga.
"In all of these sad events it is some consolation to
know that apparently the murder of Mr. Olinga was in no way directly connected
with either religion or politics; in other words no one associated Enoch with
any political factions and this attack on him was not in the nature of an
attack on the Faith itself. Enoch may have been killed just because he was an
affluent businessman and well known because of this and as a 'leader' of the
Baha’is.
“For some years past in Uganda the elimination of prominent
people has been a fixed policy of certain factions and nearly all those who
fell into this category fled the country. Mr. Vuyiya, who arrived in Kampala
from Nairobi three days after the event, writes ' ... staying in the middle of
the town, I had the full effect of the state of near anarchy in Kampala at
night. There were shots every night.' He points out that in the nightly curfew
no one could tell who was roaming about the streets and that every night brought
with it ‘... the news of the murder of yet another family.'
“As nothing worth mentioning, including a large sum of money
which was available in Mr. Olinga's desk, seems to have been stolen from the
home, some people consider that it was one of the acts being regularly
committed by some obscure faction, to create the impression that lawlessness
was rampant and thus discredit the efforts of the new Government to maintain
law and order. In similar killings these 'thugs' have stated they are not
thieves but have come 'only for lives.'
"Now that detailed reports have been received here, we feel
we should acquaint you fully with these matters so that the Baha'is, through
this report to you, will be properly informed and not attribute his murder to
all kinds of things which have no foundation in fact; we notice through
meetings with the friends and letters received here that there is a lot of
speculation, misinformation and personal interpretation of events going
about."
The report then goes on to document, from all available
sources, the events surrounding the brutal murder of Mr. Olinga and his family.
We regret that we are unable to print the letter in its entirety. Following are
extracts from the report:
"We learn from George Olinga, Enoch's eldest son, that
from the time the Faith was banned until Idi Amin fell from power his father,
on many occasions, stated he would not leave the country or run away. He was
not only worried over the morale of the Baha'is but was very much concerned
about the Baha'i properties and their protection. That they were safeguarded in
the midst of so much turmoil, that precious archive material was removed to a
remote spot and nothing happened to it, we owe largely to this fellow Hand of
ours, this Enoch we loved so much ...
"Of his father's last days George writes: 'He spent
most of his time at Kikaya cutting the grass around the Temple, sweeping the
Temple, and the last few days before his tragic death he had reorganized the
Baha'i Centre, from washing the floor to allocation of rooms for various
functions of the newly appointed Administrative Committee.
“During their first meeting in Kampala I had just arrived
from Nairobi and Daddy was overjoyed when I told them that while I was in Kenya
I had found the grass mowers for the Temple grounds and that they had been
purchased ... So happy was Daddy during these last days of his life that he
told some of the friends he is so relieved to have handed over to the
Administrative Committee that he was ready to die…’
"It is probably never going to be possible to establish
exactly what the terrible course of events was which took place that night;
sleeping next to the garage, in a building near the back door, which gave on to
the small compound into which, through the gate, the automobile driveway
entered the grounds, was a Baha'i garden boy; on either side of the Olinga
property were neighbours. In a city where murder for many weeks has stalked the
streets in the dark, and the rattle of automatic fire is frequently heard,
people keep inside and under cover themselves when they hear guns going off
nearby. No doubt this was equally true of those near the Olinga home.
"We are told, however, by the garden boy, that
Elizabeth was in the kitchen, at the back of the house preparing dinner with
Lennie; Badi was studying in the back bedroom at the end of the inner corridor
and Tahirih may have been with him. It is conjectured that there were six armed
men, one remained to guard the gate through which they broke into the property,
and the other five came to the back door demanding it be opened and firing
shots. Whatever exactly took place a trail of blood was found from the kitchen
to the room Badi was in and a rough attempt had been made to bandage Lennie's
leg where he had been wounded. As this is the room where all except Enoch were
murdered, it seems likely they sought refuge there, locked the door and enough
time elapsed to try and staunch Lennie's wound before the armed men broke in
and evidently lined Elizabeth, Lennie, Badi and Tahirih up against the wall and
shot them; two rows of bullet holes showed they were shot both at chest and
knee level and the pitiful mangled remains of these four people were found next
day on the floor in a pile.
“Exactly what happened to Enoch is not known; George
surmises, from accounts of those who were at least in the vicinity, if not
actual eye witnesses of what took place in the house, that Enoch was in the
sitting room, heard the cries and shots, came out into the compound at the back
and was taken in either to see his family shot or see them lying dead and once
again came out into the compound for he was heard to be weeping and sobbing out
loud; he was then shot from behind in the chest and hips and fell in front of
the garage.
“The neighbours stated that they phoned the police five
times when all this was happening but were told there were patrol cars in the
area; no one came. In the morning, whenever he dared venture forth , the garden
boy found Enoch's body and ran to inform a member of the newly appointed Uganda
Administrative Committee who immediately went to the home of 'Auntie Claire',
the much-loved and esteemed early pioneer to Africa who owns a well -known
nursery school..."
(Baha’i Canada, vol. 2, no. 9, March/April 1980)
