High ranks won't defeat LRA rebels By David Kibirige June 12, 2004 And so there are some Ugandans who think that now President Museveni is a military General the rebels of Mr Joseph Kony will be history. As if copying Museveni, Kony also recently promoted himself to the rank of General.
This is the false belief many African politicians and gunmen have. They think that for one to be respected or feared he must have high- sounding army ranks. President Museveni (AFP) It is ironical that Museveni who has been a general for more than eighteen years has failed to defeat Kony all this long. Ironically again, Gen. Kony has failed to even capture a small village for all these years. Winning a war is not about ranks. Museveni managed to win the Luwero bush war with soldiers who had no military ranks. Winning a war is about organisational skills and tactics. Museveni should know that an enemy can best be defeated my raising the morale of fighters. If one is fighting for a just cause victory must be on one's side. That is why I say Museveni should go back to the drawing board and find why the morale of his fighters has greatly waned. All these years Museveni has deployed generals to fight rebels but it seems all have failed. It is ironical that these generals are fighting 12-year-old kids. In 1986 when Museveni had just captured power he said he was surprised that Uganda could not manufacture safety pins (ebikwanso). Safety pins are used to extract jiggers (envunza). Museveni has constantly referred to Kony as a jigger. It is sad to note that all these years Museveni has failed to defeat Kony just like his government has never produced a single safety pin for all the eighteen years. Not surprisingly an officer in the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) told me that though he has not been promoted he is at least happy history will not judge him as a general who failed to defeat twelve year old kids most of them abducted and later trained to fight government. There is a general fallacy in the army that it is ranks which win. Last year the army warned the press against using army ranks when referring to rebels. Surprisingly whenever the army kills or captures a rebel commander they keep on singing how they captured or killed an LRA General, Brigadier, Major or Captain. Then Museveni keeps on singing about his dream of professionalising the army. The bitter truth is that this is impossible as Museveni's methods of running the army show he is bent on personalising the institution. You do not tell your generals to go and break the skulls of political opponents and think that is professionalising. The army should be non-partisan with the main aim of safeguarding our frontiers. In the March 2001 presidential elections members of the Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) actively participated in the beating of voters in addition to shooting a few to death. Surprisingly, as the commander in chief of the armed forces, Museveni never condemned such rogue acts. The recent gruesome act where Maj. Charles Tibarura tied his escort Pvt. Obedi Kiiza on his pick up and dragged him along the road is a sign that all is not well in the army. Instead of dealing with Tibarura, the man is instead being protected by two senior army officers who wield a lot of influence. If Museveni is really genuine about making the army more professional Tibarura would be in jail and the keys to his cell would have been thrown in the deepest part of Lake Victoria or better still in the Indian Ocean. In America officers who abused prisoners in Iraq are to face harsh punishments in addition to being discharged from service with disgrace. So what is a "senior officer" like Tibarura doing in the armed forces? One can be forgiven to conclude that some UPDF senior officers cannot qualify as Sergeants in serious countries. A senior officer has intimated to me that he about to conclude a book titled "The Civilian Generals of Africa" Hope it will make an interesting reading for General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. � 2004 The Monitor Publications -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------- This service is hosted on the Infocom network http://www.infocom.co.ug
