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..................Part one of the second
part
It is always pays to give the devil his due worth.
Museveni has an amazing instinct of survival like that found in animals. When
confronted by a superior force he will run away to gain another day, but he will
relentlessly hunt down those inferior to him to their deaths. He will hunt down
his opponents; and these include those opposed to him and those with whom he has
worked with but have proved to be cleverer or smarter than him.
In
order to plan to cheat and to destroy his enemies, Museveni knows that
‘information is power’ and will search and manipulate information. He will pay
heavily for it if necessary. In this matter he excels and will not trust a
single being. He would want to know even what happens in his closest
collaborators’ or worst enemy’s bed. While he kept his own marriage of political
expediency and convenience to Janet secret, he ruined Kategaya’s happy marriage,
and many more. The moment he seized power, he
consolidated and established permanent lobbies in Washington, London and
Brussels, and at the IMF/World Bank. He has overlapping cobwebs of Intelligence
Network (internal ISO based on the pyramidal LC system and external ESO), a
string of local and foreign journalists, writers, clerics, former colonial
administrators and teachers, businessmen (the Bill Cash, Linda Chalker, Michael
Heseltine, British Asians, Public Relations Bureau (Image Makers), who all do
his propaganda, speaking glowingly about him and inform him. The other day he
boasted to his listeners in South Africa and said that ‘our(Museveni’s)
Intelligence is thorough’. Museveni has paid more money to run these services
than the actual and entire NRA/UPDM annual budgets. His letter to Clare Short
for more money should be understood in this context. He said
it in his first budget speech 1986 that his first priority is defence, and
second, defence, and third, defence, then others may follow. He was talking
about the Defence of himself that was very important, that must
be offensive, thorough, ruthless and vindictive. On capturing state power,
Musveni set himself to pursue the remnants of the defeated, decimated and
humiliated Bazilio forces to death. He did not take hid of the advice given him
by the emergency Northern Consultative Group Ad Hoc Committee (NCG), under the
Chairman of Mzee Wacha-Olwol. NCG was formed primarily to plead with Museveni to
spare the lives of the wives and children of the fleeing soldiers, give them
protection and food, and stop the unnecessary abuse, rape and killings that were
going on of people identified as being non-bantu or Anyanya. However, the NCG
took the liberty to advise Museveni that the victorious NRA could be
misunderstood if it carried its revenge- like onslaught far and deep into the
countryside of strong UPC area and the true North. The ordinary civil society
who had nothing to do with Bazilio’s military coup, may resist or even reject
NRA for fear that it had come to kill them. It would be
prudent and politically correct, if the NRA stopped at Soroti, then ordered the
fleeing soldiers to lay down their arms and report, possibly for a re-absorption
into a new Uganda army. The NCG was confident that many fleeing soldiers would
have surrendered to the NRA, at this stage, without a single short, as the
majority of them were innocent and were merely dragged into the Bazilio coup by
the dynamics of military command, discipline and deceit. Some of these soldiers
openly regretted and lamented over their folly for not having resisted Bazilio
in early 1985. They had believed the trickery and ploy that Bazilio’s forces
were coming to Kla (only as a rebellion) only to demand better terms for the
military and the removal of certain bad ministers and officers, until it was too
late to react when they saw a full blown coup detat unravel that overturned an
elected government that many had in fact supported and celebrated its election
in 1980. It is said that even
Tito regretted the coup and blamed it on Bazilio. Bazilio later openly lamented his folly
for having entered a conspiracy he did not quite understand. He was deceived and
for that he swore in anger that he would never take the holy sacrament from
Cardinal Nsubuga again in his life. (the swearing became true, both are now
dead). Museveni’s prime
enemy who was of immediate danger to him, however, was now Nsubuga’s ‘blue-eyed
boy’ Kayira and his UFA/M, and the late Nkwanga’s FEDEMU. On failing to
infiltrate the UFM/FEDEMU, he formed of them a new brigade and it was adorned in
new Korean fatigues and brandishing new guns. The brigade was dispatched off to
Naamukora, a remote part of Northern Uganda, away from the reach of Kayira and
Dr Lwanga (the faceless man behind Fedemu). While there, similar Luwero tricks
were used on it. NRA Special Duties committed heinous atrocities against and
massacres of innocent peasants in a bizarre revenge in that area. This was
blamed on the brigade. Soon Kayira’s Officers were arrested and brought back in
handcuffs to Luzira Maximum Prison. The UFM/FEDEMU brigade was infiltrated and
dismantled. The selected younger soldiers were dispersed to the various units of
the NRA and the rest were dismissed with disgrace. That was the end and demise
of UFM/FEDEMU. Kayira the brutal tribalist was left dangerously exposed and at
Museveni’s mercy. Kayira the Minister, of course, was meanwhile busy committing
crimes, looting and accumulating property. He ordered the removal and transfer
to Mukono of a Power transformer which had already been installed at Lira S/S to
stabilize and boost Electricity supplies to Lira, Gulu, Kitgum, and Soroti,
leaving this area in darkness. By maintaining a warm
relationship with the Kisozi Farm Group, Museveni personally kept an eye on
Cardinal Nsubuga and lulled Kayira to sleep. Kayira was assassinated in style.
No one person to date has been apprehended for that foul murder. Nsubuga’s frail
heath soon gave in in frustration, desperation and agony of failure. Museveni
had taken them for a long long ride after which nothing could be reversed. He
used them as long as they were still useful. As Museveni himself likes to put it
‘they (the DP/Baganda) are like ‘sugar cane’; you chew it as long as it is still
yielding juice, and then you spit the chaff out’. Of course he has a metaphor
for UPC as well, ‘they (UPC) are like nsenene, you put them in a gourd and they
will soon be biting at each others tails and wings, and are oblivious to the
bigger danger that threatens them all’. Of course Nsubuga did not lose
everything. He should have died a proud and a happier man. He contributed to the
ousting of the UPC from power a second time, thus fulfilling the dream he had
held since the early days at Kisubi at the founding of the DP. He has left the
DP a lot stronger than it was two decades ago. The DP now holds sway at the
Kabaka’s Palace at Mengo. Nsubuga succeded where many years before him I.
Mugwanya had failed. It is said without Cardinal Nsubuga and Lt. Gen Bazilio
Olara Okello, there would have been no President Museveni. A lot still remains
to unravel. The NRA was received in the
North with mixed feelings. Those who knew and supported Bazilio’s coup were
utterly shocked at the sudden turn of events for the worse. Some people
celebrated Bazilio’s fall, more as mocking the great old soldier run for his
life.The majority people, however, did not welcome the NRA as they had not
welcomed Bazilio. They had been happy to see the back of Amin in 1979, after
nine years of brutal military dictatorship and destruction of Uganda’s economy.
The people here voted massively in the 1980 elections hoping that they would
finally get rid of the soldiers from meddling in politics This was not to be.
They were extremely suspicious and anxious as to what would now happen. So,
there was that atmosphere of ‘wait and see’, because they regarded the matter as
mainly a military affair, an army against an army, both being devils one could
not choose from, but which have sand-witched them. Bazilio’s reconstituted UPDA
attacked NRA at Bibia in Attiak and quickly moved to surround Gulu. The NRA
proposed a peaceful disengagement and settlement of the confrontation. A meeting
took place between Salim Saleh and Kazini of the NRA and Okello-Okeno, Kilama
etc of the UPDA at Unyama NTC 10 km north of Gulu. UPDA officers were offered
free access into Gulu Municipality, transport and other niceties. Salim Saleh
let it be vaguely known that he himself has wanted to over throw his brother
Museveni’s government, and was asking his fellow soldiers of the UPDA to join
him, so that matters would now be entirely in military hands. Some officers
swallowed the lie bate and clinker. Okello-Okeno, Kilama etc took money from
Saleh. This way the UPDA was infiltrated, undermined, and before their overall
commander Brigadier Odong-Latek could rule over this matter, the UPDA soldiers
had laid down their arms and surrendered to the NRA en mass, and Okeno signed a
‘peace agreement’ (or is it instrument of surrender) with Museveni who had flown
in to Gulu specially for this occasion. It was painfully witnessed by no other
than the ailing Bishop Cipriano Kihangire of the Diocese of Gulu, who six months
earlier had given sanctuary to Bazilio’s coup making. And that was the effective
end of UPDA. The ex-UPDA officers were eventually killed one by one, including
Kilama who was hunted down like a stray dog by the shores of lake Victoria in
Jinja and his bullet- riddled remains, together with that of his seven men, was
left to rot in the bush. Salim Saleh was not any where near to stop the
executions of those he had invited to help him overthrow Museveni. Salim Saleh
and his original team are up in the North again with the same tricks. (The
moment Saleh stepped in Gulu, it was announced that a very senior officer of the
LRA (Tolbert !) was due to surrender to him. It was also announced that Saleh,
who had a month earlier declared himself bankrupt, was distributing (his) food
to the poor and hungry in Northern Uganda. The terror that the NRA unleashed on the civil population in the North had its repercussions. The NRA was resented and rejected and fear led to the rise of resistance and quiet but determined civil uprisings, notably the Holy Spirit Movement and the Lords Resistance Army (LRA). Very serious attempt to infiltrate the NRA was made through a Mrs Betty Bigombe, who was to negotiate surrender. Another attempt was through the Kacoke Madit (KM). As soon as the idea of the KM was mooted in the Americas, Museveni rushed his Acoli Minister, Dr Martin Aliker to influence matters from the insception to support Museveni’s point of view and form an international forum to condemn the Acoli generally and the LRA in particular. Dr Obita was used extensively to infiltrate and destroy the LRA. KM has its independent life, not controllable by the Acoli. It’s conferences are being funded by Museveni and its offices and staff in London are being funded at a cool £100,000 pa by the Commonwealth Fund which is known for its sympathy and support for Museveni. It is through the KM that the Acoli traditional Leaders are being infiltrated and influenced to toe Museveni’s lines in exchange for generous food and cash handouts, and short ‘study’ tours to UK and USA. Cont. The Mulindwas
communication group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" |
