A meeting lasting five hours sounds to me like the persident has too much time on his hands and now he is insisting on wasting everyone's time.Given that NGOs have been active in war-torn Northern region for over 20 years, and throught this entire period the president has never met them, not even once; the timing of this tete-a-tete, relative to the recent financial machinations with donor funds piqued my interest.As most of us know, Uganda's economy collapsed years ago, leading to Uganda's to perennially go begging for international charity to the tune of over 50% of the national budget.Lately, donors have increasingly grown weary of the pilfering of their funds by government officials and have cut Uganda off.Significantly, others will now have nothing to do with Museveni's government and have decided to deal with NGOs directly in providing aid to Ugandans.Museveni is unhappy that he is being bypassed since he regularly uses donor's funds in political patronage manouvers. Typically, instead of directing his anger at the right person, or even better his attention to the real problem he finds it easier to attempt intimidating NGOs in a "Kiiso kya mbuzi" fashion.Read between the lines in the article below.Museveni Furious With NGOs
The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
April 15, 2006
By Frank Nyakairu
Kampala
President Yoweri Museveni has said that Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that don't work with the new government will not be allowed to operate in the country.In his first ever meeting with representatives of various NGOs that operate in war-torn northern Uganda, Museveni said: "If you are not ready to work with government you should simply go away."The President also told NGOs that operate in the north to harmonise efforts in the humanitarian drive to the people in the region. The meeting, which lasted over five hours, and ended late in the night took place at his home in Rwakitura, Kiruhuura District on Thursday.Thanking the NGOs for their contribution in assisting the people of northern Uganda , Museveni strongly advised them to co-ordinate their activities with the government especially the Ooffice of Prime Minister, Ministry of Health and the Uganda People's Defence forces (UPDF).Reports prepared by many NGOs operating in the northern region have been very critical of government's human rights record in its efforts to end the 20-year-old Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebellion.A report by 50 NGO's in the north, 'Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda', that was released on March 31, 2006 claimed that the violent death rate for northern Uganda is currently at 146 deaths per week, drawn on statistics gathered during the last year.This, the NGO consortium claims, is three times higher than in Iraq. The release of the report came at a time when UN Under-Secretary General, Jan Egeland, was visiting Uganda to assess the financial needs of the numerous aid agencies operating in the region.The head of Nebbi NGO, Mr Ogongo Emilio, who attended the Rwakitura meeting told Daily Monitor that the President said if NGOs wanted information, they should go to the army which is on the ground.The UPDF Coordinator of Intelligence in Northern Uganda, Col. Charles Awany Otema , however, when called upon by the President to address the meeting, blamed NGOs for failure to have 1.8 million people living in camps to go back to their homes. Col. Otema singled out Unicef as one of NGOs that was "sabotaging" the army's work. Otema also reportedly said that people in IDP camps are "fond of telling lies to attract relief aid."President Museveni argued that unresearched reports made by NGOs about the conflict in the north are giving the country a bad image. He said the governement has spent a lot of money to attract tourists but these efforts are undermined by false reports made by NGOs.Non Governmental Organisations are non-profit, voluntary citizens groups, which are organized on local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest, NGOs perform a variety of service and humanitarian functions, bring citizens' concerns to governments, advocate and monitor policies and encourage political participation through provision of information.Last week Parliament passed the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Registration Amendment Bill 2001, which requires NGOs and evangelical churches to renew their registration permits annually. The House also approved a controversial clause that gives security (ISO and ESO) representation on the NGO Board. The NGO community has since 2001 opposed the clause. The Bill gives the NGO Board powers to register or deny registry to NGOs opposed to government policy or whose activities are not in 'public interest.'
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