By Henry H. Ssali
Oct 21, 2003 -Monitor
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KAMPALA � Col. Kizza Besigye is ready to meet with President Yoweri Museveni, a Reform Agenda official has said. �If President Museveni wants to meet Besigye, he is willing,� Mr Reagan Okumu told journalists at the Reform Agenda offices in Kampala yesterday. Besigye is the chairman of the Reform Agenda and a losing candidate in the 2001 presidential election. He has been exiled mainly in South Africa since he fled the country in August 2001, citing harassment from the security services. �Besigye has no personal problem with Museveni; therefore such a meeting will have to take a national dimension,� said Okumu, who is the Reform Agenda secretary for Foreign Affairs. �He [Besigye] will meet him as the chairman of the Reform Agenda and he will be accompanied by a delegation.� Added Okumu: �The President should not keep saying that Reform is not interested in dialogue.� Okumu, who also is the MP for Aswa, claimed that Mr Museveni is �extremely desperate to meet Besigye�. �They have been looking for Besigye using small people and intelligence; they should pass through the proper channel which is the Reform Agenda.� Okumu said that Besigye has welcomed the 25-member government team announced last week to lead negotiations on the roadmap to political pluralism. Okumu said Besigye has constituted a five-member team to meet with the government side. He did not, however, give the names of the members. Instead, he claimed credit for mooting the idea of the opposition having a dialogue with the state. �We [Reform Agenda] met the President in May and it [the dialogue] was one of our recommendations,� he said. Okumu said a neutral person should chair the talks. He said that the third term project and power sharing should not be the only issues on the agenda. He said the escalating human rights abuses; separation of powers, independence of police and army should be discussed too. He also expressed reservations about the government�s consultative team, saying the majority of its members are hardliners. He said Museveni might be only interested in pleasing donors. �If the team is not serious, we shall walk out,� he said. Okumu said that the Reform Agenda will register as a political party only if Besigye is the party leader. Currently, the Political Parties and Organisations Act does not allow people living abroad to lead parties. �We are not going to register under any law that denies Besigye to be our leader,� he said. The Reform man said that his group is interested in teaming up with other opposition groups to defeat the Movement. Okumu said a team has been constituted to consult with other opposition groups. At the same news conference, the Reform Agenda announced a new committee to do the pressure group�s work in Kampala. It is chaired by Mr Fred Salongo Ssaka, with Mr Livingstone Kizito as his deputy. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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