| Kisanja is for Saleh, Muhoozi - US envoy |
| By Badru D. Mulumba |
|
KAMPALA — A former American ambassador to Uganda, Mr Johnnie Carson, has said President Yoweri Museveni’s seeming unwillingness to step down after 2006 may be driven by a desire to protect family members and others around him from criminal charges. “Many observers see Museveni’s efforts to amend the constitution as a re-run of a common problem that afflicts many African leaders — an unwillingness to follow constitutional norms and give up power,” Carson said in an opinion article published in the Boston Globe on May 1. “Museveni’s reluctance to move aside may also be motivated by a desire to protect those around him, including his son and half brother, from charges of corruption for alleged involvement in illegal activities.” But Presidential Advisor on Media and Public Relations, Mr John Nagenda, dismissed the criticism, saying that the President, whose second and last constitutional term expires next year, has not declared he will stand in 2006 elections. Carson, a senior vice president at the National Defense University in Washington under the US Department of Defense, joins a growing list of international figures who have spoken out against Museveni’s third term campaign. He was a vocal critic of the Movement’s “no-party democracy” while he was ambassador here from 1991-1994. He is a respected diplomat who was credited with helping to get the world to take a critical look at Daniel arap Moi’s repressive regime in Kenya where he also was ambassador from August 1998 to July 2003. Carson’s remark was understood to refer to Major Muhoozi Kainerugaba and Lt. Gen. Salim Saleh. The United Nations Panel of Experts on the Plunder of the DR-Congo mineral wealth adversely named the two. Both denied the charges. Locally, Saleh has been mentioned in several questionable deals including the fraudulent purchase of Uganda Commercial Bank by the sham Malaysian company Westmont and the purchase of defective helicopters for the army. But Mr Nagenda said: “I try my best not to respond to that because the President has not said he is standing.” Mr Opondo wondered what charges would be brought against Muhoozi if Museveni left power, which cannot be brought up now. He also wondered whether Museveni is “a moron to make sure he waits for” those around him to “tell him what to do.” Carson’s comments on the first family came a day after the former Director General of the External Security Organisation, Mr David Pulkol, said that Museveni and his immediate family should be granted immunity from any form of prosecution and vindictive acts by partisan groups when he leaves office. “As President in a post-conflict era, Mr Museveni took hard decisions for the good of the country and in the process must have stepped on some toes and got into some people’s way,” Pulkol, who is now a member of the opposition, said in an interview with Sunday Monitor. Carson, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, also warned that Museveni, serving his twentieth year in power, might plan to slow the return to multiparty politics. “If Museveni succeeds in remaining in office, he will probably tighten his grip on power and slow down the return to multi-party democracy,” he said. Carson said, “Much depends on what Museveni decides to do in the next year and whether the United States, Great Britain, and Africa’s new reformist leaders will speak out against Museveni’s efforts to retain power.” He added: “Uganda may also be an early test of whether the Bush administration’s policy of promoting democracy extends to major African countries. If Museveni succeeds in his desire to win a third term, we may be looking at another Mugabe and Zimbabwe in the making.” The Director of Public Affairs at the US embassy in Kampala, Mr Mark Schlachter, said Carson was only speaking in his capacity as a senior vice president at the National Defence University. But Schlachter could not say whether the United States would speak out against the third term campaign or join Britain in blocking aid to Uganda. |
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list Ugandanet@kym.net http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
