Monday, April 5, 2004
Government Gives G7 April Deadline to Join Talks or Be Left Out
THE EASTAFRICAN
OPPOSITION political parties in Uganda, including the Uganda People's Congress, the Democratic Party and the Reform Agenda, have been given up to the end of this month to decide if they want to continue with the transitional talks or not.
The National Political Commissar (NPC), Cryspus Kiyonga, said if they fail to do so, the government will terminate the talks and proceed with dialogue with political parties that are willing to discuss the transition to multiparty politics after 2006.
"Our deadline for the consultation talks is April. If we do not come to any agreement with the traditional political parties, we shall continue with the second group and forward our recommendations to parliament," said Kiyonga, who is the chairman of the government's consultative team.
However, Joseph Balikudembe, the spokesperson of the Group of Seven political parties, said that they did not mind the current stand-off because the government has refused to accept their conditions, which would have made the talks genuine.
"Without government accepting our conditions, the talks will be useless and we will be deceiving the public. After the expiry of the deadline, we shall lobby the donor community to note what is going on and ask them to help us," said Mr Balikudembe.
Following an agreement with the recently formed opposition political parties, the government says it has received co-operation from them and sees no reason to continue begging the so-called traditional parties to talk.
Kiyonga said the government had only had two plenary meetings and two side meetings consisting of five people each with the traditional group, while a total of 13 meetings had been held with the second group of political parties. During the meeting with the second group, they had came up with five major recommendations, which are to be forwarded to parliament.
But the opposition says the more than 50 newly formed political parties are a creation of President Yoweri Museveni's government.
Said Ms Betty Kamya, spokesperson of the Reform Agenda: "These are not genuine parties and we are not accepting them into the talks."
The government last year committed up to Ush107 million (about $57,000) for transitional talks between seven traditional opposition groups (G7) and its representatives, in order to draw up a "roadmap" for a smooth political transition from the no-party political system to multiparty democracy in 2006.
The dialogue, which started three months after its announcement, was expected to have ended by last month. A political roadmap to have been drawn up by April and submitted to parliament, collapsed on 23 February as the two parties accused each other of sabotaging the process.
The G7 comprise the Uganda People's Congress, the Democratic Party, the Conservative Party, the Justice Forum, the Reform Agenda, the National Democratic Forum and the Free Movement.
Mr Kiyonga says that though the consultative meetings did not go beyond the preparatory stage, the door is still open and government is trying to communicate to the group through phone calls and letters
Contentious issues that derailed the talks include demands by the traditional parties to co-chair the talks and that the process be a dialogue and not a consultation.
The G7 team also wants to be the only group to talk with the government, to be allowed to hold public rallies and to appoint a co-secretary for the talks.
However, the government says the G7 should stop forwarding "unnecessary demands" or face being left out. Mr Kiyonga says there is no way they are going to leave out other political parties as the issues being discussed are of national interest and cannot be exclusive to the G7 alone.
"Some people think when they stop, life will not continue, yet by creating space, others will come in. If they don't come up, they will leave themselves out absolutely and we are going to move on," said Lieutenant James Kinobe, another member of the government team.
Mr Kiyonga denied claims by traditional parties that the second Group of Seven is a creation of government. "These are people who came with clear interests and an agenda that government accepted. But the talks with the traditional opposition failed because each of them had a hidden agenda that they wanted government to settle."
The second group comprises the Action Party, factions of the Democratic Party and the Conservative Party, the People's Independent Party, the Movement for Democratic Change and the National Peasant Party.
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