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THE Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) has set conditions for the return of
its leader Apollo Milton Obote from exile in Lusaka, Zambia, reports
Hamis Kaheru.
The party’s legal counsel, Peter Walubiri,
yesterday said President Yoweri Museveni must withdraw a death threat
against Obote, unveil a roadmap for transition “from military to civilian
rule” and allow party activities before Obote can come back.
“On
the occasion of opening of Hotel Africana, Gen. Museveni issued a public
fatwa (Muslim holy decree) that if Dr. Milton Obote stepped at Entebbe
Airport he would be put six feet under. This fatwa still stands,” Walubiri
said at UPC’s weekly briefing in Kampala.
He was responding to reports
that the Government and the UPC were discussing Obote’s return.
“There
is no such discussion formally or informally,” Walubiri said.
Walubiri said Museveni requested for a meeting with Obote during
his state visit to Zambia on July 30, but Obote declined and sent
representatives. Walubiri was among them.
“Museveni did not
mention Obote’s return in the meeting I had with him. Dev Babber who
arranged the meeting never mentioned it,” he said.
“It would be
speculating to say why Museveni wanted to meet Obote because there was no
agenda. May be he wanted to give him a cow since he has many cows,”
Walubiri said amid laughter from party faithful.
He said Museveni
should not seek to meet just Obote but UPC and the entire opposition to
discuss Uganda’s future, including the return of exiles.
“What can
salvage the NRM is to come up with a roadmap for transition from military
to civilian rule, for the army to leave politics and return to barracks.
In that context, we can then talk about the return of Ugandans in the
diaspora and Obote, the individual,” he said.
Flanked by UPC
national chairman Hajji Badru Wegulo and Milton Obote Foundation chairman
Sam Odaka, Walubiri said UPC had been denied a voice in the politics of
Uganda since 1986.
“The party would be much better off if its
president was here but conditions which forced him to leave have continued
to worsen,” he said.
He cited the January 2002 rally against
global terrorism and dictatorship, which the Police blocked and in which a
journalism student died. He said security forces also blocked a planned
birthday party for Obote at Hotel Bativa, Kampala in December 2002.
Walubiri attacked the press for “peddling government lies” that
Obote was begging Museveni for amnesty.
He said Dev Babber, a
Kenyan/Zambian of Asian extraction, approached Obote with Museveni’s
request for a meeting.
He said Obote sought advice from UPC leaders in
Kampala who mandated him (Walubiri) to deliver the advice. The advice was
that any meeting should involve the Zambian government and UPC and should
start at the level of emissaries.
Walubiri said he and Obote’s
son, Jimmy Akena, met Museveni at Pamoza Hotel in the company of foreign
affairs minister Tom Butime and industry minister Prof. Edward Rugumayo.
He said Museveni asked them about Obote’s age and health and they
told him he was well.
“Museveni then asked us for Obote’s message
to which we replied that we had none and had come to receive his message
since he was the one who wanted to meet Obote,” he said.
Museveni
reportedly said he had no message for Obote and that he did not know
Babber. The meeting lasted four minutes.
Walubiri said it was not
the first time the Government had told lies about Obote. He said a few
years ago, Rugunda went to Lusaka and said the Cabinet had set conditions
for Obote’s return.
Walubiri denied that UPC leaders did not want
Obote back for fear of boosting Museveni’s support in the north. He said
Museveni would not get such support with Obote around. “That’s why
Museveni does not want him here,” he said.
Published on: Thursday, 12th August,
2004 |
