When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
Increasing military spending would further drain our meagre resources.
It is clear that the Acholi support the LRA -- judging from what is being
written on Ugandanet by netters from the area, and the fact that Kony has
survived for nearly 2 decades, despite all sorts of efforts to vanquish
him.
It'd be cheaper to ask the Acoli just what it is they want and reach
negotiated settlement. The peace divident could then be directed to growth and
development, e.g. family planning in Kigezi, rural clinics, etc.
What do you think?
----Original Message Follows----
From: Omar Kezimbira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: ugnet_: US Resumes 'Modest' Military Aid to Uganda
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 11:39:20 -0800 (PST)
Regional - EastAfrican - Nairobi - Kenya
Monday, November 3, 2003
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US Resumes 'Modest' Military Aid to UgandaBy WAIRAGALA WAKABI
THE EASTAFRICAN
DONORS TO Uganda have promised to allow the country to increase its
defence expenditure but only after the outcome of the ongoing Defence Review,
which will determine whether the country needs to spend a higher proportion of
its gross domestic product on defence.
Currently, Uganda can spend only two per cent of its GDP on
defence, but President Yoweri Museveni says that this means his government
cannot modernise the army in order to deal with the rebels operating in the
north of the country.
In a lengthy statement to the press last week, President Museveni
said that the Ugandan army was now stronger partly because donors had allowed
the country to spend more on defence.
"Our potential today is even greater than at any time before.
Opposition by donors to build our army is being sorted out," he said, adding
that the country had finally reached an understanding with the donors on the
issue.
Walter Mahler, the IMF resident representative in Kampala, said
that the Fund was awaiting the results of the Defence Review, which was
expected to improve the way money was spent on defence.
The British government is sponsoring the Review. US embassy
officials said they too wanted to look at the Review's report before
determining whether the country needed to spend a higher portion of its GDP on
defence.
However, Mr Mahler said that the country had been allowed some
increases in its defence expenditure when Uganda's medium-term budget for the
current and next year was being prepared.
"The president had concerns mainly about Joseph Kony's rebel Lord's
Resistance Army and wanted better equipment and facilities for the troops," he
told The EastAfrican.
He said the budgeting was primarily done with Uganda's bilateral
partners like the UK, Ireland and the US. He said the increases were
apparently accepted because some countries felt that they were legitimate,
given the LRA war.
Uganda's defence budget has been the subject of contention between
it and its key donors, who have wanted the country to cut defence spending and
instead spend more on roads, education, health, law and order.
Last week, the US said it resumed military assistance to Uganda in
September, but did not confirm reports that it had started giving intelligence
information to the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) to enable them to
fight the LRA rebels.
Mark Schlachter, a spokesman for the American embassy in Kampala,
said that they had resumed "a very modest military assistance programme to
Uganda, which involves training the UPDF to give it better capacity to protect
Ugandans.
"The programme focuses on civil-military relations, human rights,
resource management and HIV/Aids," he added.
The training programme will involve US officers training Ugandan
forces locally and in the US. The official, however, said he could not comment
on reports that the US and Ugandan militaries had signed an agreement under
which America would provide intelligence information, including satellite
images of LRA movements, to assist the UPDF in the war against the LRA.
The resumption of US assistance to the country came two months
after the visit to Uganda by US President George W Bush. But American
officials said a review of the military assistance to Uganda had been going on
well before Bush's visit.
Sources told The EastAfrican that this week, the State Department
in Washington is expected to issue an explanation to the Ugandan people of the
nature of military assistance the US has agreed to provide to the Ugandan
security forces.
The explanation had been made necessary by the publication of
reports of US forces aiding the UPDF against the LRA. The US government was
expected to spell out the nature of the assistance as well as its stand on the
war against the insurgents who have been battling President Yoweri Museveni's
regime since 1988.
In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the
US, the American government placed the LRA and another Ugandan dissident group
� the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) � on its list of terrorist organisations.
The US cut all military assistance to Uganda shortly after it sent
troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998 to back rebels fighting the
regime of the late President Laurent Kabila. Once the troops were withdrawn,
the US had decided to resume aid. But the decision was partly a result of
Uganda's strong backing for America's war against terrorism.
Uganda is the only East African country and one of only eight in
Africa that openly supported the US attack on Iraq. During a visit to the US
last June, President Museveni signed Article 98 of the Rome Statute under
which it would not hand over American soldiers accused of war crimes for trial
in the International Criminal Court.
President Museveni's endorsement of Article 98 was criticised by
the Uganda parliament and civil society groups, as well as the European Union.
Sigurd Illing, the head of the EU delegation in Kampala, said last
week that he doubted the US government was actually providing intelligence
information like satellite images to the Ugandan forces. He added that the US
ambassador in Kampala had told him that the US was not delivering any arms to
the UPDF.
Illing added that while the EU had suggested to Uganda that the
military option would not end the LRA war, any assistance to strengthen the
capacity of the UPDF was welcome.
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