date:20050420

The wise see the darkness in the sky and conclude that it is about to rain...but a fool continues on with his tomfoolary and does not see the obvious!..until when it is too late!!!
Mk
Besigye Warns On Third Term Bid

Email This Page Print This Page VisitThePublisher'sSite

New Vision (Kampala)
April 19, 2005 Posted to the web April 19, 2005
Fred OumaKampala
There could be trouble in Uganda if President Yoweri Museveni stands for a third term, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) interim chairman has said.
Dr. Kizza Besigye said, "Today, Museveni is the nation. Whoever has deferring views is treated a state enemy."

Besigye was speaking on CBS FM radio's 'Manya eddembe lyo' (Know your rights) talk show via phone from South Africa on Sunday night.
He lauded Museveni's achievements but warned him against staying on at State House beyond 2006.
"This situation in itself is an open invitation of trouble. His (Museveni's) time expired and he should not pursue the path of his predecessors who drooped on power until bombs disposed them off. He should retire to allow peaceful transition to full multiparty politics and the time is now," he said with anger rising in his voice.
Citing the bush war, Besigye said the prevailing situation warranted a rebellion as part and parcel of political struggle.
Since independence in 1962, Uganda has had eight presidents, all of whom were ousted from power by the gun.
Besigye, however, denied links with the People's Redemption Army (PRA). He said PRA was a government creation to win public apathy by discrediting able opposition.

Relevant Links

East Africa Uganda Legal and Judicial Affairs
He said the NRM-O relied on Museveni, without whom it would not survive in a free and fair political environment.
Referring to Sempe-bwa's Constitutional Review Commission, Besigye said the issue of lifting presidential terms was never asked for by the public but was designed to perpetuate life presidency for Museveni.
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new resources site! ___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] 80% IDPs Are Women, Children


80% IDPs Are Women, Children














Email This Page Print This Page VisitThePublisher'sSite 







The Monitor (Kampala)
April 19, 2005 Posted to the web April 18, 2005 
Charles Mwanguhya MpagiKampala 
Women and children constitute at least 80 percent of all people living in internally displaced people's camps caused by 19 years of war in northern Uganda, the UN children's agency, Unicef, has said.
In its situational report for March, Unicef said an estimated 1.4 million people living in camps for the internally displaced continue to live with basic essentials like food, water and proper sanitation.











 
"Displacement, poverty and heightened violence attendant to the 19-year, child-centric armed conflict in northern Uganda continue to deprive children and women of their rights to fully access basic healthcare, safe water, primary education, protection and shelter," reads the report in part.
The report further says that an estimated 30,000 children sleep on shop verandas in the affected towns for fear of attacks from rebels.
"Each evening, the threat of attacks and abductions by LRA rebels drives approximately 30,000 child "night commuters" to seek the relative safety of urban centres, primarily in Gulu, Kitgum and Pader," the report says.











Relevant Links





East Africa Children and Youth Uganda Women and Gender Civil War and Communal Conflict Refugees and Displacement 
Unicef says after a short lull in attacks, the rebel Lords Resistance Army has resumed attacks where they kill, abduct and maim civilians.
"Following a two-month lull in hostilities, the reporting period witnessed an intensification of LRA attacks against civilians. Reported incidents of violence included the killing of a currently unconfirmed number of civilians in Gulu and Adjumani Districts (at least 10); the ambush and mutilation of women in Kitgum District (at least seven had their lips, ears or breasts sliced off); and the abduction of dozens (including 49 in Apac District)."__Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

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

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:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=5970Cr=DRCr1=Congo
www.reliefweb.int/w/Rwb.nsf/0/AB11819FBAC78BF985256A3000655C44?OpenDocument
Entire 56-page UN Security Council Report at:http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N02/621/79/PDF/N0262179.pdf?OpenElement

(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 presidentialRange 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 loudlyabout 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, whenMu7 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"

Numemusamize [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Muntu pins Obote over massacres
By Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi Hussein Bogere
Monitor 19, 2005

KAMPALA - One of President Yoweri Musevenis harshest critics has defended the National Resistance Armys conduct during the Luweero war while blaming Milton Obotes 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 Musevenis 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 Obotes claims in The Monitors 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 Obotes 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. Dont forget also that the majority of our soldiers were from that

[Ugnet] AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY 2005

2005-04-20 Thread RWalker949

PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY:

The All-African People's Revolutionary Party is organizing and requests your presence and participation at the 47th commemoration of:

AFRICAN LIBERATION DAY 2005
Date: May 28th, 2005
Time: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Loc: Howard University, Wash. DC, Blackburn Center Auditorium
Format: Pan-African International Symposium and Workshops
THEME: Forging Positive Action to Achieve Pan-Africanism

Invited Participants: Workshops
*Pan-Africanist Congress rep. 1.) Land reclamation, Power,
* Azanian People's Organization rep. Socialism
* Zimbabwean Ambassador to U.S. 2.) Historical role of students and
* Cuban Interests Section rep. Revolutionary culture.
* Irish Republican Socialist Party rep. 3.) Globalization and African Women
* Venezuelan Support rep.
* Pan-African Youth Student Organizations
* Malcolm X Drummers Dancers
* Other Cultural Performers

ALD: a brief history-
African Liberation Day (ALD) was born out of the conscious struggle of African People against oppression. Originally called Africa Freedom Day, ALD was proclaimed in 1958 at the First Conference of Independent African States in Accra, Ghana. Later, upon the founding of the Organization of African Unity, 31 heads of African states declared May 25, 1963, as African Liberation Day. This important, historic event has been observed and institutionalized in various places worldwide, every year since its' inception.
___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] 'The West must leave us alone'

*[ This article was printed from Sundaytimes.co.za - home of the Sunday 
Times, South Africa. ]*

'The West must leave us alone'
Tuesday April 19, 2005 07:38 - (SA)
HARARE - President Robert Mugabe marked 25 years of independence for his 
country yesterday by telling the West to mind their own elections and 
leave Zimbabwe alone.

Our elections have not needed Anglo-American validation. They are 
validated by fellow Africans, and friendly countries from the Third 
World, Mugabe told thousands gathered at a sports stadium for the 
independence celebrations.

That is where we get justice, not from Europe neither indeed from 
America.

We never agitate to observe their elections and therefore let them keep 
away from our affairs, Mugabe told thousands who thronged Zimbabwe's 
main stadium on the western fringes of Harare.

Mugabe's ruling Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front 
(ZANU-PF) party won victory in elections last month that the opposition 
said was rigged while the United States, Britain and other western 
governments declared that the parliamentary vote was neither free nor fair.

At independence from British colonial rule in 1980, Mugabe was the 
darling of the West, which responded to his pledges to promote 
reconciliation with offers of financial aid and other forms of assistance.

But elections in 2000 and 2002 that were tainted with violence and 
allegations of vote-rigging, coupled with a land reform programme that 
led to the seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms 
prompted the European Union and the United States to slap a travel ban 
on Mugabe and his inner circle.

Zimbabwe also broke away from the Commonwealth club of former colonies 
in 2003 after it voted to renew its suspension from the group.

In his independence day address, Mugabe defended his land reform 
programme, saying that it was a necessary step to redress racial 
imbalances and ensure democracy.

The flag-waving crowd broke into loud cheers as scores of pigeons, 
symbolising peace and freedom, were released from a cage and fluttered 
over the football pitch before flying away.

A group of schoolchildren, popularly referred to as Generation 25, 
born after independence in 1980, drew whistles and cheers as they played 
soldiers, reliving scenes from the seven-year liberation struggle 
against the white minority regime of what was then called Rhodesia.

The 25 years that have gone by have taught us democracy cannot grow 
well on the soil of racial poverty and inequality. Genuine democracy 
cannot co-exist with structural depravation and racial inequality, 
Mugabe said.

In Zimbabwe land governs the ballot, it is a symbol of sovereignty, it 
is the economy, indeed the source of our wealth as Africans, he 
declared before a coterie of African leaders including Namibia's 
Hifikepunye Pohamba and Botswana's President Festus Mogae.

Mugabe said the land issue remains the core social question of our time 
as it was the main grievance on which our whole liberation struggle was 
built.

He said he was unperturbed by the west's reaction to the reforms that 
have been partly blamed for the worsening economic woes and food 
shortages that critics say have left Zimbabwe worse off than at 
independence.

Let the grief and bitterness that has visited Europe following the 
repossession of our land heal on its own, in its own time. Zimbabwe is 
in Africa not Europe, Mugabe said.

Joining in the celebrations along with Mogae and Pohamba were regional 
leaders Presidents Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo 
(DRC), Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi and 
prime ministers of Angola, Mozambique and Lesotho.

South Africa and other regional countries were represented by cabinet 
ministers.

Former president of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda was also present at the 
ceremony held at the 60,000-seater giant Chinese-built National Stadium 
decorated in Zimbabwe's signature green, yellow and red colours.

/AFP/
___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] Land reform fails rural Zimbabwe

*[ This article was printed from Sundaytimes.co.za - home of the Sunday 
Times, South Africa. ]*

Land reform fails rural Zimbabwe
Tuesday April 19, 2005 13:22 - (SA)
HARARE - Thousands of Zimbabwean families are still sharing small 
patches of farming space five years after their government launched land 
reforms to allocate white-owned farmland to black families, a newspaper 
reported today.

Zimbabwe embarked on its land redistribution programme in February 2000, 
taking away prime farmland owned by some 4,500 white farmers and handing 
them over to the landless black majority.

Five years after the launch of the land reforms, at least 75 percent of 
Zimbabweans live in rural areas with limited farming land, according to 
independent analysts.

The government intended to resettle 50 percent of peasants onto 
farmlands created after white commercial farmers moved out, The Daily 
Mirror said.

But the newspaper said only a fraction of those targeted for 
resettlement on larger tracts of farming land have done so while the 
remainder is still living in congested areas.

The fast-track land resettlement programme has failed to decongest the 
densely populated rural areas by at least 40 percent, the newspaper said.

Estimates vary from province to province but at national level, a rate 
of 10 percent decongestion has been achieved, the newspaper quoted Sam 
Moyo, director of the African Institute for Agrarian Studies, as saying.

The government's land reforms have been blamed for compromising food 
production in what was once the southern African region's breadbasket.

White farmers owned some 70 percent of the most fertile land in the 
country before they were implemented.

But critics say the land reforms have benefited members of Mugabe's 
inner circle and their cronies.

A government land audit report released late last year showed that some 
4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of land had been allocated to 
fewer than 200,000 black commercial farmers and ordinary agriculturists.

Of some 4,500 large scale commercial white farmers operating in Zimbabwe 
five years ago, there are about 600 now left, accounting for three 
percent of the country's land.

Many have relocated to neighbouring countries and as far afield as Nigeria.
/AFP/
___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] Ratzinger, the Silencer

   The Silencer
 By Mary Jo McConahay, Pacific News Service
 Posted on April 20, 2005, Printed on April 20, 2005
 http://www.alternet.org/story/21814/
Joy, consternation, and for some, outright shock is reverberating among 
Catholics worldwide at the first sight of their new pope in his red 
robes, Benedict XVI. The most conservative regard the German Joseph 
Ratzinger as their champion, with his influential rock-hard stands 
against gay unions, cloning and the ordination of women, and against any 
dismantling of the firewall between Catholicism and every other religion 
in the world. Liberals regard him as medieval, a threat to theological 
exploration of sexual ethics, pluralism and a Church for the third 
millennium.

Now he is pontiff of all, and both sides are holding their breath.
One key to Benedict's papacy may be found far from the elegant St. 
Peter's Square and far from after-mass coffees in U.S. church halls, in 
the villages and rough urban misery belts of Latin America, the globe's 
most Catholic region, where Ratzinger made one of his hallmark stands as 
a Vatican force. There in the l980s, he powerfully confronted the 
fast-moving tide of liberation theology, an intellectual and popular 
movement that linked Catholic theology and political activism in 
everyday issues of social justice and human rights. Officially, 
Ratzinger reversed the tide, forbidding certain Catholic theologians to 
publish in what was called a silencing.

Ratzinger issued a 1984 document with something like the force of law 
called an Instruction, defining Rome's opposition to liberation 
theology's fundamental threat and weighing in on naming conservative 
Latin bishops.

Unofficially, liberation theology lives. On a continent of some 500 
million where most are poor, where the promise of neo-liberal economic 
plans of the l990s didn't pan out and three-quarters of the population 
now lives under democratically elected leftist governments, the 
attraction of a Catholicism that links God's will with the desire for a 
better and more dignified life in the here and now -- not just after 
death -- remains strong. How Benedict XVI faces this reality, for face 
it he must in a Church that claims to be not just one but universal, 
will be a marker of his papacy.

In the 1980s the Berlin Wall remained intact, and Ratzinger believed 
liberation theology was incipient Marxism with a religious veneer. He 
zeroed in on some intellectual proponents who linked Marx and Jesus. He 
did not focus on the outcomes of Vatican II -- where Ratzinger himself 
was considered a liberal reformer -- and the Latin American conferences 
in Medellin and Puebla, where bishops decided that the Latin Church must 
stake its future on an option for the poor. He did not publicly regard 
the thousands of small communities who were reading the Bible together 
in a new way, sitting under trees or on dirt floors with no clergy or 
intellectuals in sight, finding what they called the strength to be 
actors in their lives.

What would have happened, Guatemalans and El Salvadorans ask to this 
day, if Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II had regarded the Latin American 
call for liberation from autocratic rulers with the same force with 
which the European churchmen supported the Polish Solidarity revolution?

On the eve of his election as pope, Ratzinger addressed the cardinals 
with an unmistakable condemnation of relativism, which can include the 
idea that one religion is as good as another. He addressed it again last 
year in a book, Called to Communion. In the 1980s, the idea rankled 
Ratzinger that liberation theology was not strictly Catholic, but 
frequently tries to create a new universality for which the classical 
church divisions are supposed to have become irrelevant.

Indeed, liberation theology was quickly spreading at the time, and not 
only geographically, from its magnetic center in thatched roof chapels 
in Latin America to Africa, the Philippines, and the barrios of North 
America. It was jumping churches, too. Renowned American Protestant 
thinkers such as Robert McAfee Brown spoke to it, and defended Catholic 
theologians silenced by Ratzinger. Fr. Luis Gurriaran, a Spanish 
Sacred Heart priest working in rural Guatemala, once recalled how 
fundamentalist evangelical Protestant preachers -- the proliferation of 
which are seen as a headache by bishops today -- embraced local forms of 
liberation theology after massacres or intense hardships in their 
communities. Those who identify with their congregations come to look 
at the world through their eyes, he said. How the new Pope regards this 
mutual embrace of people of faith on the ground, no matter what their 
churches, will be key to the shape of his tenure.

Archbishop Oscar Romero began his administration of the San Salvadoran 
church as an orthodox, conservative prelate who made no waves. But he 
stayed in touch with his congregations in a personal way, and

[Ugnet] Marburg virus: Angola death toll climbs at slower rate

Marburg virus: Death toll climbs at slower rate
Pedro Makuto Nkondo | Luanda, Angola 	
/20 April 2005 02:31/
Angolan health officials said on Wednesday that the death toll from the 
Ebola-like Marburg virus is climbing still, reaching 239, but at a 
slower rate as more citizens are joining in a mass effort to stamp out 
the disease.

Out of 264 cases detected since October 13 in Angola, 239 people have 
died, with the overwhelming number of fatalities in the northern Uige 
province, where the death toll stands at 223, according to the health 
ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A total of 518 people are under observation, of whom 406 are in Uige, 
after coming in contact with the virus, which can kill a person within a 
week.

This trend towards a reduction in cases and deaths is due to the strong 
mobilisation of the population in the province of Uige, said health 
ministry spokesperson Carlos Alberto.

We can't say that we have absolute control of the Marburg disease as 
long as there is even one case in the country, said the WHO 
representative in Angola, Diallo Fatoumata Binta. We must continue to 
work hard.

International health experts who converged on Angola in the wake of the 
outbreak have faced hostility and suspicion from the local population.

Teams of health workers who roam the city of Uige to find suspected 
cases of Marburg have been attacked by rock-throwing residents, and 
international officials have sought help from local leaders to dispel 
the hostility.

In Luanda, the United Nations Children's Fund enlisted Boy Scouts in a 
drive to distribute pamphlets telling Angolans about protective measures 
against the virus.

Any person who has had contact with a case, including having slept in 
the same bed for a month, having had physical contact or touched the 
clothing or the bed linen or the bodily secretions, is contaminated, 
says the pamphlet.

Household detergents, soap and water are useful disinfectants against 
the virus that causes viral haemorrhagic fever. Alcaline solutions must 
be prepared daily because they lose their potency after 24 hours, it said.

At Luanda's Catholic parish of Notre Dame of Fatima, brother Moises 
Lukondo said parishioners were upset when they first learned about 
Marburg, but that all is calm now.

Every day, we try to explain to Christians how to fight the disease 
without rejecting people who come from the province of Uige, which is 
the epicentre of the virus, said Lukondo.

Television and radio advertisements are urging Angolans who fear they 
may have come in contact with Marburg to seek help from health 
professionals who hold daily information sessions.

We have a doctor here in our church, Dr Bela Neto, who is giving us 
advice on how to cope with this disease, said Samuel Dadi Carlos, an 
official from a local Pentecostal church.

The Marburg virus can kill a healthy person in a week, causing diarrhoea 
and vomiting followed by severe internal bleeding.

The virus was first detected in 1967 when German laboratory workers in 
Marburg were infected by monkeys from Uganda.

Until now, the most serious outbreak of the disease was in the 
Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 
2000. -- Sapa-AFP

___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] Re: [FedsNet] NEWs 1980 polls were rigged

WB Kyijomanyi [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

1980 polls were rigged, period

The Author: DR Paul Sebuliba
--It is not true that all Ugandans prefer dubious politicians I wish to respond to Gawaya Tegules opinions published in The Monitor on April 6, on who won the 1980 election and Paulo Muwangas role in manipulating figures to proclaim Obote winner and the statistical data to back up the allegations: Here is one bit of statistical data that may be of interest to Tegule and other readers: The Mubende North-East Constituency results of December 1980 elections: Dr Paul Sebuliba (DP) 19,328 votes, Mr Samwiri Mugwisa (UPC) 3,832 votes, CP 2,468, UPM 1,898. Sorry, I do not have the names of the last two candidates. Dr Paul Sebuliba (DP), the writer of this article, with 19,328 votes, won the election in this constituency in December 1980, defeating Mr Samwiri Mugwisa (UPC). The Parliament seat was simply given to Mugwisa, the UPC candidate. The details of the result were never announced. Even Obote, in his ongoing My Story series in The Monitor dated A
pril 14,
acknowledges this: The first (results) to come in were from Buganda which is geographically near Kampala and UPC was been (sic) losing badly. Out of 35 seats, DP had won 34, and one remained undeclared. Obote does not say why this result remained undeclared. Mubende North-East, which combines todays Mityana North and Kiboga East constituencies, was not the remotest part of Buganda. It started at Busunju, 32 miles from Kampala. At Mubende, I saw the correct results that were sent to the late Paulo Muwanga after his usurping of the duties of the returning officers and the Electoral Commission. I can only guess that his (Muwangas) conscious, which I cannot describe here, since he is dead and cannot defend himself, prevailed and he could not bring himself to read out the figures. It was the most shameful act any decent human being could have contemplated doing. Some members of the UPC, whose names I will not mention, were afraid I would appeal, and th
e
returning officer would disclose the results in the High Court. They decided to kill me. A doctor, whose name I will not reveal, was kidnapped by a prominent member of the UPC and taken to Kireka Army barracks, which was a human slaughterhouse at the time. The soldiers were given orders to finish the hapless doctor off. He was lucky, a young Acholi officer came in before he was killed and ordered his release. The poor man ran on foot up to Busia. His only fault; he was a doctor, his name was similar to Dr Sebulibas, and like Dr Sebuliba he comes from Mityana. I was smuggled out of Uganda by my in-laws, who were high ranking officials in the Ministry of Internal affairs, the portfolio of my former friend and colleague, Dr John Luwuliza Kirunda. They had full knowledge of what was in store for me. If anyone has doubt about the figures, let him check at Mubende district headquarters. A Mr Mulala was the returning officer. I do not know his whereabouts these day
s. Mr
Vincent Ssekkono, who was the technical head of the Electoral Commission at the time can be contacted. He is now Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government. More statistical data can be found from Busoga. The story of Mr Paul Wangoola (DP) versus Dr John Luwuliza Kirunda (UPC) was very similar to mine. Wangoola, of course, fled for dear life. For even more exciting statistical data, the results of Tororo Constituency can be checked. The returning officer there read out the detailed results before Muwangas coup. He declared the DP candidate the winner. The UPC candidate, duly conceded defeat. He was surprised when on arrival at Uganda House, people were congratulating him on his win. He informed them he had lost, and he had already openly conceded defeat at Tororo. The man had to take up the seat in Parliament, and accept a senior ministerial post in the Obote II government, possibly out of fear for his life. lOn Musevenis justification to wage bush
war, I
do not think Museveni needed any justification or moral ground to wage his war. It was his birthright to fight what he understood to be an injustice. lAnything produced to the contrary could rid the bush war of due legitimacy: I am not a lawyer, but winning the war automatically made it legitimate. I think the outside world got to know the true results of the 1980 elections. That could explain why the Tanzanians decided not to help Obote to fight Museveni. l On whether voters would choose Ssemogerere over Obote outside Buganda, it was not Ssemogerere versus Obote the voters were choosing. It was DP versus UPC, CP and UPM. We do not go for personalities, we vote for policies, which are found in party manifestos. A few examples: The late Yoweri Kyesimira won for DP in Busoga, so did the late Dr Muzira. Kuteesa won in Nyabushozi for DP against a heavyweight for another party. Nyabushozi is in Ankole, not in Buganda. Kaheru won for DP in Fort Portal a
gainst

[Ugnet] fwd: [UNAANET] MPs Okumu, Ocula jailed over murder

Ssemakula [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

Mr. Mujungu,

Oh, poor U! We need to something about those pesky foreigners. Know what? Now they are out there tarning Uganda's holly name, this time in international courts. See below:

Shs. 500m for international cases

By Dick Nvule

Tuesday, 19 April 2005Government is to spend over 500 million shillings on two international cases, State Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Adolf Mwesigye has said.

Appearing before Parliaments Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs, Adolf said the first case is currently being heard at The Hague where Uganda is alleged to have plundered DR Congos wealth during Operation safe Haven.

Mwesigye says the second case is at the International Criminal Court which is hearing a case against LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony.
He says offices for this court have already been set up.
==

Mbu simanyi, the UN has the ink on Kazini, Salim Saleh, Jeje, Joviah, and an assortment of other characters. The goodthing is that Our Man the Intrepid Ofwono Spokesman Per excellence is out of it. Any see the rumors at:

Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (S/2001/357)
www.reliefweb.int/w/Rwb.nsf/0/AB11819FBAC78BF985256A3000655C44?OpenDocument
DR of Congo: UN panel on illegal exploitation of resources gets new 6-month mandate
www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=5970Cr=DRCr1=Congo

For the Full 59-Page Security Council Report S/202/1146click on the language of your choice at:
http://www.un.org/Docs/journal/asp/ws.asp?m=S/2002/1146

As for that Kony chap, Museveni has had to despatch government lawayers to the international courts to defend Kony who is charged with crimes against humanity -- all at pizanti taxpayer cost. There are several problems, not the least of which the mountains of credible evidence. S, when did Museveni jump in bed with Kony?

One also hears persistent rumbles about the brutal murder of Kainerugaba's Motoro mother ... and about Uganda's complicity in the downing of the plane that killed two presidents setting off a genocidalorgy in Rwanda ...

By the way, many moons ago the government of kenya used to harrass 3 MPs who were dubbed "The Three Bearded Sisters". Funny thing was, everytime they were thrown into jail on some pretext, they were lionized and their popularity soared.

Do you think Kaguta's son will find himself in a similar position?

Johnson Mujungu [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

It is the forigners at it again! First they said Kisanja was not popular and now all this? Weas truePan-Africanist will make sure that whoever opposes us ends up in jail, even if for a few nights. Andbe warmed out there because"this orchestrated international misinformation crusade will fall onto its face before long".

JKM

MPs Okumu, Ocula jailed over murder

By Lominda Afedraru, Peter Nyanzi, Emmanuel Gyezaho Lydia Mukisa

COURT Two Members of Parliament were yesterday charged with murder and sent on remand at Luzira Prisons. Mr Reagan Okumu (Aswa County), also the deputy executive co-ordinator of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), and Mr Micheal Nyeko Ocula (Kilak County) are accused of murdering Alfred Bongomin on February 12, 2002 at Pabbo in Gulu district. But opposition colleagues and their lawyer said the charges were politically motivated. To me this is a case of political intimidation, lawyer Peter Walubiri said adding, The government and President Yoweri Museveni have been forced to the wall and are resorting to these kinds of tactics.

ASWA MP: Okumu

KILAK MP: OculaOkumu and Ocula appeared in the Buganda Road Chief Magistrates Court at 4.45 p.m.The Magistrate, Mr Emmanuel Baguma, did not allow them to enter any plea. This is a capital offence and this court has no jurisdiction to hear your plea, he said. You will apply for bail at the High Court if you wantThe Magistrate said the two MPs would reappear in court tomorrow.Outside the courtroom, Okumu kept smiling and talking to a host of sympathisers who included 10 opposition MPs. He told his colleagues and journalists that these were the birth pangs of democracy.Okumu also warned that his colleagues in the opposition to prepare themselves for such arrests.Ocula looked depressed as he waited to be transferred to Luzira.The two MPs are jointly charged with Mr Steven Otim Olanya, an LC I chairman of Green Valley Sub Ward in Gulu, Mr Oc
han
Layang of Ayeri and Mr David Ocheng, a local councillor in the same district.The three men were separately charged on April 6 before the same court and remanded at Luzira.The Prosecution led by Ms Jane Kajuga told Court that investigations into the matter were not complete.The 10 opposition MPs looked on helplessly as their colleagues were whisked away to Luzira in a police pick-up truck. Ms Salaam Busumba (Bugabula South) described the incident as an

[Ugnet] Marooned on baboon logic

Marooned on baboon logic
John Matshikiza: WITH THE LID OFF 	
/11 April 2005 10:59/
I remember hanging around in my white American friend Pauls house in 
Lusaka when we were about 12 years old and listening to a well-worn 
vinyl that had Bill Cosby or somebodys voice bubbling out of it in a 
live recording from a stand-up show he was doing somewhere in the US of A.

One scene springs to mind. It was the one where he was giving a take off 
of an inner city classroom and the frustrations of a white teacher 
trying to keep her multi-coloured charges under control and focused on 
what was supposed to be their learning, under her rapidly disintegrating 
guidance.

Forget the lesson. The real action was the chaotic interplay between the 
pupils in the back rows, or the front rows for that matter. What they 
thought about each other was of far more interest to themselves than the 
teachers rote strangulations about Abraham Lincoln, the Boston Tea 
Party, George Washington and the hidden meanings in Harriet Beecher 
Stowes instructive references out of Uncle Toms Cabin.

Inner city kids, black and white, spic, wop and Chicano, were more 
concerned about chicks in the playground and how they could tear each 
others throats out in the various gang wars that tumbled into the 
walled compounds of the precinct schoolyards from out of the tough 
streets they lived in.

So when the teacher was totally out of control, she would have to adopt 
the same guerrilla language of her charges.

Who threw that spit ball at the back of my head? asked the teacher.
Not me, came the barrage of predictable responses.
Oh, yes, it was one of you. Tell me who it was.
And the back of the class would close down in a new-found solidarity of 
denials.

Okay, the teacher would come back, the person who threw that spit 
ball must have a really stupid mother.

And, on cue, the biggest, stupidest boy in the back row of the class 
would lumber threateningly to his feet and say: No one calls my mother 
stupid. On the strength of which he was definitively busted.

One is reminded of this when one reads the responses to Professor 
Malegapuru Makgobas contention that some (and only some, please note) 
of his white countrymen of the male persuasion have a problem with 
adjusting to the uncomfortable realities of the new South Africa.

I dont remember when there was such a storm in the letters pages of 
this august newspaper. Previously seemingly sane white males have stood 
up on their hind legs and denied that they were in any way the kind of 
racist, narrow-minded, knee-jerk baboons that they said Makgoba was 
accusing them of being. And make no mistake, he did use the word 
baboons. And that is what caused all the rumpus.

He had not said that all white males are baboons (although perhaps he 
should have, so that everyone would have been clearer about what he was 
getting at), but merely that a minority among them acted like baboons. 
Or, as he clarified with repeatedly obscure scientific jargon, bonobos.

Nevertheless, impressive numbers of white South African males sprang to 
the defence of the endangered species that might be referred to as the 
white baboon. (And indeed, a few white baboonesses sprang to 
counter-defence by stating that it was not only a question of the white 
baboon, but that the double oppression of the white babooness in the 
emerging environment of the newly empowered black baboon was the real 
issue  although nobody quite used that kind of language.)

Me, myself, personally, I like the sound of this bonobos thing, rather 
than standing around at institutes of higher learning and calling people 
of other races baboons. Bonobos sounds more African to the ear, in the 
first place. So lets call it a problem of the bonobos versus the 
non-bonobos, so that we are all kicking around on the same, level 
playing field.

Now, the atmosphere on the streets (and let me assure you that I am one 
non-bonobo who keeps a tight ear to the ground, if that is not too much 
of a mixed metaphor) is that vast numbers of white male bonobos (and a 
considerable number of female white bonobos, too) feel strongly that 
Makgoba is deeply out of line for calling all white people in this 
country baboons. Especially since our new Constitution gives everyone 
the right to be whatever kind of baboon he or she wants to be. (Look 
around you. Youll know what I mean.)

The said Makgoba, this white street thinking goes, should be severely 
chastised personally by Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki and sent back to 
Zimbabwe where he belongs, along with the rest of his ilk, and leave 
South Africa to its new-found Africans of undisclosed colour, who revel 
proudly and unconditionally in their new-found African stripes, like a 
zebra.

But I say again: even the clumsiest reading of Makgobas (admittedly 
rather clumsy) argument will tell you that he was merely railing against 
a minority tendency within a minority (that is: white) constituency.

Why this backlash

[Ugnet] NEWS: Did Opondo accidendly lift this man's lunch?


The agony of working with Movt Secretariat
We soldiers and policemen working with the Movement Secretariat are treated like second hand citizens. Our lunch allowances for three months disappeared, and right now there are accusations and counter accusations amongst top officials about where the money went.We appeal to the President to come to our rescue as the situation is getting out of hand. 
Names withheld on requestMonitor Letter, April 21, 2005__Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] NEWs: Rewriting Ugandas history is a recipe for disaster

Rewriting Ugandas history is a recipe for disaster
By Frank Tumwebaze
The proposed return of former president Milton Obote has not only been politicised by those forces who want to easily derive cheap political capital out of it, but has also seen desperate efforts of some politicians trying to erase history under the cover of reconciliation. Reconciliation does not mean that people shouldn't be asked to account for their deeds, and more so crimes against humanity.
One fundamental ingredient of reconciliation is that aggressors should show remorse, admit guilt and then ask for forgiveness from the aggrieved. It is not about keeping off an eye at deliberate crimes committed, thus being insensitive to the emotions of those who suffered at the hands of those criminals, that will bring about reconciliation. Instead, the past should be well reflected on such that history does not repeat itself as they often say.Dr Milton Obote committed crimes against the people of Uganda, they are well documented and the victims who suffered but fortunately survived are here to tell their story . Whether Obote is forgiven by the Museveni government and the people of Uganda or not, is a different matter. The record of his crimes will remain and there is no harm in talking about them.
The ping- pong debate some politicians are trading in that Museveni too is responsible for the massacres of Luwero simply because he waged a pro-people war against the dictatorship is simply illogical. The good thing, President Museveni is in power now and he has a social contract with the people of Uganda. The record of his government for the last 19 years is an open secret for the whole world. The visibly clear line of distinction between Museveni and Obote is that the government of the former has established human rights monitoring institutions with full constitutional powers to check those in power, while the government of the latter survived on the very human rights violations. Detaining people without trial as well as denying them the right of habeaus corpus as it happened to the five Ministers: Grace Ibingira, Balaki Kirya, Emmanuel B.
Lumu, Mathias Ngobi and John Magezi when their lawyer John Kazoora tried to demand for trial by an application of habeas corpus with no success. Such acts characterised Obote's regime and they enabled him to sustain power for whatever period he managed to rule. Waging a war therefore, against such a dictatorship was the primary duty of every right thinking Ugandan at that time since everyone had been disenfranchised.
Fighting a guerilla war in Luwero did not call for Obote and his soldiers to sanction and execute organised mass killings in every sub-county of Luwero. Those who don't know this, perhaps need to be told that at every sub county of Luwero there is a mass grave of skulls, which could be easily found in piles in one place indicating that people were killed in one place, not even in battle in crossfire exchanges.This of course, could not have been an act of the Museveni guerillas who were hiding in the bushes running around not to be traced, otherwise the skulls and bodies would have been found scattered in the bushes as has been the case with LRA in the North. The fact that there was a war and that Obote was trying to defend his regime does not in anyway exonerate him from the crimes against humanity he committed.
If that argument was to hold, then the whole world would not be concerned or even talking about the genocide in Rwanda, apartheid in South Africa and many other crimes against humanity the world over. The perpetrators of those crimes like Habyarimana, Mobutu, Hitler, Millosovic, Sadam and others would easily get away with it on the basis of the same argument that they were defending their regimes. Indeed Obote was defending his regime and not the people, thus the rationale behind Museveni's protracted guerilla struggle.The other disgusting argument is this idea of advancing reasons like " what evidence is in place to pin down Obote as an abuser of human rights?", actually even shamelessly echoed by Obote himself in his recent newspaper serialised interviews, as if surely Ugandans do not know that a commission of inquiry was put in place to investigate human rights violations in
Uganda
since independence up to 1986, whose findings are overwhelming.
This commission was chaired by Justice Arthur Oder then judge of the High Court and other commissioners included Hon. Dr Khiddu Makubuya, Hon. Dr Jack Luyombya, Mrs Joan Kakwenzire, Hon. John Baptist Kawanga and Mr John Nagenda. The Hon. Edward Sekandi, now Speaker of Parliament was the Commission's lead counsel.
The evidence gathered by this commission through witnesses was amazing, and is available in big report volumes at the Human Rights Commission.
Witness after witness gave testimony to the commission about the dreadful murder of their relatives, family members, colleagues at work and so on. The degree of brutality and cruelty

[Ugnet] All very nice, but how do you know? ( from www.mg.co.za)

All very nice, but how do you know?
John Matshikiza: WITH THE LID OFF   
/18 April 2005 10:59/
The death and extraordinary worldwide outpouring of grief and ecstatic 
praise at the burial of Pope John Paul II in Rome brings the issue I 
raised on agnosticism recently to an unexpected focus.

Let me recap. I had recounted an escapade into the Gauteng hinterland 
that ended in the discovery of an African Orthodox monastery on the 
highveld. People came up to me in the street with born-again smiles on 
their faces, congratulating me for having finally been liberated from my 
semi-communist agnosticism and finding God. If I could be saved, their 
smiles said, so could almost anybody.

I was obliged to burst the bubble of their granfaloonism (check out your 
Kurt Vonnegut bible if you dont know what I mean) by advising them that 
dipping into an Orthodox religious experience, or any other, for that 
matter, did not imply a wholesale and permanent conversion to the 
straight and narrow path of belief and redemption. I was still prepared 
to take my chances in the sceptical world and remain an agnostic.

So what is this agnosticism? Being less than confident in my own 
understanding of the condition that I had staked a claim to, I took the 
precaution of looking it up in the dictionary. This is what the 
dictionary said:

Agnostic: one who holds that we know nothing of things beyond material 
phenomena  that a First Cause and an unseen world are things unknown 
and ... apparently unknowable.

This has always left us agnostics in a marginally superior (or inferior) 
position to those who call themselves atheists. An atheist is someone 
who totally, proudly and unequivocally believes that there is no such 
thing as God, or even a god, or gods.

An agnostic is a sceptic as far as common religious orthodoxy, the bread 
and butter of swamis, popes, nuns and monks, fakirs, sangomas and voodoo 
punters and houngan men alike, is concerned. An atheist, on the other 
hand, is probably a communist. So much for that.
People frequently confuse agnostics with atheists. While us agnos feel 
that this is unjust and unfair, bordering on random criminalisation, we 
feel, at the same time, that we ourselves cannot precisely put the 
finger on what the difference is. Its probably a very fine line.

But anyway, back to the issue of the agnostic who is prepared to walk 
into someone elses religion and not only respect it (where respect is 
appropriate), but possibly even gain something from it.

The problem the disorganised agnostic has with organised religion lies 
in the question of blind faith. If the unseen world is unknowable, how 
can you believe in it? Its all very well to deliver homilies such as 
God moves in mysterious ways and The mills of God grind slowly, yet 
they grind exceeding small (so watch out next time you spit in the 
street), but the agnostic already has difficulty with accepting that 
unexplained phenomena (a plague of boils, a bolt of lightning out of the 
sky or a tsunami) can be assigned to causes that are very much part of 
the real world we live in.

People can (and often do) move in mysterious ways, literally and 
metaphorically. But is it reasonable to expect that God should therefore 
do the same and be as petulant and unpredictable as the average human 
being? Youd expect more from the fellow if he, she or it really was 
all-seeing and all-knowing. And so on and so forth.

The attraction for the agnostic, on the other hand, is in some of the 
ritual that is attached to religious proceedings  the storytelling 
(reverting to the world of childhood fantasy) balanced, in skilful 
hands, with some penetrating philosophy and a couple of home truths; the 
intoxication of incense waved in your vicinity, the soaring music (where 
it is allowed), the mesmerising repetition of the words and the communal 
experience. At its best, it can be a form of personal or public meditation.

Then there are the icons and the symbols  real or imagined. At Ouidah 
in Benin, I walked through the voodoo garden, astonished at the 
postmodernist sculptures that represented the various deities of the 
voodoo world. I stood at the foot of the tall tree that is said to be 
what the revolutionary King Behanzin transformed into to evade capture 
at the hands of European slavers and colonists.
I also stood in the Temple of the Serpents, in the midst of dozens of 
live, writhing pythons, and took the guides word for it that during the 
night they roam freely into the streets of Ouidah to hunt for their 
supper. They dont harm people, and are back in their thatch-roofed 
temple with blissfully full stomachs by sunrise, all of their own accord.

Ive sweated it out in a Native American sweat lodge, sitting on a muddy 
hillside in total darkness with a couple of dozen strangers while a 
laid-back medicine man hummed to the spirits of the earth and the air 
and all the great and powerful forces of nature that we know so little 
about.

[Ugnet] Why a Black Magazine in South Africa Failed

   The miscarriage of a winning concept: Tribute
Thursday, 11 December @ 00:00:00
Topic: *Wits Research*
*
Introduction
*
/Tribute/ was born in February 1987. Greg Psillos, a Greek businessman 
and merchant turned publisher, owner of Enosi Publishers, owned the two 
major lifestyle magazines for wealth audiences: /De Kat/, targeting 
Afrikaans speakers and /Living/, targeting English readers. The vision 
for /Tribute/ was for it to become the lifestyle magazine of choice for 
the black middle-class elite. The magazine would feature social pages, 
and, according to Mehlaleng Mosotho, former /Tribute/ journalist, would 
avoid the troublesome clutter of things political.

/Tribute /sought to create a new image for black South Africans, 
opposing the degrading images in the mass media. /Tribute/ was intended 
to honour the successful and societys movers and shakers. Says founding 
editor of the publication Maud Motanyane, /Tributes/ philosophy at the 
time was very simple: There was no virtue in poverty. Where before 
people of wealth and success were ostracised and accused of aspiring to 
be white, after the launch of /Tribute/ these people were accepted and 
admired.

*The /Tribute/ story*
/Tribute /targeted wealthy, middle class people, upwardly mobile men and 
women aged 30 upwards. Following their 2002 re-launch they adjusted 
this, pursuing the wealthy within the 24 to 34 age bracket, despite of 
the small size of this segment. Explaining this change, /Tribute/ argued 
that you dont need to be 30 to belong to the middle class in SA today. 
The small size of the segment was a problem, as was the fact that as 
wealthy individuals these people have access to a range of media, 
including /DSTV/, and expensive glossy magazines. Thus competition for 
this group is stiff.

The earliest editions of /Tribute/ were between 96 and 112 pages long, 
later editions were sometimes up to 164 pages long. In 1997 /Tribute/ 
has a circulation of 10,537. This grew steadily and in 1997 circulation 
reached 17,458. In 1997 /Tribute /re-launched, and repositioned. The old 
slogan /Tribute/ to black excellence, was changed in 1997 to Its who 
you are. After the re-launch circulation began to decline, from 15,523 
in late 1997 to 5,832 in late 2000.

In 2000, there was no change of slogan but the cover layout and design 
changed, and a different font was introduced. Sales began to pick up, 
reaching 11,047 by the end of 2001. In 2002 the slogan changed again to 
Capture the moment, and circulation continued to grow, achieving 
14,434 at the end of 2002.

During these years of fluctuating demand /Tribute/ went through many 
changes of ownership and a series of editors, some of whom stayed only 
months. From 1987 Enosi Publishers owned /Tribute/, but they declared 
bankruptcy in 1991. Penta Publishers took over in 1992, but they too 
liquidated. In 1996 a consortium of Independent Newspaper Holdings and 
SCM capital bought Penta and in 1998 Pearl Mashabela took over the 
publishing of /Tribute/ as part of a black empowerment consortium that 
bought over the business of Penta from Independent Newspapers. The name 
of the publishers changes from Penta to Nothemba Media. Nothemba 
liquidated in 2003.

The following is a list of /Tribute/ editor from 1987 to 2003.
Maud Motanyane (1987-1991)

Rene Mathews (1997)
Nomakwanda Sithole, passed away (1991-1992)

Vusi Mona (1997-1999)
John Qwelane (1992-1995)

Sefako Nyaka (1999)
Sbu Mgadi (1995-1997)

Derric Thema (1999-2002)
John Qwelane (1997)

Mphoentle Mageza (2002-2003)

Thami Masemola (2003)
Note that there were four different editors during 1997, the time of the 
first major re-launch. With the tenuous and uncertain conditions at 
/Tribute/, advertisers were wary of investing in advertising space. 
Although managing to secure several loyal advertisers /Tribute/ found it 
difficult to generate much-needed support. Advertising became an even 
greater problem following the appointment of Pearl Mashabela, perhaps 
because Mashabela was a black woman.

The difficulties with ownership, editorship and advertising manifested 
in many ways. /Tribute/ often experienced cash flow problems, this 
sometimes meant that staff were not receiving their salaries. It became 
difficult for /Tribute /to secure committed and able staff. The lack of 
cash also meant production and distribution problems. Often the magazine 
reached the shelves late, because /Tribute/ was not able to pay for 
production and distribution. This lead to further advertiser mistrust.

The re-launches were undertaken to remedy these problems. However these 
strategies delivered mixed results.

*
Conclusion: why /Tribute/ failed
*
/Tribute /struggled throughout its life to find a market. They struggled 
to be accepted by audiences, and they struggled to establish themselves 
in the marketplace. The many strategy changes the publication underwent 
meant that advertisers could not be assured of an audience, and were 
therefore

[Ugnet] NEWS: Uganda's Privileged Thieves

Governments new anti-corruption strategy wont bite thieving elite

By Victor Karamagi

President Yoweri Museveni on April 6th launched the new National Strategy to Fight Corruption and Build Ethics and Integrity in public office 2004- 2007. This is second government strategy, after the first one, which covered the period 2001-2004.The strategy, which was drawn up by the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity, is a framework on which anticorruption actors are to carry out their mandates up to the end of 2007, says Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity Tim Lwanga.However, only days after the launch, the strategy whose overall aim is to "minimize levels of corruption and increase and increase transparency and integrity in public office, has come under criticism. Many legislators, pro anti-government alike questioned its effectiveness, and therefore government's commitment. This is a sort
of
government anticorruption blueprint, but does it address the real political problems on which corruption breeds? Will it make any difference or is it a waste of time?According to Lwanga, the strategy details a four-year plan being implemented and it a very crucial tool needed in the war against corruption."We are in a war fighting corruption and we must have a plan. W are going to sit down and come up with what is necessary to win the war," he says. But the real problems, which have been pointed out again and again are not addressed by the strategy, according to former IGG Augustine Ruzindana. What has now become sort of a 'theme song' in the corruption debate; the lack of political will is nowhere near mention in the strategy.

SAME OLD STORY: (L-R) Former IGG Augustine Ruzindana believes that the new report by Ethics Minister Tim Lwanga is a hoax. Maj. Kakooza Mutale is one of those whose court battle helped cripplethe anti-corruption fight.
"Whatever strategy they come up with, this government does not have the capacity to fight corruption. There is simply no political will at all levels of government from the center to the lower councils. They can have a strategy, but it will not be useful," he says.
The anti corruption blue print touches on the political environment as one of the factors that will affect its implementation. "Political commitment on the part of government and all parliamentary and local government institutions to take on issues of corruption and accountability in a consistent and vigorous manner is central to the success of the strategy," it says.
But a look at recent events suggests that such a statement is actually blunt, and the strategy therefore fails to address the problem. In the ongoing prosecution in which Emma Kato is accused of causing loss to government in the junk helicopter saga is puzzling because the DPP chose to leave out some people whom the Ssebutinde probe recommended for prosecution. Government has also not caused prosecution of other individuals implicated by various judicial probes.There is also another question that has been asked over and over: can government talk of political will given the cabinet recommendations to the constitutional review commission regarding the institution of the IGG? Although Cabinet later dropped some, the fact that cabinet could recommend such measures says volumes about government's apathy.Also, although the strategy calls for strengthening of the institutio
nal
framework, it does not call for any action concerning the row over the Leadership Code, in which some crucial sections were nullified during the Mutale petition. The Constitutional Court ruled that the IGG could not recommend to the President sacking of some officials because it would interfere with Presidential Prerogative. Jotham Tumwesigye, the IGG at that time, questioned government's commitment to support the institution of the IGG.Lwanga acknowledges that there were some loopholes in the code, a reason the AG chose not to appeal."You appeal when you feel the judgment is wrong. In this case, the judges were right. The legislators made mistakes in the code. But we are making constitutional amendments and they will take care of the loopholes," he says.What the strategy therefore refers to as a mere "perception that there is inadequate political commitment in support of anti corruption efforts" turns out to be not just a perception but
reality.This is what the strategy refers to as "the ambiguity in high level political commitment [which] is associated with an inability or unwillingness to penalize high profile corruption."But the strategy is spot on, noting that such ambiguity "increases public cynicism, and increases perceptions that grand corruption can be committed with impunity. The strategy must seek to increase political support and commitment for the anti corruption agenda." Such passing statements have led critics to point out that this is just another of government's rhetoric.Do these reports reflect a genuine desire on the part of government

Re: [Ugnet] NEWS: Did Opondo accidendly lift this man's lunch?

Hmm. On a ligher note, a friend in Kampala told me that in Owino market 
the new name for underpants is Opondo.

musamize wrote:
*The agony of working with Movt Secretariat*
We soldiers and policemen working with the Movement Secretariat are 
treated like second hand citizens. Our lunch allowances for three 
months disappeared, and right now there are accusations and counter 
accusations amongst top officials about where the money went.
We appeal to the President to come to our rescue as the situation is 
getting out of hand.

*Names withheld on request*
Monitor Letter, April 21, 2005
__
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com

___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] Why Museveni shakes when Obote talks

2005-04-20 Thread D.C. Bwayo

MONITOR News Opinions | April 20, 2005 


 
Why Museveni shakes when Obote talks
By George Okurapa  
Ever since The Monitor broke the story that Dr A.M
Obote was about to set foot back in Uganda from his
Zambian exile, the name of Obote and UPC has dominated
the media both locally and internationally. 

As if this was not enough, The Monitor started
publishing their ongoing series on the life of Dr A.M
Obote titled Obote: My story. This must-read series
has taken the country by storm and has left President
Yoweri Museveni and his government scampering with
contradictions on how to control the recent Obote
Storm.

 
NO LOVE LOST: president museveni (with cap) facing a
barrage of accusations  
First of all when the UPC leadership announced that
Obote was about to return, the government immediately
reacted by welcoming Obote's decision to return. The
government spokesman, Hon. Nsaba Buturo even took it
further and announced that the government had no
objection to Obote's proposed return and that Obote
would be accorded all the privileges of a former head
of state with no conditions imposed on his return. 

A week after making this announcement, Hon. Buturo was
at it again, this time contradicting himself and the
government position when he announced that should
Obote return, he will have to be made to answer for
the Luwero massacres during his administration. This
new turn in the government position was an echoof an
earlier statement President Museveni himself made in
1997 when he declared that he would shoot Obote dead
on sight if he dared step in Uganda. The only
difference is that in 1997, Museveni was going to be
the Court, the Judge and the Jury in Obote's summary
trial. This time round however, Museveni is willing to
let justice prevail.

The mother of all questions still remains to be
answered. Why is it that whenever Obote talks in
Lusaka, Museveni is thrown into panic? Let us look at
some of the facts. 

In 1997, I visited Dr Obote in Lusaka for one week and
had the opportunity of listening to wisdom flow from
his lips daily. I was present when Dr Obote addressed
the UPC Consultative Conference and seriously
challenged Museveni's governments so called economic
growth then. While opening the UPC Consultative
Conference, Obote posed a question challenging his
audience why there was such an impressive economic
growth rate in Uganda while at the same time there was
a rapid increase in rural poverty. 

After he posed the question, we all looked at each
other wondering who was willing to take the first
crack at answering it. But before anyone of us could,
Obote was at it. His explanation was that there were
four reasons to explain his answer. The first was that
because of the corrupt Museveni administration, most
of the money that was being collected as taxes was
ending up in the pockets of a few government officials
and as a result, Museveni's government remained
incapable of converting revenue into projects to help
raise rural incomes. Obote was not done. 

He went on to tell us that in addition to this,
Museveni's government lacked prioritisation in its
budgeting and as a result, instead of budgeting for
the extension of social services, the government was
concentrating on buying expensive cars and other non
priority spending. 

He then went on to say that because of the dictatorial
nature of the Museveni administration, by suppressing
the views of others, the government had caused the
escalation of armed conflict in the country and as a
result, a lot of money was being spent on financing
the unnecessary wars rather than on social spending. 
Then he concluded by taking a swipe at the 1987
currency reform. He told us that this currency reform
was the major cause of rural poverty because its
benefits were eaten up by inflation. Obote maintains
that it was wrong for the poor peasants to lose 30% of
their hard earned income because such a compulsory
take over of people's income hit the poor more than
the rich.

When Obote was done with his presentation, many of us
in the room were left gazing at the old man Obote
because of the eloquence and authority at the subject
matter that was evident in his presentation. No wonder
when the news reached Museveni when he was opening
Hotel Africana in Kampala in 1997, Museveni threatened
to shoot Obote on sight if Obote dared to step foot in
Uganda. Instead of addressing the subject matter that
Obote had eloquently raised, Museveni instead chose to
talk about Obote's hair and his style of combing. 

The same thing is happening now. Instead of responding
to what Obote has raised in the ongoing series on
Obote's life that The Monitor is running, Museveni has
demanded an apology from The Monitor with a threat to
sue. 

What Museveni misses here is that every Ugandan is
free to express themselves and there is no reason why
The Monitor must apologize for publishing the views of
other Ugandans. What the paper is publishing is not
their own creation. They are simply

[Ugnet] Mis)reporting the Zim Elections (www.mg.co.za)

   Mis)reporting the Zim Elections
Professor Tawana Kupe 	
/01 March 2005 08:01/
It's election time again in crisis-ridden Zim. So what's new? South 
African and foreign media have less interest then they did in the 2000 
parliamentary elections and 2002 presidential elections. Even the 
announcement by the main opposition that it would now contest the 
elections didn't make front-page news.

Of course, the lack of interest might partly be the result of the 
successful expulsion of foreign journalists and media from Zimbabwe, 
through the use of the stringent provisions of the Access to Information 
and Privacy Act. In short, foreign and South African media have 
succumbed to the restrictions.

But another reason is one that has very much to do with this troubled 
transition in Zimbabwe and its implications for South Africa. In 2000 
and 2002 the foreign and South African media had an overwhelming 
interest in Zimbabwe because of the possibility that the ruling party 
and President Mugabe could be toppled from power after two decades in 
office. The defeat of Zanu-PF would have been nothing short of 
revolutionary.

For those that would like to be alive on the day the ANC loses an 
election, it would have been a sign that defeat can indeed happen to a 
party that's waged diplomatic, mass internal and armed struggles. Proof 
that liberation movements are not infallible. To some, especially Tony 
Leon, Douglas Gibson and Ryan Coetzee of the Democratic Alliance (and 
not forgetting Professors Lawrence Schlemmer and R. W. Johnson) 
Zanu-PF's fall would have been conclusive evidence that democracy is 
possible in Africa.

Now it appears that this prospect has somewhat receded, because until 
early February the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), the principal 
opposition, was not contesting the elections. It appears that the MDC 
has lost momentum and Mugabe has regained the upper hand through closing 
down space to organise. So, to the media, the elections have become 
something of a non-story.

It's here I have a problem with reporting of the Zimbabwean story. It 
focuses on dramatic value, rather than what it can teach us about 
struggles for transition from one-party domination to political 
diversity and the role of the media in such processes. This story has 
been reported as if the defeat of Mugabe would result overnight in a 
democratic dispensation.

Little regard has been paid to similar contexts in Southern Africa, 
where a long ruling party and leader were defeated and replaced by 
corrupt buffoons masquerading as democrats. Zambia is a case in point. 
The media have failed to contextualise the situations where 
authoritarian stability has been replaced by chaotic instability 
presented as democratic pluralism.

There has also been a failure to properly report on the full 
implications of the SADC guidelines on elections, not only in Zimbabwe's 
case but also in the case of elections conducted in Botswana, Namibia 
and Mozambique in 2004. These guidelines are critical in that they were 
agreed to by all heads of state in the SADC region, and therefore set 
benchmarks for free and fair elections. They especially address 
electoral processes and institutions, rather than the single event of 
voting on election day.

Publication of the guidelines would enable the media and audience to 
judge for themselves whether elections reflect the choices of the 
voters. Instead, the media tends to report the accusations traded by 
political parties about election conditions. While such allegations are 
interesting, it's a fact that at election time parties do trade 
accusations - it's part of the game plan. But where one has guidelines, 
one can independently test the allegations.

In the case of the Zimbabwe elections, were are fed daily with 
accusations by the MDC, civil society and the private media and 
counter-accusations by Zanu-PF, electoral bodies and state media. This 
is called balanced reporting. Both sides of the story, as the saying 
goes. Who is one to believe in the absence of an independent test?

/Professor Tawana Kupe is Head of the School of Literature, Language and 
Media Studies at Wits University./

___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] SA backs former Zim minister for AfDB head (www.mg.co.za)

SA backs former Zim minister for AfDB head
Lynn Bolin | Cape Town, South Africa 	
/20 April 2005 01:53/
South Africa is backing former Zimbabwean finance minister Simba Makoni 
in the upcoming election of the new president of the African Development 
Bank Group (AfDB), the multilateral development finance agency focusing 
on the African continent, the AfDB said on Wednesday.

Makoni, who is also the candidate of the Southern African Development 
Community (SADC), is visiting South Africa this week as part of his 
international lobbying efforts to succeed current AfDB president Omar 
Kabbaj, the former deputy minister of finance of Morocco.

Kabbaj has held the position since 1995, having been appointed to two 
five-year terms.

Makoni said he would like to play a leading role in keeping Africa on 
its current growth trajectory, at the same time tackling poverty through 
development of the region.

According to the International Monetary Fund's latest /Africa Regional 
Economic Outlook/ report, economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa jumped 
to an eight-year high of 5% in 2004, while average inflation fell to a 
25-year low.

Makoni said he supports the AfDB's efforts to become the premier 
institution for development in Africa, providing quality assistance to 
its members in their attempts to meet the United Nations's Millennium 
Development Goals.

I believe that the aspects of its work in which the bank can lead have 
to do with the quality and impact of its support to regional member 
countries, rather than volume of financial resources. The bank can and 
should also be leading in providing development ideas, he observed.

Makoni was selected by finance ministers and central bank governors of 
the seven countries making up the SADC -- South Africa, Botswana, 
Namibia, Tanzania, Lesotho, Malawi and Mauritius -- in a three-way race. 
He is currently MD of his own Harare-based business development 
consultancy, Makonsult, which he established in 1997, and was the 
finance minister of Zimbabwe from 2000 to 2002.

He was also a member of Zimbabwe's first post-independent Parliament and 
government, serving as a minister from 1980 to 1984 in various posts, 
including the ministries of agriculture, industry and energy.

As the executive secretary of the SADC, he steered the organisation 
through a difficult political period during South Africa's transition 
from apartheid state to an independent democracy. His achievements 
include transforming the SADC from a loose informal club to a 
treaty-based legal entity.

The eighth president of the AfDB will be elected for a five-year term at 
the bank's annual meetings in Abuja on May 18 and 19. There are six 
other candidates for the AfDB post: Ghana's Kingsley Amoako (sponsored 
by Zambia, Ethiopia and Uganda); Nigeria's Olabisi Ogunjobi, (Senegal, 
Benin, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Mauritania); Egypt's Ismael Hassan 
(Djibouti); Donald Kaberuka of Rwanda (Kenya and Seychelles); Cameroon's 
Theodore Nkodo (Burundi); and Gabon's Casmir Oye-Mba (Morocco, Burkina 
Faso, Congo, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde).

Makoni said he would ensure strong and continued cooperation between the 
bank and other African continental bodies, especially the African Union, 
the Regional Economic Communities and the Economic Commission for 
Africa. He would ensure that the programmes of the bank are designed, 
and investments undertaken, within the context of the New Partnership 
for Africa's Development.

The AfDB Group, which comprises the African Development Bank, the 
African Development Fund and the Nigeria Trust Fund, was established in 
1964 by the Organisation of African Unity to mobilise resources to 
finance Africa's development and social progress.

It currently has 53 African member states as shareholders as well as 24 
non-African countries, including the United States, China, India, 
Brazil, Germany, The Netherlands, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The bank's authorised capital currently stands at about $33-billion. 
Between 1967 and 2004, the bank approved loans and grants amounting to 
$53-billion.

The organisation -- which was in jeopardy in the early 1990s -- has, as 
a result of extensive reforms from 1994, now become one of the only 
AAA-rated financial institutions in Africa.

South Africa joined the AfDB in 1995, and in 2001 increased its 
shareholding from 0,88% to 4,1% of the total shares, becoming the 
fifth-largest shareholder after Nigeria, the US and Japan.

South Africa qualifies for non-concessionary funding from the AfDB in 
the form of slightly preferential agreements, payment periods and 
interest rates.

Although South Africa does not qualify for the more generous 
concessionary funding from the AfDB or the African Development Fund, it 
contributes to the African Development Fund. Its membership also allows 
South African companies to bid for contracts on AfDB-sponsored projects 
in other African countries. -- I-Net Bridge

[Ugnet] Capt. Njuba Decries War


Capt. Njuba Decries War














Email This Page Print This Page VisitThePublisher'sSite 







New Vision (Kampala)
April 20, 2005 Posted to the web April 20, 2005 
Charles ArikoKampala 
VETERAN freedom fighter Capt. Gertrude Njuba has said it is a shame that Uganda has resorted to military means to resolve conflict.
Njuba, who was one of the early fighters to join the National Resistance Army in the 1980's to wage war against Dr. Milton Obote's government, on Thursday said peace had continued to elude Ugandans, especially those in the north.











 
"We have gotten lost. We have forgotten our true nature. We have misused the gracious gift of free will given to us by God," Njuba told a women's conference at Ranch on the Lake in Kampala.__Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] When Museveni Reported Kagame to the British

When Museveni Reported Kagame to the British

Email This Page Print This Page VisitThePublisher'sSite

The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMNApril 20, 2005 Posted to the web April 19, 2005
Andrew M. Mwenda
It is August 28, 2001 and President Yoweri Museveni is seated at State House, Nakasero, penning down a letter to British Secretary for Overseas Development, Claire Short.
"I am embarrassed to have to communicate with you about the deteriorating situation in the bilateral relations between Uganda and the Government of Rwanda," the letter begins without ceremony.
"We have no doubt that Rwanda is planning aggression against us either using proxies or even directly," President Museveni drops his bomb shell.
"There are some Ugandan army officers who ran from here, jumping bail or fleeing potential persecution for a number of crimes, to Rwanda," the letter continues.
Well, we know that already, so what is new? "Since some months ago, these officers, who we hear were given amnesty in Rwanda, have been frantically telephoning many serving officers in Uganda asking them to betray their country by spying for Rwanda and fighting our government and people," the President writes.
Now this is new!
What is more? "Furthermore, they have been recruiting Ugandan youth and taking them to Kigali for military training."
Really? Well Yoweri is not yet done, so he gives more ink: "We are now sure that they have opened three training centres around Kigali with the full support of the Rwanda government."
This is getting serious! And Yoweri, son of Esteri Kokundeka and Amos Kaguta has very good intelligence. "We hear that they have also opened another centre for the same purpose in Rutshuru, a part of eastern Congo they control." Jeez!!
"Meanwhile, their intelligence is very aggressively inquiring about the strength of various army units of ours and so on," the President writes and now comes to the crunch.
"Right Honourable Minister, we have just defeated the protracted terrorism organised against us by Sudan, both in the west of Uganda and in the north. We cannot countenance nor tolerate another round of terrorism this time organised by Mr. Kagame whom we sacrificed so much to stand with when the whole world was either against their cause or indifferent to it," the letter warns.
"I am therefore writing to you for two reasons," President Museveni now zeros in on the real beef of this five-page letter concerning an eminent round of terrorism to Uganda from Rwanda, "First of all, to inform you about the sad and childish developments here which, nevertheless, are very grave for this region."
Sad and childish, but grave for the region!!

Relevant Links

Central Africa East Africa Crime and Corruption Post-Conflict Challenges Rwanda Europe and Africa Uganda
So what is the second reason?
Next week in Strange But True!__Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] Uganda Troops Accused of Rape

Uganda Troops Accused of Rape

Email This Page Print This Page VisitThePublisher'sSite

The Nation (Nairobi)
April 21, 2005 Posted to the web April 20, 2005
Barbara AmongKampala
Legislators from war torn northern Uganda today accused army soldiers of raping women and children in the internally displaced peoples camps.
"It is a sad situation in the camps, yesterday's case of gang rape by the UPDF was just the limit, it brought tears to our eyes," said Mr Omara Atubo, one of the legislators from the region.
The legislators from the districts of Lira, Gulu, Kitgum and Pader, which have seen the brunt of the 18-year old rebellion against president Yoweri Museveni's government, told parliament that the women in camps are raped by government soldiers who first torture their husbands.
"This is not a new thing, I have reported this to the minister of defence, I wrote to them on March 10th 2005, but got no response, I have complained particularly about the UPDF's 11th battalion in Gulu," said Mr Reagan Okumu, MP for Aswa county in Gulu district.
The latest case of gang rape by the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) was brought before parliament the MP for Kitgum district, Ms Jane Akwero, who said soldiers from the 91st battalion attacked Padibe camp in Padibe sub-county 20 kilometres from Kitgum town, where they beat up men and raped women, robbed them of their money and property.
"The soldiers were from an operation in Larach hills, when they went on rampage and pulled out women, some of them, pregnant and raped them."
When the battlefield turns to be the women's bodies, where will the women turn to," said Ms Akwero.
Ms Akwero said 18 women were raped and one of them was gang raped by seven soldiers who stole from her USh 10,000 ($5). She said another woman was robbed of 15,000 ($8), after being raped.
Kitgum is 453 kilometres north of Kampala. She said this is the first time that such a big number of women have been raped in a single case.
Meanwhile, late today, Mr Okumu was among two MPs arrested and remanded at Kampala's Central Police Station on murder charges.

Relevant Links

East Africa Civil War and Communal Conflict Arms and Military Affairs Women and Gender Uganda Crime and Corruption
Arrested with Mr Okumu, was Mr Nyeko Ochula Michael, MP for Kilak, a county in Gulu district.
The MPs have been charged with murder of Movement chairman Alfred Bongomin.__Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] Ambassador Calls for Peaceful Karimojong Disarmament

Ambassador Calls for Peaceful Karimojong Disarmament

Email This Page Print This Page VisitThePublisher'sSite

The Monitor (Kampala)
April 21, 2005 Posted to the web April 20, 2005
Lilian Najjuma Sylvester OnyangKampala
The Irish Ambassador, Mr Martin O'Fainin, has insisted that the government abandons forceful disarmament of the Karimojong.
He said the only way to return peace in the Karamoja and Teso region is by peaceful disarmament.

This is contrary to a new strategy by the UPDF who are opting to use force to disarm the warriors. He was speaking during the hand over of a laptop computer to Mr Robert Ekongot, the Director of Katakwi Urafiki Foundation in Kampala yesterday.
The Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, last week launched the new forceful disarmament phase in Moroto town.

Relevant Links

East Africa Civil War and Communal Conflict Arms and Military Affairs Food, Agriculture and Rural Issues Uganda Europe and Africa Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution
Nakapiripirit Resident District Commissioner, Mr Michael Bwalatum, said the forceful disarmament was because the warriors were not complying with the government order to surrender their guns.
"The ultimatum has ended and it is time for us to remove these guns once and for all for peace to prevail in Karamoja," Bwalatum said.__Do You Yahoo!?Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___
Ugandanet mailing list
Ugandanet@kym.net
http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet
% UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/

[Ugnet] Movement Schemes to Oust District Opposition Officials

Movement Schemes to Oust District Opposition Officials

Email This Page Print This Page VisitThePublisher'sSite

The Monitor (Kampala)
April 21, 2005 Posted to the web April 20, 2005
Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi Sam AmanyireBushenyi
Top Movement officials plan to get "uncooperative" councillors off district councils ahead of the consideration of constitutional amendments that require the approval of the district councils.
The Monitor has learnt that the ruling Movement figures that if its succeeds in purging district councils of opposition elements, the districts would easily endorse the constitutional amendments on the proposed regional tier.

For a YEAR IN REVIEW excerpt from the Africa 2005 guidebook, click here.(Adobe Acrobat).
To buy the book, click here.
High on the hit list are district council Speakers and their deputies who belong to the opposition.
The Minister of Lands and Environment, Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire, is reportedly heading the purge and is said to have launched the scheme in Bushenyi district on Saturday.
The Movement spokesperson, Mr Ofwono Opondo, told The Monitor that it was okay for a political party to undermine those who do not agree with its thinking.
He said such maneuvers were healthy provided they were carried out legally and democratically.
Otafiire reportedly met top Movementists in Bushenyi on Saturday night until the following morning. The long meeting resolved first to oust the Bushenyi district Speaker, Mr Odo Tayebwa.
Tayebwa is a member of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
Opondo said he was not aware of the Saturday meeting but maintained that the principle was okay. "They are right to fight the speaker politically and democratically...we are going to organise to fight and undermine those who do not agree with us politically just like they are also organising to fight us," he said.
Mr Chapaa Karuhanga, the coordinator of the G6, a loose alliance of the six major opposition parties, said the parties were aware of the scheme.
The grand scheme reportedly involves getting opposition speakers removed from office through censure while some are arrested on alleged rebel links.
Opposition officials say Rukungiri Speaker George Owakukiroru was deliberately removed by linking him to the rebel People's Redemption Army (PRA). He was arrested last December.
Otafiire could not be reached for comment. He was reported to be out of the country. Bushenyi Woman MP, Mary Karooro Okurut, confirmed she attended the night-long Saturday meeting but declined to divulge any details. She referred The Monitor to councillor Peter Rwakifari, who did not return our calls.
Sources at the meeting, which was attended by 34 councillors and four MPs from the district, said it was unanimously resolved that Tayebwa should be censured unless he agreed to join the Movement.
Otafiire reportedly told the concillors that it was not possible for Tayebwa to preside over Council meetings as Speaker and favour Movement positions since he is a professed FDC mobiliser.
Tayebwa, told The monitor that he stormed the same meeting at 10p.m to find out why Otafiire was convincing councillors to censure him. He said Otafiire chased him. "He chased me from the meeting and said they were discussing Movement issues that don't concern me as an FDC supporter," Tayebwa said.
After chasing Tayebwa, Otafiire reportedly asked his army bodyguards to cordon off the area and keep out such infiltrators. The soldiers kept guard until 4am in the morning when the meeting ended.
According to another councilor, Mr Pastor Mugisha, Otafiire ordered all the councillors to sign a list indicating they had agreed to censure the Speaker and 32 out of 34 in attendance signed.
The Movement is reportedly concerned that hostile speakers could stand in the way of some constitutional amendments the government wishes to pass through the district councils.
One councillor, Mr Siraje Banyanga, who attended the meeting quoted Otafiire as saying: "A Moslem cannot lead celebrations of a Catholic mass and if you fail to censure Odo I will use other means to remove him from office."
Recently efforts were made to censure the Speaker of Kasese district council, Mr Augustine Musema, who is also reportedly linked to FDC. Musema said he believed he was being targeted because of his political affiliation.
FDC's Karuhanga, who also hails from Bushenyi, said the opposition was not surprised at the move to purge district councils of opposition officials. "I called Kahinda Otafiire on phone and he confirmed to me that this is not only for Bushenyi but for the whole country," he said.
Karuhanga said the opposition knows that the few supporters they have at different levels of political decision making got their way there on the Movement ticket and therefore are prone to harassment.
He said: "The Movement is revealing its true colours; we cannot expect to be enfranchised by the current Parliament or district councils because these are

[Ugnet] Karimojong Kill Two in Raid