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KAMPALA � The Uganda People�s Congress (UPC) is
negotiating with the government for the return of Dr Milton Obote after 19
years of exile. The government and UPC, however, deny initiating contact,
but reports from Lusaka and Kampala indicate both sides have been in
contact on the mediation of former Zambian President, Mr Kenneth
Kaunda.
Museveni was
scheduled to meet Obote at a private venue in Lusaka on Monday, but Obote
instead sent his son, Jimmy Akena, who was accompanied by the Chairman of
the UPC National Organising Committee, Mr Peter Walubiri and Dr Henry
Opiote to represent him.
Museveni�s Press Secretary, Mr Onapito
Ekomoloit, declined to comment yesterday.
Walubiri
confirmed that Obote�s team met Museveni. �The meeting ended in a fiasco.
When we reached the venue, we asked what message Museveni had for Dr
Obote, but he [Museveni] turned around and denied having initiated the
meeting,� Walubiri, who is also UPC chief legal advisor, said
yesterday.
Sources in
Lusaka said Museveni was accompanied by the acting Foreign Affairs
Minister, Mr Tom Butime and Prof Edward Rugumayo, the Minister of Tourism,
Trade and Industry.
Walubiri said
when Obote was contacted in view of a private meeting with Museveni, he
contacted the party leadership in Kampala for advice.
�He believes
that we should be involved in any negotiation, but when we tried, Museveni
bolted out,� he said. Sources told The Monitor the UPC leadership would
address a press in Kampala today about the meeting.
The return of
the ex-president is likely to disorganise the cohesion of the newly-formed
opposition alliance, which is supposed to take on President Museveni
should he run in 2006.
The merger,
between Reform Agenda and Pafo, which resulted into the Forum for
Democratic Change (FDC), boasts of a sizeable number of MPs who have their
roots in UPC.
The northern
region, which is a UPC stronghold massively, voted Col. Kizza Besigye in
2001. Besigye is one of the key leaders of the coalition.
Both the
Movement and UPC would be the biggest beneficiaries of the return of
Obote, with UPC getting a lease of life after the new coalition threatened
to out-shine the old parties, while the Movement would use Obote�s return
to disorganise the new alliance. | 
