By Solomon Muyita
July 16, 2004
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KAMPALA � France has decried the rate at which public funds are being embezzled in Uganda yet the corrupt officials are left to get away with it. �It is not acceptable that public funds are embezzled. It is not acceptable to see luxurious investments sprouting from corruption, while poverty remains high in the country,� the French Ambassador, Jean-Bernard Thiant said on Wednesday during the Bastille Day celebrations in Kampala.
Bastille Day (July 14, 1789) is the day when the oppressed people of France rose up against the rule of King Louis XVI and the Queen, Marie Antoinette. They stormed Bastille prison and released all prisoners. Thiant said it is urgent that investigations are done and judicial proceedings taken against the culprits. �Everyone knows that there is corruption in Uganda at high and low levels. There are very many reports but nothing has been done on these reports. The Government should force these people to pay back what they steal,� he added. The British High Commissioner to Kenya, Sir Edward Clay, on Monday attacked the government for doing little to stop corruption. The Kenyan authorities have demanded that Clay substantiates the allegations. The minister of Ethics and Integrity, Tim Lwanga, was present when Thiant was speaking. Thiant called on the government to find a quick solution to the war in northern Uganda, which he described as a tragedy. �Whereas the international community is moved by the situation in Sudan�s Darfour region, and rightly so, the martyrdom of the northern Ugandan Acholi people has gone on in silence,� he said. �We cannot talk about this country without evoking the tragedy in the north. For 17 years now, the region lives in fear and misery. We cannot accept that more than 1.8 people live in camps for the displaced under general indifference. It is more than time to put an end to that war,� Thiant said. �A solution must be found now, even if it means negotiating grudgingly. It will be to the honour of the government of Uganda to finally restore peace in the north,� he added. Thiant said the time was ripe for Uganda to adopt multipartyism. France�s contribution to Uganda�s development includes its 23 percent share of Uganda�s budget support aid from the EU�s Development Fund, and other support to various projects. The State Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Butime, said the 36-year relationship between Uganda and France has been cordial, except during the era of Idi Amin. �Not even Uganda�s intervention in DR Congo disorganised our relationship,� he said. |
� 2004 The Monitor Publications
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