[Ugnet] Re: [FedsNet] NEWS: Muntu pins Obote over massacres

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 13:49:35 -0700



musamize <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
You would have been rithgt hadn't the the NRM been worse than Obote! e.g.
* 20 years of concentration camps in Norhern Uganda -- Obote had promised to turn W. Nile into a National Park.
* military misadventures in the DRC that ended with Uganda looting DRC's natural resources, e.g. see:
 
(I have a copy on if you can nnot get it)
 
*CORRUPTION than knows no boundaries, e.g.
1.a US $40MILLION gulf Stram jet used to ferry the presidential brood to and from maternity wards in Germany
 
2. a US $400,000 presidential Range Rover
 
3. a US $1MILLION presidential Mercedes Benz
 
4. US $150 MILLION slated to for bulding a new State House -- not even in Holly Wood! And this, after pizantis groaned and moaned loudly about a proposed  US $70MIILION tab to "renovate" the said State House -- moneys for the repair of which have been perennially budgeted for the last fifteen (15) years in each year's budget!
 
5. MILLIONS of US $$$ spent on junk helicopters that, in any case, never materialized.
 
6. the multi-million dollar "rescue" of a Kampala "tycoon" after many failed business misadventure, one Basajjabalaba (I am sure you'll never guess who his "business" partners are -- courtsey of the Uganda taxpayer.
 
7. a shadowy deal negotiated by Mu7 and the President of UNAA in cahoots with elements of NRM-zero, when Mu7 attended the UNAA convention in Seattle last year. In this deal, Mu7 wants to give US $13MILLION  -- which is twenty paercent (20%) of the annual budget for the Ministry of Eduaction to a dubious Canadian company to supply Uganda with "computer cards".  The case is before the public right now and has caused a rare rift between State House and ISO. But MU7 has "directed" that the money be handed over very quickly -- according to his assistant, one Frank(?) Odoi.
 
etc etc ad infinutum

All this corruption has thus far landed Uganda in a US $4.5 BIILION debt, with nothing to show for it, plus moneys that have disappeared in NSSF, etc etc



Simon Nume <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Musamize
 
This headline should have been  " No difference between Obote and NRM - says Muntu"
 
Nume

musamize <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Muntu pins Obote over massacres

By Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi & Hussein Bogere

Monitor  19, 2005

 

KAMPALA - One of President Yoweri Museveni’s harshest critics has defended the National Resistance Army’s conduct during the Luweero war while blaming Milton Obote’s Uganda National Liberation Army for killing civilians.

Maj. Gen. (Rtd.) Mugisha Muntu, the former army commander, who is now a leader of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, said the UNLA had “committed a lot of atrocities” during the 1981-1985 war that was based mainly in the Luweero Triangle.
But he also criticised Mr Museveni for betraying the cause of the war.

Muntu said Museveni’s government veered so much from its original ideals that people can no longer distinguish between the NRA “liberators” and the Uganda National Liberation Army who massacred people.
Addressing journalists at the FDC headquarters in Najjanankumbi yesterday, Muntu gave a chronological account of the war and pinned the UNLA for the kil lings.
He said he would testify in court if the matter ever came to that.

His remarks came in the wake of the recent exchange between former president Obote and Museveni over who is responsible for the Luweero massacres.
The war of words was triggered off by Obote’s claims in The Monitor’s series, “Obote: My Story,” in which he accuses Museveni and his NRA of masterminding the Luweero killings.

While Obote insists that it was NRA that was responsible, Museveni and government officials on the other hand say the UNLA committed the atrocities.
They add that Obote should account for them and the atrocities committed during his rule. The president has threatened to sue The Monitor and Obote for “telling lies” about him.

Said Muntu: “Doubt has come into the population that we were not liberators, that we were a bunch of self-seekers. It is very painful.”
He said if the Movement and Museveni had stuck to the ideals that led to the war, the current deb ate would not have emerged.

“This debate would be totally seen differently if it arose in the late eighties or early nineties because NRM had taken a moral high ground,” Muntu said. “That should be an eye opener to Museveni and NRMO.”

However, Muntu dismissed Obote’s claims as absolute lies in an interview with The Monitor. “Those people (civilians in Luweero) were killed in broad-day light inside the camps. There is no way we could have penetrated the camps,” he said. “Besides the population would not have supported us if we were killing their own. Don’t forget also that the majority of our soldiers were from that area.”

Muntu, who was the rebel NRA’s chief of intelligence, also dismissed Obote’s claims that the NRA killed parents in order to recruit their children as child-soldiers. “That’s absolutely impossible,” he said.
But he remained critical of Museveni for not sticking to the ideals that took the NRA to war and appealed to him to make amends.

“It’s not yet too late to rectify the situation,” Muntu said. “What betrayal that can be to the thousands of people and soldiers that died. That a whole sacrifice now stands a danger of being erased because of one, two, or three people! President Museveni we would like to request you to rethink. Don’t get a whole part of our history which was gained through sacrifice and subject it to oblivion because of a selfish interest of a few individuals.”

Muntu said the Movement had lost the high moral ground that helped the then guerrilla group to win over hearts of the people and liberate the country.
“It’s painful; because of a few selfish individuals we lost that ground,” he said. “People no longer know whether we are liberators, fighters or crooks like many others.”
An emotional Muntu said, “All those people who died are now being seen as a mere statistic.” He said there was need for an independent inquiry to establish who was responsible for the killings.

“When this debate comes up as to who was responsible for killing and who was not, we need to hear from a third party,” he said.
But he added: “I have no doubt that UNLA committed a lot of atrocities. Many people were killed in camps in Kapeeka, Bombo, Katikamu and other areas.”
Muntu said it was because of these atrocities that the people would run to the NRA camps. He said like in Luweero in the 80s people ran to those they felt could guarantee them protection.

“Yes there is collateral damage. Anybody who has been in the army cannot deny that, but we should not forget the principle,” Muntu said. “If people feel they want to be liberated even if some die but if they achieve the objective to liberate themselves...”

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