Don’t eat with the rebels only; call parties too
The government on Tuesday signed a peace deal with the Uganda National Rescue Front II (UNRF II) rebel group. Among other things, the ex-rebels will receive Shs. 4.2bn for resettlement, and 10 government posts.While this was an important step for peace, the long-term prospects for total peace are not in place yet. UNRF II is an offshoot of UNRF of Second Deputy Premier Brig. Moses Ali, with which the ruling Movement reached a pact before it took power it took power in January 1986 after a five-year guerrilla war.
So, even as we welcome the pact with UNRF II, we can’t escape the fact that it revises questions about why the government of President Yoweri Museveni finds it much easier to initiate talks with armed groups, however reluctantly, but won’t do so with political parties that choose constitutional means to push their demands.
Instead we’ve witnessed the effective ban of parties in 1992 through the amendment of Legal Notice No. 1 of 1986, and in 1995 the ban was shrewdly entrenched in the constitution. The result of this approach is the belief among some Ugandans that to be listened to, and to get any political concessions out of the Movement government, you have to go the bush. That is why UNRF went back into the queue, and has now “eaten twice” from the hands of the government.
Until the government rewards civil non-violent politics more than armed rebellion, it will be a long time before we see an end to destructive violent politics.
December 28, 2002 00:12:19
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