Rewriting Uganda�s history is a recipe for disaster
By Frank Tumwebaze
The proposed return of former president Milton Obote has not only been politicised by those forces who want to easily derive cheap political capital out of it, but has also seen desperate efforts of some politicians trying to erase history under the cover of reconciliation. Reconciliation does not mean that people shouldn't be asked to account for their deeds, and more so crimes against humanity.
One fundamental ingredient of reconciliation is that aggressors should show remorse, admit guilt and then ask for forgiveness from the aggrieved. It is not about keeping off an eye at deliberate crimes committed, thus being insensitive to the emotions of those who suffered at the hands of those criminals, that will bring about reconciliation. Instead, the past should be well reflected on such that history does not repeat itself as they often say.
Dr Milton Obote committed crimes against the people of Uganda, they are well documented and the victims who suffered but fortunately survived are here to tell their story . Whether Obote is forgiven by the Museveni government and the people of Uganda or not, is a different matter. The record of his crimes will remain and there is no harm in talking about them.
The ping- pong debate some politicians are trading in that Museveni too is responsible for the massacres of Luwero simply because he waged a pro-people war against the dictatorship is simply illogical. The good thing, President Museveni is in power now and he has a social contract with the people of Uganda. The record of his government for the last 19 years is an open secret for the whole world.
The visibly clear line of distinction between Museveni and Obote is that the government of the former has established human rights monitoring institutions with full constitutional powers to check those in power, while the government of the latter survived on the very human rights violations. Detaining people without trial as well as denying them the right of habeaus corpus as it happened to the five Ministers: Grace Ibingira, Balaki Kirya, Emmanuel B.
Lumu, Mathias Ngobi and John Magezi when their lawyer John Kazoora tried to demand for trial by an application of habeas corpus with no success. Such acts characterised Obote's regime and they enabled him to sustain power for whatever period he managed to rule.
Waging a war therefore, against such a dictatorship was the primary duty of every right thinking Ugandan at that time since everyone had been disenfranchised.
Fighting a guerilla war in Luwero did not call for Obote and his soldiers to sanction and execute organised mass killings in every sub-county of Luwero. Those who don't know this, perhaps need to be told that at every sub county of Luwero there is a mass grave of skulls, which could be easily found in piles in one place indicating that people were killed in one place, not even in battle in crossfire exchanges.
This of course, could not have been an act of the Museveni guerillas who were hiding in the bushes running around not to be traced, otherwise the skulls and bodies would have been found scattered in the bushes as has been the case with LRA in the North. The fact that there was a war and that Obote was trying to defend his regime does not in anyway exonerate him from the crimes against humanity he committed.
If that argument was to hold, then the whole world would not be concerned or even talking about the genocide in Rwanda, apartheid in South Africa and many other crimes against humanity the world over. The perpetrators of those crimes like Habyarimana, Mobutu, Hitler, Millosovic, Sadam and others would easily get away with it on the basis of the same argument that they were defending their regimes. Indeed Obote was defending his regime and not the people, thus the rationale behind Museveni's protracted guerilla struggle.
The other disgusting argument is this idea of advancing reasons like " what evidence is in place to pin down Obote as an abuser of human rights?", actually even shamelessly echoed by Obote himself in his recent newspaper serialised interviews, as if surely Ugandans do not know that a commission of inquiry was put in place to investigate human rights violations in
Uganda
since independence up to 1986, whose findings are overwhelming.
This commission was chaired by Justice Arthur Oder then judge of the High Court and other commissioners included Hon. Dr Khiddu Makubuya, Hon. Dr Jack Luyombya, Mrs Joan Kakwenzire, Hon. John Baptist Kawanga and Mr John Nagenda. The Hon. Edward Sekandi, now Speaker of Parliament was the Commission's lead counsel.
The evidence gathered by this commission through witnesses was amazing, and is available in big report volumes at the Human Rights Commission.
Witness after witness gave testimony to the commission about the dreadful murder of their relatives, family members, colleagues at work and so on. The degree of brutality and cruelty that the victims were subjected to is often unbelievable. Few survived to tell the tale. Both Idi Amin and Obote (the former being a creation of the latter's political behaviour) stand out as chief perpetrators of murders in cold-blood, and even genocide.
Before even raising arguments on the Luwero massacres, one needs to look back and know what was happening. The period of Obote 1 government for example, which mainly relate to the struggle for supremacy between the central government and the Kabaka witnessed a number of murders and massacres as a result of the army attack on the Kabaka's palace.
Actually, according to a witness to the commission, one Sentamu, a prisons officer at Luzira at the time of the attack, the Lubiri massacre was incited by Obote as Prime Minister and Commander in Chief. Sentamu said Obote had earlier on made a threatening speech while at Soroti in which, among other things, he said: " I warn you people of Soroti, if you behave like a certain tribe you know very well, I shall not hesitate at all, I will send my boys to destroy both you and your property; I repeat, I will send my boys to destroy both your l
ives and
property.
I say this for God and my country� A good Muganda is a dead one."
These are clear revelations of how a sitting president and his regime planned and orchestrated a plot to kill Ugandans and indeed pursued it to its fruition. It could not have been an oversight.
The murder by the police in Nakulabye in 1964, the Luwero triangle massacres, the murders of suspected political opponents in Kampala during panda gari and other operations, the murder in Argentina House in Kampala, the murder in the seminary at Namugongo and many other massacres by the miltias and UPC lethal operatives can't just be brushed off and not be emphasised by simply disguising under the cover of reconciliation.
Indeed the NRM reconciled Ugandans, to an extent that northerners can marry southerners and vice versa which hitherto was almost an abomination. Catholics and Protestants can dine with each other without suspected dominance of either group. Those who worked with Obote were not persecuted in any way, the majority of whom form government today.
It is however, prudent that people who committed crimes like Obote be condemned. The aggrieved must see justice done to their aggressors in anyway, be it prosecution, condemnation or even pardon but after admitting guilt and showing remorse. Trying to politically cover up and erase history is not only being insensitive to those who suffered the wrath of the tyrants but also a recipe for disaster.
Frank Tumwebaze
Special Presidential Assistant / Research and Information.
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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