date:20030908




Mr. Ssemakula 
 
I have read your posting in Monitor under the 
heading "Munini; whistling and drinking?"  And I think that you are 
being very unfair to Muniini Mulera for you have decided to leave out some 
very crucial points in your response.
 
You started by informing us how the King of Buganda 
has spoken out on the matters of the war in Northern Uganda. Can you kindly tell 
us when he started to make those statements? Mr Ssemakula the war in Northern 
Uganda has been running now for almost 20 years, is it fair for you to bring in 
the name of Nabagereka, as a person who has called for talks to end the carnage, 
for as far as I know Nabagereka did not come into the picture of Uganda untill 
2001, that is 2 years give and take. Is that a proof that Buganda was and has 
been concerned about the situation in Northern Uganda?
 
Personally I am not even moved by whether the King 
and Nabagereka, have taken these steps. I am more concerned about what the major 
Buganda out spoken did or have done since the war started in this part of 
Uganda. And I am going to give you some examples, Bishop Mikayiri Kawuma of 
namirembe, and Cardinal Emanuel Nsubuga, both stood in their sanctuaries and 
praised God for bringing peace back into Uganda under NRM. These two men of God, 
came to West Germany and addressed a meeting of several people including 
Ugandans, the main question to them was the situation in Northern Uganda. Both 
of them stated that Uganda was a new place and a peace full nation. But this is 
what was very important in that meeting, in closing, the Cardinal sat with 
several Ugandans, and in Luganda he said "Mwe mubuuza ki ebyolutalo ffe kasita 
twebaka" In fact for the record, that statement "Ffe Kasita Twebaka" was not 
introduced in Uganda by Buganda locals, it was introduced by Cardinal Nsubuga 
and Bishop Kawuma, in their message to the church. That is the originality of 
that statement.
 
Now let me go back to Buganda and NRM. Ugandans 
know for a fact that Buganda is in bed with NRM. When Ugandans are being 
murdered and our king goes to Rwakitura to dine and wine with the state, 
Ugandans must wonder why. But we must not only stop there, but we must ask our 
selves, what steps has the King taken to hold the mirror into the NRM's face. I 
can not help but wonder how much information our king has about the thousands of 
his people who were killed in Luwero District during the war. Has our king ever 
asked for that explanation from Rwakitura? What response did he get? I doubt 
whether he has ever asked that question for his bread and butter comes from 
Rwakitura, why and how can he get the strength to ask the actions of NRM? And 
that is the biggest blunder Buganda fell in, for if we can not financially 
maintain our King, we would have been better off putting the kingdom on hold as 
Ankole. For have you ever wondered what will happen if the next government in 
Uganda decides not to finance it?
 
It is interesting as well when you state that a 
good number of Baganda officers in the army are unwilling to fight, then Mwaami 
Ssemakula can you please explain why children in Northern Uganda are very scared 
of any body speaking Luganda? It is a fact that many UPDF officers are Baganda, 
and if Baganda officers refused to fight in Northern Uganda, that war would have 
ended immediately. The danger in your posting, is that you are thinking that 
what you posted in Monitor is what counts the most in Uganda of tomorrow, I tend 
to differ, what matters the most is what Ugandans who are being brutalized know, 
for I can bet you Ugandans know who are killing them, and they go by that not by 
Mr Ssemakula's account. You will be amazed to know that to today Ugandans in 
Luwero know which people killed them.
 
Buganda must know that a problem in Uganda affects 
all of us as a nation, directly or indirectly. And it is a shame that we even 
have this discussion today, for it is a sign that Buganda failed to understand 
that matters in Northern/Eastern Uganda are national matters. And collecting 
unfounded collections to clean up Buganda's name is not the solution. For as I 
said, it is Ugandans who are suffering who make the final decision, on whether 
Buganda was part of the problem or solution during their sufferings. And as 
long as that jury is still out there, I do not think that your defence for 
Buganda is warranted, for facts will in the end come in broad day 
light.
 
Edward Mulindwa
Toronto
    The 
Mulindwas Communication Group

ugnet_: NRM Consults Frelimo's On How to Stay in Government

NRM Consults Frelimo's On How to Stay in Government

African Church Information Service

August 8, 2003
Posted to the web September 8, 2003

Crespo Sebunya
Kampala

Uganda now considers Frente de Liberta Veo de Mozambique (Frelimo) experience as more relevant to its democratic process, and has thrown aside the African National Congress (ANC) model it previously admired.

President Yoweri Museveni told a delegation of Frelimo officials, led by their Secretary General, Armando Emilio Guebuza, that National Resistance Movement (NRM) will study how Frelimo retained power after opening up its political system to a multi-party one.

The Frelimo delegation spent three days in Uganda from August 25, and signed a memorandum of understanding with the NRM.

Museveni says Frelimo experience is relevant to NRM, since they share a lot in common. Both launched a protracted struggle against oppression, then later faced a long-winded, externally supported insurgency.

Frelimo's resilience has also drawn respect from NRM stalwarts. Frelimo has already held two general elections, so we have a lot to learn from it, says Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, Minister for Internal Affairs.

Frelimo fought a protracted struggle for independence and took power. It then faced South-African backed Resistancia Nacional Mocambicana (Renamo) in a bloody confrontation, before reconciliation talks resulted into Renamo transforming itself into a political party.

Similarly, NRM is battling Lords Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel force that Uganda suspects is being supported by Sudan. The Government is under international pressure to reconcile with LRA, and there are suggestions that the rebel group be allowed to transform into a political party.

Nevertheless, co-operation with Frelimo signals a change of heart. In 2001, NRM contacted ANC to assist it build strong structures that will enable it to remain dominant on the Ugandan scene.

ugnet_: The Monitor Is For Peace- Tells Museveni Words Of Wisdom

The Monitor is for peaceEditorialSeptember 9, 2003

President Yoweri Museveni is up in arms against The Monitor for suggesting in an editorial, September 5, that recruiting Arrow Group-type militias to fight the Lords Resistance Army rebels could militarise the population.While it is commendable that the President chose to pen his reply to The Monitor instead of sending the Police and Military Intelligence to close the paper like his government did on October 10, 2002, we take exception of the language he chose to use in his latest missive.
Branding The Monitor traitors, Kony allies, greedy and evil-minded, engineers of lies, just because the paper holds a different view to his approach to the conflict in northern Uganda, smacks of intolerance.
The Monitor, as a paper that values and champions the cause of freedom of speech and _expression_, is also entitled to its own views just like the President is. The President would be wrong to imagine that his views on the war in the north are superior to those of other Ugandans.
He would equally be wrong to assume that he is the most patriotic Ugandan, while the rest of us are dismissed as traitors. The President should not take it upon himself to define who is more Ugandan than the other, because we are all stakeholders and thus partners in the development of this country.Blaming the media for the state apparatus failure to pacify parts of Uganda is diversionary. Kyoga Veritas FM was closed at the onset of the LRA incursion into Teso but its closure has not enabled the army to defeat the rebels in that area.
The Monitors position on the conflict in northern Uganda is peaceful resolution because the military option appears to have yielded no tangible results in the 17 years it has been applied.
For the President to suggest that Kony has been defeated merely because he is unable to capture and hold territory is rather cynical because Ugandans continue to die. That view lends credence to the feeling that perhaps Kony survives to date simply because he does not pose a serious challenge to the state.
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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ugnet_: Firing Squad is barbaric - MPs

Firing squad is barbaric - MPsBy Kennedy LuleSeptember 9, 2003-Monitor

PARLIAMENT Members of Parliament have reacted angrily to the armys decision to sentence Cpl. Pimundu Gimaro to death by firing squad.
The MPs yesterday shrugged off Gimaros sentence as cruel and a cover up.
The UPDF Field Court Martial chaired by the 3rd Division Commander, Col. Andrew Guti, on Friday found Gimaro (attached to military police), guilty of cowardice and failure to execute his duties.
The nine-member court martial ruled that Pimundus omissions led to the death of eight civilians, killed by the Joseph Kony rebels. The rebels attacked Agasi Village, about 4 kilometres from Soroti town.
Pimundu allegedly committed the offence on August 31. He failed to respond to information about a planned rebel attack on Agasi village.The fate of Gimaro remains in balance.
The local media reported on Sunday reported that Gimaro was supposed to be executed on Saturday morning with the consent of President Yoweri Museveni.
Army Spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza could not say yesterday whether Pimundu had been executed.
Bantariza referred this reporter to the 3rd Division Spokesman Lt. Nsegiyumva, who could not be reached as his phone was off. Guti refused to comment when contacted yesterday.
MPs yesterday described Gimaros case as a cover- up, cruel and barbaric.
The Vice Chairperson of the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee, Ms Betty Udongo (Nebbi woman), led the assault on the UPDF.
This is a cover-up. I am sad. Because we complained bitterly about the lack of the armys response to rebel ambushes, they have decided to sacrifice a mere corporal. Why not a major? Udongo said during a committee meeting yesterday.
She added that if the law were to be applied equally, many commanders on Karuma- Packwach- Arua Road would have been executed for failing to react to civilian information about rebel attacks.
Arua Municipality MP, Nasur Okuti, said theres discrimination in the army when it comes to executions.
You recall on June 5, the President [Yoweri Museveni] in his state of the nation address said that commanders who failed to prevent deaths at Abim, Paimol and Karuma Road had been arrested. Were they [commanders] executed quietly? Okuti asked.
Otuke County MP, Omara Atubo, accused government of using the NRA Statute 1992 to carry out inhuman and cruel acts like death by firing squad. Atubo called for a new law for UPDF.
Mr Odonga Otto (Aruu) said Gimaros case reflects the hypocrisy in the UPDF, and said if the law was to be applied effectively, sixty percent of the commanders in the north would be dead for not responding to warnings about rebel attacks.
But Bantariza said it is the MPs who made the law on the Field Court Martial.
If they want to kill majors, let them come for me, Bantariza added.Bantariza said MPs should come out with specific cases of non-compliance so that the army leadership deals with them.
Last year, the same division Field Court martial under Col. Sula Ssemakula, tried and executed two soldiers accused of murdering an Irish Priest, Fr Declan Otoore.
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
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ugnet_: Drug Addiction Engulfs Africa

2003-09-08 Thread Lugemwa FN

Drug Addiction Engulfs Africa

Email This Page Print This Page Visit The Publisher's Site

New Vision (Kampala)
September 8, 2003 Posted to the web September 8, 2003
Oscar BamuhigireKampala
--25% of patients at Butabiika national referal hospital are a result of alcohol or drug addiction
There are over 200 million drug addicts around the world today," said a representative of the United Nations at the International Symposium on drugs, organised by the Pontifical Council and the Italian federation Of Therapeutic Communities, held in Italy. That was the first blow that I got.

The total population of drug addicts around the world is almost 10 times the population of Uganda alone.
I was at this conference (24-26 June 2003) to represent Africa, and my speech began with the dilemma that any researcher, like myself, was faced with: There are no reliable or adequate statistics to show the real picture of the addiction problem in Africa.
Clinical studies by Dr. Fred Kigozi in 1991 indicate that 25% of admissions at Butabiika national referral hospital are a result of alcohol and drug addiction.
Studies done by the alcohol and drug addiction clinic, run by Dr David Basangwa, reveal that 85% of the patients they receive are men, and 15% women in the age ranges of 21-30.
A study done by Dr Bassangwa on secondary schools in 1994 revealed that 64% of secondary schools have an alcohol addiction problem, while 9% have a drug addiction problem.
Studies done by Uganda Youth Development Link in 1992 revealed that 90% of street children, and the homeless youth, are addicted to alcohol and drugs. Studies done at the Mulago Hospital Psychiatric Liaison Service, by Dr. Ssegane Musisi in 1998, indicated that 7% of their referrals were alcohol and drug related.
The most affected regions, according to a study done by Dr Ssegane and Dr. Walugembe, in 2002, are the war-torn regions of Northern and Eastern Uganda.
In 1998, while working on addicts in the Sudanese refugee camps in Adjumani, the team of psychiatric nurses with whom I worked, revealed that 40 people die of suicide, in northern Uganda, as a direct result of alcoholism, every month.
The worst affected countries in Africa, by drug addiction, and the drug trade, according to UNODCP studies, are: Cote d'lvoire, Ghana, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa.
According to the South African Institute of International Affairs, there are an estimated 500,000 cocaine users in the country, and one third of these are teenagers.
The Institute says there are up to 300 international crime syndicates, involved in drug trafficking in the country.
In Nigerian syndicates are said to control an estimated 50% of the entire illegal heroine in the world, according to B.B.C.
The Geopolitical Drugs Watch noted that "Nigerian networks are active all over the world and they have grabbed a respectable share of the cocaine and heroin business."
Africa's main problem seems to be that not only don't we know how serious our addiction problem is, but we have weak laws, and our law enforcers are addicted to, or trade in, the illegal substances we seek to ban.
The former Inspector General of Police (IGP), John Kisembo, once said that the highest abusers of drugs and alcohol in the country are the police and the military. Major Gen. Katumba Wamala, the IGP, expressed similar concerns early this year, and is desperate to get his police officers sober.
Kenya seems to have taken to using an iron fist in solving this problem.
In 1993, penalties for drug trafficking were increased to life imprisonment as well as fines of up to $16,700. 70% of the world's HIV/AIDS population is in Africa. Over 25 million Africans have AIDS.
Studies by WHO reveal that 4% of registered HIV cases in North Africa are due to intravenous drug use, and individual African countries are reporting higher figures.
In Mauritius, for example, 21% of HIV infected people got AIDS as a result of IDU.
In Nigeria, a study done in 2000 showed that Heroin and Cocaine users were twice as likely as non-users to get HIV.
Africa is likely to have a more serious problem than USA (approximately 300 tones of cocaine enter USA every year, according to UNDCP.
The US Drug trade is estimated to be worth $75b and $100b a year, if this problem is not checked in time.
The Italian Federation Of Therapeutic communities (IFTC), upon the conclusion of the conference, took the plight of Africa into serious consideration.
The field of addiction therapy in Uganda is only two years old. We have only two residential treatment centres for addicts, each charging sh40,000 a day, for nine months treatment, and there are an average of 10 skilled addiction therapists, most of these without high quality professional training from recognised institutions.
With only a handful of treatment centres for addicts in Africa (about five of them only), there is an urgent need for more treatment opportunities for Africa.
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ugnet_: Muniini; whistling and drinking?

2003-09-08 Thread J Ssemakula


Muniini; whistling and drinking?By J. Ssemakula September 9, 2003 (http://www.monitor.co.ug/oped/oped4.php) 




In his August 4 column titled Northern Killings Bring Out Racism Of Ugandans, Dr Muniini Mulera lamented the loss of nine civilians in Uganda s war in the north. The nine were victims of a UPDF gunship. 
Muniini went on to tell us how he scanned newspapers worldwide, as well as the Internet discussion groups for signs of empathy and/or outrage for the victims to no avail.  He then concluded that this was a result of the so-called north-south divide, which is apparently responsible for racism in Uganda. He singled out the Baganda as being particularly indifferent to the suffering of their fellow Ugandans, who happen to be non-Baganda. 
He went on to imply that we have been silent about this war because it is them who are dying, rather than us. 
This showed me that Muniini is an intellectually dishonest person who seems to be hell-bent on spreading misinformation, maliciously designed to malign the Baganda in particular.  Muniini is shedding crocodile tears over the war in northern Uganda. The fact of the matter is that the Baganda are just as helpless to stop this carnage as other Ugandans are. Had Muniini read the Ugandan newspapers carefully, he would surely have been struck by the outspokenness of the Baganda against the war. 
Kabaka Mutebi II is on record speaking out on this matter, and advocating talks to bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict. Our Nnabagereka is similarly on record calling for talks to end the carnage. Baganda religious leaders and other significant Baganda are also on record calling for peace talks. 
In addition, some Baganda military officers, albeit retired, are on record as being unwilling to fight in this senseless war. Yet countless other Baganda in the UPDF have given their lives in the defence of Acholi civilians against the Kony menace. 
Even more telling is the fact that the people of Luwero, who not too long ago were brutalised by some elements of them, to use Muniinis phraseology, offered prayers to end that war. 
Contrary to his holier-than-thou pontifications in his column, Muniini is on record, unashamedly calling for continued war in the north on at least one Internet discussion group - UNAANET, which caters mainly for Ugandans in North America. 
The archives of UNAANET prove beyond a speck of doubt that Muniini has argued against negotiations with the rebels to bring this war to a peaceful end. 
For example, on October 15, 2002, Muniini, addressing his contribution to Edith, Richard, Beatrice, Abu, Anne and every African concerned about the situation in northern Uganda, wrote: 
It may not be politically correct these days, but let me re-state my own position on Kony, a man who, together with his organisation, fits every definition of a terrorist. 
While I fully understand and respect the reasons why many people, especially those living in Acholi, have been calling for talks with Kony, I just cannot bring myself to agree with the idea of negotiating with him. And I do not say this lightly. 
A man and his gang who have committed the most inhuman acts against our people, including our children, is not one that I count among opponents that are worthy of attempts at a negotiated settlement. 
For the life of me, I have never ever understood what it is that Kony hopes to achieve with his methods. I have been waiting for more than a decade to hear from anyone who can help me understand what Kony and the LRA are fighting for. I am still all ears. So for the record, please count me among those dinosaurs who are fundamentally opposed to negotiations with Joseph Kony and his LRA.I fully agree with President Yoweri Musevenis recent remarks that Kony and his senior commanders (Vincent Otti and another character whose name I am happy not to know) deserve capital punishment for their crimes. 
For years I have held the view that a hard-nosed military approach must be used to fight the LRA terrorists, and I have had no reason to change my mind. That is why I support Operation Iron Fist [in principle], knowing very well that the military option has, so far, not worked. 
Yet, having said that, I confess that I am so completely lost for ideas on how to resolve this horrible nightmare in our country, that I occasionally find myself saying: OK, may be we should let those who know what to do to end the misery of our people in Acholi do so! May be talking might work. Anything to end the nightmare! 
For me, saying and writing these words is like swallowing poison. But if I could be persuaded that talking to the devil might save innocent lives, then I might - just might- very unenthusiastically reassess my position on Kony and his senior colleagues in crime. 
I am yet to hear from anyone who can explain to me what it is that the government would be talking to Kony about, and what it is that the government should offer him. Do we know what the fello

Re: ugnet_: Uganda Ranks 2nd in Orphans Across Africa

2003-09-08 Thread J Ssemakula

This ought be music to the ears/eyes of those people who are always pushing the ideas of having more and more children. Those who take this irresponsible stance are often clueless when it comes to finding solution to the problems they create for the rest of us who'd rather not breed like rabbits.
Original Message Follows 
From: Lugemwa FN <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Subject: ugnet_: Uganda Ranks 2nd in Orphans Across Africa 
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 2003 17:48:05 -0700 (PDT) 

Uganda Ranks 2nd in Orphans Across Africa 

Email This Page 

Print This Page 

Visit The Publisher's Site 

New Vision (Kampala) 

September 5, 2003 
Posted to the web September 5, 2003 

Charles Kakamwa 
Kampala 

THE population of orphans in Uganda is the second highest in Africa, a recent survey has revealed. 

According to the survey, the country has two million orphans, second to Zambia with five. 

Emmanuel Kusemerwa, an education ministry officer, quoting the report, said most of the orphans were a result of the HIV/AIDS scourge. 

He was on Saturday addressing headteachers of Jinja municipality primary schools at an HIV/AIDS sensitisation workshop. 

The workshop, held at Crested Crane Hotel, was part of the Presidential Initiative on AIDS Strategy for Communication to Youth programme. 

Kusemerwa said AIDS was the fourth killer disease in the world, second to malaria in Uganda. 

He said the disease was spreading fastest among the youth, with over 12 million infected worldwide. 

Kusemerwa said 72% of the children infected were in sub-Saharan Africa. 

He said of the 1.1 million Ugandans infected, 80% were aged 15-45. 

-- 
FN Lugemwa 

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ugnet_: Exit strategy wanted

2003-09-08 Thread J Ssemakula

 
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1037015,00.html
 
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ugnet_: Will We Look Like the Soviets When We Leave Iraq? WASHINGTON POST

Will We Look Like the Soviets When We Leave Iraq?

Marc Kaufman

2003-09-07: (Washington Post) Well-equipped foreign troops were under daily fire from determined if ragtag guerrillas, and casualties steadily mounted. Much of the world was opposed to the military action, and opposition was especially strong in Muslim countries. Islamic holy warriors were eventually drawn to the fight, bringing funds and increasingly extreme tactics. The occupying forces sought to modernize a traditional Muslim society and do it quickly. They never lost a battle, yet the war wouldn't end.

If this sounds like a description of the challenge facing U.S. forces in postwar Iraq, you're right. But it could just as well describe another war in the same region -- the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s.

As the American death count rises in Iraq and efforts to improve life for Iraqis remain limited by the lack of security, the Bush administration is working hard to convince us that we are merely witnessing the untidy death throes of Saddam Hussein's regime. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice and others have held up post-World War II Germany and Japan as models for the U.S. occupation in Iraq. The administration's detractors respond by raising the specter of Vietnam or the aborted U.S. military missions in Lebanon and Somalia.

And yet the Soviet experience in Afghanistan -- where a superpower moved in a bold and aggressive way outside its clear sphere of influence into a fractured Muslim nation -- is a more useful model, however different the occupiers' motivations and however different the outcome ultimately may be. And because the Soviets' Afghan occupation ended in disaster for both the occupier and the occupied, it offers lessons that U.S. officials would do well to remember.

I was in Afghanistan as the last Russians left in 1988, departing from their heavily guarded garrisons and quite fearful of being attacked on the way out. By then, the Soviets had managed to do just about everything wrong, having killed more than a million Afghans and turned millions more into refugees. The Soviets had become the enemies of Islam. That they spent billions to modernize Afghanistan and win over Afghans -- soldiers were still tossing candy to kids as they pulled out of Kabul -- meant nothing in the end.

The United States starts its occupation in a much stronger position. The Soviets, after all, were supporting a widely disliked communist Afghan government, while the Americans are offering democracy and reconstruction, which many Iraqis say they want. But both began their occupations convinced that the local population broadly supported them or, in the case of the Soviets, that the locals would be cowed into submission. The Soviets were proven wrong, and the Americans have learned they can't count on the support they thought they had. Top Army officials in Iraq have conceded that they have a "guerrilla war" on their hands -- and the dynamics on the ground for the two occupations begin to look increasingly similar.

Guerrilla wars are fought militarily and, probably more importantly, as a battle for "hearts and minds." So now that the United States is working to both pacify and develop Iraq, its enemies are working equally hard to create havoc and keep Iraq without electric power, without medical supplies and without hope for a peaceful, American-dominated future. To accomplish these goals, Iraqi guerrillas are taking a page from the playbook of the Afghan mujaheddin, who forced the Soviets out of their country.

Strategically, it's a war of a thousand small cuts -- some injuries here, deaths there, and car-bomb blasts to sow fear and terror. Like the Afghan rebels fighting the Soviets, the Iraqi fighters are blowing up utility lines, attacking locals who help the occupying forces and making life difficult. In a well-known 1983 action against the Soviet occupation, mujaheddin fighters attacked the central bus depot in Kabul, and destroyed 124 Soviet-supplied buses. "Kabul was without bus transportation for a good while," the mujaheddin commander later told the military historian Ali Jalali, who is now Afghan interior minister. Sound familiar?

The parallels stretch into the area of terrorism against civilians. Americans tend to see terrorism now as an unmitigated evil, but the United States also supported (and generously financed) mujaheddin attacks against Afghan and Soviet civilians in Afghanistan during that war. In a postmortem of the Afghan war by the Russian army general staff, which was later published, analysts counted more than 1,800 terrorist acts against non-military targets in Afghanistan between 1985 and 1987 alone. The commander of a mujaheddin squad that strapped bombs to pushcarts in Kabul and blew up Soviet and Afghan citizens told Jalali years later, "The only difference [between his bombs and those dropped from military aircraft] is the size of the bomb and the means of delivery."

In b

ugnet_: HEED THE CRIES OF THE HUNGRY




Heed the cries of the 
hungry 
Ugandan delegate Jane Ocaya 
hopes this week's WTO summit in Mexico will see western governments doing 
something for Africa's problems rather than protecting their own 
economies Monday September 8, 2003 
As an African woman and 
a Ugandan delegate to the World Trade Organisation ministerial in Mexico this 
week, I will be keeping a Yoruba proverb at the forefront of my mind during my 
time in Cancun. 
It is as follows: "The man who has bread to eat does not appreciate the 
severity of the famine." 
For the millions of poor men, women and children in sub-Saharan Africa who 
are hanging on the fringes of survival, global trade rules appear to be distant. 
But trade is a decisive factor in keeping an individual, a community and a 
nation in poverty. 
Time and again, we have seen that those who negotiate at international 
forums, particularly delegates from rich nations, become so caught up in their 
own interests that they override the welfare of the poor. They forget how their 
own countries developed. 
The recent agreement between the EU and US on agriculture is a prime example. 
That deal, with its emphasis on protecting the west's commodity markets, and 
with very modest movements on subsidies and import tariffs, will do little to 
tackle African hunger and poverty. 
Instead, world prices will continue to be depressed, developing countries' 
export markets will be displaced, and domestic production will undermined. 
We have already seen that happen in the sugar industry. Today, if a 
developing country wants to export sugar to the EU, it has to pay a tariff of 
well over 100%. In the meantime, Europe's sugar barons are heavily subsidised. 
Across Africa, the vast majority of people are subsistence farmers, directly 
relying on the land for their livelihood. 
Increasingly we are seeing poor farmers losing out to big business. Several 
years ago, ActionAid helped the people of Kitemba village, in Uganda, to 
renovate their local school to provide space for more children. Today, that 
school is a coffee company's office. 
The school, the surrounding land that the families farmed, and the homes they 
lived in, were taken away by the Ugandan government to make way for the world's 
largest coffee trading company, the Neumann Kaffee group, to set up a coffee 
plantation. 
If a proposed investment agreement is passed at Cancun this week, corporate 
abuses such as this will be made all the easier. 
In Uganda, our biodiversity is our wealth. However, current trade rules on 
intellectual property and patents threaten to privatise our biological heritage. 
If Africa is not allowed the space to evaluate and regulate the important 
issues, there is an increasing likelihood that many more poor people will be 
displaced. 
Such reluctance to take African needs into account is also at the heart of 
the pharmaceuticals debate. 
One simple fact shows why access to drugs is such a huge issue for Africa. 
Across my, continent almost 30 million people are living with HIV and Aids, but 
only 60,000 currently have access to the anti-retroviral drugs that can prolong 
lives. 
At the WTO last month, concessions were made with one hand and taken away 
with the other. There will now no longer be a limit on the number of diseases 
that can be exempted from patent protection rules, but more red tape has been 
imposed on the import of generic drugs into countries with no drugs industries 
of their own. 
In the meantime, ordinary people hang their heads in despair as family 
members die before their time, children are orphaned and whole communities are 
driven deeper into poverty. 
In the meeting rooms and corridors of the WTO's headquarters in Geneva, there 
has been a concerted effort to challenge the work of African negotiators, 
activists and their supporters. 
Progress can be undermined by a single phone call to a government minister in 
one of our capital cities, arm-twisting through promises on further aid or even 
threats of reprisals for strong positions taken in trade negotiations. 
African leaders must show the political will to stand together in the face of 
bullying by rich countries. There is a desperate need to see unity in Africa and 
with other like-minded regions and countries. We need outcomes to negotiations 
that reflect Africa's development requirements and aspirations. 
I come from a region of Uganda that has been caught up in conflict for almost 
18 years, and in which many people have suffered. However, we have never given 
up hope that there will, eventually, be peace. 
Similarly, as Africa goes into negotiations, I am, despite all the hurdles, 
optimistic. I can see the energy flowing through African countries. 
A crucial factor is that parliamentarians, not just ministers and their 
advisers, are now involved in negotiations. At Cancun, there will be many MPs 
from across Africa. That is important, because parliaments should be able to 
hold their leaders to account. 
Accoun

ugnet_: A PIPE LINE HAS BEEN BLOWN UP IN IRAQ






  
  



  
  

  Saboteurs Attack N. Iraqi Oil Pipeline 
  


  
1 hour, 1 minute ago
  
  By SABAH JERGES, Associated Press 
  Writer 
  KIRKUK, Iraq - Saboteurs struck a critical oil 
  pipeline in northern Iraq (news 
  - web 
  sites) on Monday, the latest in a series of attacks that have halted 
  the country's oil deliveries to Turkey at an estimated cost of $7 million 
  a day. 
   
  Adel al-Qazzaz, director general of the Northern Oil Co., said the line 
  attacked Monday had carried 35,000 barrels a day from the Jabour oil field 
  20 miles southeast of Kirkuk to the main pipeline that originates in the 
  northeastern Iraqi city. 
  
  The official said saboteurs set the line afire at a valve at 10:30 
  a.m., sending huge flames and clouds of smoke into the air. Firefighters 
  had the fire under control by nightfall; about 300 yards of the pipeline 
  were damaged. 
  
  L. Paul Bremer, U.S. civil administrator for Iraq, has estimated the 
  country is losing $7 million daily because of damage to the pipeline that 
  carries oil from the Kirkuk fields to a Mediterranean port at Ceyhan in 
  Turkey. 
  
  Iraq has the world's second-largest proven crude reserves, at 112 
  billion barrels, but its pipelines, pumping stations and oil reservoirs 
  are dilapidated after more than a decade of neglect. The Kirkuk fields 
  account for 40 percent of Iraq's oil production; saboteurs have crippled 
  attempts to resume exports. 
  
  Income from oil exports is crucial to U.S. plans for rebuilding Iraq's 
  infrastructure. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan line, which was first reported attacked 
  Aug. 18, just days after the major export pipeline began carrying oil to 
  Turkey, was expected to remain closed for five more weeks because of 
  Monday's attack. 
  
  For the seventh day in a row, the U.S. military reported no combat 
  deaths Monday  a rare period of calm. 
  
  Nevertheless, Britain announced plans to bolster its force in southern 
  Iraq. London said it would send two additional battalions to Iraq, adding 
  1,200 troops to its 11,000-member force in the region around Basra, the 
  country's second-largest city. 
  
  In the only reported attack on U.S. forces Monday, Iraqi guerrillas 
  bombed an American patrol as soldiers were driving out of a tunnel in the 
  center of Baghdad, the military said. The attack wounded two soldiers, 
  damaged two Humvees, one of which turned over and caught fire. 
  
  Attacks on American troops have become a serious problem for the Bush 
  administration, which is now asking other countries to help restore 
  security in Iraq. Since President Bush (news 
  - web 
  sites) declared major combat over on May 1, 148 American soldiers have 
  died in Iraq, 10 more than the number of deaths before May 1. 
  
  Iraqis who were aware of Bush's Sunday night speech  in which he 
  promised American soldiers would stay in Iraq until the country was 
  peaceful and had established a sovereign, freely elected government  
  seemed split on what he said. All those contacted by The Associated Press 
  said they felt his promise of $21 billion next year for rebuilding Iraq 
  and Afghanistan (news 
  - web 
  sites) was insufficient. 
  
  "Iraq alone will need that much to rebuild and repair everything from 
  water plants to electricity generation and power lines to our oil 
  infrastructure," said Monqith Fathi Abdul-Razzaq, a 45-year-old retired 
  army colonel. 
  
  He said, however, that he felt the situation in Iraq was "getting 
  better day after day." 
  
  But street crime, kidnappings and carjackings still bedevil the country 
  and Bush's words and promised spending were no solace to Moataz Charek, a 
  47-year-old chemical engineer who lost his job after the Americans 
  occupied Iraq. 
  
  "President Bush, with due respect, is lying. He promised freedom. I 
  want to ask him where is my freedom when I don't feel safe leaving the 
  house, when I don't feel my wife is safe when she goes to work, when I 
  don't feel safe sending my children to school," he said. 
  
  Bremer told Iraqis the United States had committed an unprecedented sum 
  for rebuilding the country. 
  
  His remarks expanded on those of Bush, who also said he would ask 
  Congress for $66 billion for military and intelligence work in Iraq and 
  Afghanistan during the coming fiscal year. 
  
  


  
   
  
  
  After a meeting with Iraq's new Public Works Minister Nesreen Berwari, 
  a Kurdish woman, Bremer also promised th

ugnet_: There's Good Reason to Fear US. Article by Noam Chomsky

There's Good Reason to Fear US  

by Noam Chomsky 

09/07/03: (Toronto Star ) Amid the aftershocks of recent suicide bombings in Baghdad and Najaf, and countless other horrors since Sept. 11, 2001, it is easy to understand why many believe that the world has entered a new and frightening "age of terror," the title of a recent collection of essays by Yale University scholars and others. 

However, two years after 9/11, the United States has yet to confront the roots of terrorism, has waged more war than peace and has continually raised the stakes of international confrontation. 

On 9/11, the world reacted with shock and horror, and sympathy for the victims. But it is important to bear in mind that for much of the world, there was a further reaction: "Welcome to the club." 

For the first time in history, a Western power was subjected to an atrocity of the kind that is all too familiar elsewhere. 

Any attempt to make sense of events since then will naturally begin with an investigation of American power — how it has reacted and what course it may take. 

Within a month of 9/11, Afghanistan was under attack. Those who accept elementary moral standards have some work to do to show that the United States and Britain were justified in bombing Afghans to compel them to turn over people suspected of criminal atrocities, the official reason given when the bombings began. 

Then, in September, 2002, the most powerful state in history announced a new National Security Strategy, asserting that it will maintain global hegemony permanently. 

Any challenge will be blocked by force, the dimension in which the United States reigns supreme. 

At the same time, the war drums began to beat to mobilize the population for an invasion of Iraq. 

And the campaign opened for the mid-term congressional elections, which would determine whether the administration would be able to carry out its radical international and domestic agenda. 

The final days of 2002, foreign policy specialist Michael Krepon wrote, were "the most dangerous since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis," which historian Arthur Schlesinger described, reasonably, as "the most dangerous moment in human history." 

Krepon's concern was nuclear proliferation in an "unstable nuclear-proliferation belt stretching from Pyongyang to Baghdad," including "Iran, Iraq, North Korea and the Indian subcontinent." 

Bush administration initiatives in 2002 and 2003 have only increased the threats in and near this unstable belt. 

The National Security Strategy declared that the United States, alone, has the right to carry out "preventive war" — preventive, not pre-emptive — using military force to eliminate a perceived threat, even if invented or imagined. 

Preventive war is, very simply, the "supreme crime" condemned at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. 

From early September, 2002, the Bush administration issued grim warnings about the danger that Saddam Hussein posed to the United States, with broad hints that Saddam was linked to Al Qaeda and involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. The propaganda assault helped enable the administration to gain some support from a frightened population for the planned invasion of a country known to be virtually defenseless— and a valuable prize, at the heart of the world's major energy system. 

Last May, after the putative end of the war in Iraq, President Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared that he had won a "victory in the war on terror (by having) removed an ally of Al Qaeda." 

But Sept. 11, 2003, will arrive with no credible evidence for the alleged link between Saddam and his bitter enemy Osama bin Laden. And the only known link between the victory and terror is that the invasion of Iraq seems to have increased Al Qaeda recruitment and the threat of terror. 

The Wall Street Journal recognized that Bush's carefully staged aircraft-carrier extravaganza "marks the beginning of his 2004 re-election campaign," which the White House hopes "will be built as much as possible around national security themes." 

If the administration lets domestic issues prevail, it is in deep trouble. 

Meanwhile, bin Laden remains at large. And the source of the post-Sept. 11 anthrax terror is unknown — an even more striking failure, given that the source is assumed to be domestic, perhaps even from a federal weapons lab. 

The Iraqi weapons of mass destruction are still missing, too. 

For the second 9/11 anniversary and beyond, we basically have two choices. We can march forward with confidence that the global enforcer will drive evil from the world, much as the president's speech writers declare, plagiarizing ancient epics and children's tales. 

Or we can subject the doctrines of the proclaimed grand new era to scrutiny, drawing rational conclusions, perhaps gaining some sense of the emerging reality. 

The wars that are contemplated in the war on terror are to go on for a long time. 

"There's no telling how many wars it wil

ugnet_: What Can We Do About Terrorism?

What Can We Do About Terrorism?

You said that we are a target because we stand for democracy, freedom, and human rights in the world. Baloney! We are the target of terrorists because we stand for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation in the world. We are the target of terrorists because we are hated. And we are hated because our government has done hateful things.

By Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.

SOME YEARS AGO, terrorists destroyed two U.S. embassies. President Clinton retaliated against suspected facilities of Osama bin Laden. In his television address, the President told the American people that we were the targets of terrorism because we stood for democracy, freedom, and human rights in the world.

On that occasion, I wrote: "Tell people the truth, Mr. President ... about terrorism, not about poor Monica. If your lies about terrorism go unchallenged, then the terror war you have unleashed will likely continue until it destroys us.

"The threat of nuclear terrorism is closing in upon us. Chemical terrorism is at hand, and biological terrorism is a future danger. None of our thousands of nuclear weapons can protect us from these threats. These idols of plutonium, titanium, and steel are impotent. Our worship of them for over five decades has not brought us security, only greater danger. No 'Star Wars' system ... no matter how technically advanced, no matter how many trillions of dollars was poured into it ... can protect us from even a single terrorist bomb.

Not one weapon in our vast arsenal can shield us from a nuclear weapon delivered in a sailboat or a Piper Cub or a suitcase or a Ryder rental truck. Not a penny of the 273 billion dollars a year we spend on so-called defense can actually defend us against a terrorist bomb. Nothing in our enormous military establishment can actually give us one whit of security. That is a military fact.

"Mr. President, you did not tell the American people the truth about why we are the targets of terrorism. You said that we are the target because we stand for democracy, freedom, and human rights in the world. Baloney! We are the target of terrorists because we stand for dictatorship, bondage, and human exploitation in the world. We are the target of terrorists because we are hated. And we are hated because our government has done hateful things.

"In how many countries have we deposed popularly elected leaders and replaced them with puppet military dictators who were willing to sell out their own people to American multinational corporations?

"We did it in Iran when we deposed Mossadegh because he wanted to nationalize the oil industry. We replaced him with the Shah, and trained, armed, and paid his hated Savak national guard, which enslaved and brutalized the people of Iran. All to protect the financial interests of our oil companies. Is it any wonder there are people in Iran who hate us?

"We did it in Chile when we deposed Allende, democratically elected by the people to introduce socialism. We replaced him with the brutal right-wing military dictator, General Pinochet. Chile has still not recovered.

"We did it in Vietnam when we thwarted democratic elections in the South which would have united the country under Ho Chi Minh. We replaced him with a series of ineffectual puppet crooks who invited us to come in and slaughter their people - and we did. (I flew 101 combat missions in that war which you properly opposed.)

"We did it in Iraq, where we killed a quarter of a million civilians in a failed attempt to topple Saddam Hussein, and where we have killed a million since then with our sanctions. About half of these innocent victims have been children under the age of five.

"And, of course, how many times have we done it in Nicaragua and all the other banana republics of Latin America? Time after time we have ousted popular leaders who wanted the riches of the land to be shared by the people who worked it. We replaced them with murderous tyrants who would sell out and control their own people so that the wealth of the land could be taken out by Domino Sugar, the United Fruit Company, Folgers, and Chiquita Banana.

"In country after country, our government has thwarted democracy, stifled freedom, and trampled human rights. That's why we are hated around the world. And that's why we are the target of terrorists.

"People in Canada enjoy better democracy, more freedom, and greater human rights than we do. So do the people of Norway and Sweden. Have you heard of Canadian embassies being bombed? Or Norwegian embassies? Or Swedish embassies. No.

"We are not hated because we practice democracy, freedom, and human rights. We are hated because our government denies these things to people in third world countries whose resources are coveted by our multinational corporations. And that hatred we have sown has come back to haunt us in the form of terrorism - and in the future, nuclear terrorism.

"Once the truth about why the threat exists is under

ugnet_: THE UN RESOLUTIONS




 Israel's supporters try to blame UN for 
terrorism. 

  
  A list of UN Resolutions against "Israel" Here is a 
  list of UN resolutions that Israel has not complied with, far more than Iraq. 
  Note that she has also illegally developed nuclear weapons.  Further, the 
  situation is far worse than would at first appear, it involves the serious 
  distortion of the official Security Council record by the profligate use by 
  the United States of its veto power. (See Table) Israel's, defiance goes back 
  to its very beginnings. This collection of resolutions criticizing Israel is 
  unmatched by the record of any other nation as Israel stands in violation of 
  more UN resolutions than ANY OTHER NATION ON EARTH. A list of UN 
  Resolutions against "Israel" 1955-1992: * Resolution 106: " . . . 
  'condemns' Israel for Gaza raid". * Resolution 111: " . . . 'condemns' 
  Israel for raid on Syria that killed fifty-six people". * Resolution 127: " . 
  . . 'recommends' Israel suspends it's 'no-man's zone' in Jerusalem". * 
  Resolution 162: " . . . 'urges' Israel to comply with UN decisions". * 
  Resolution 171: " . . . determines flagrant violations' by Israel in its 
  attack on Syria".  Resolution 228: " . . . 'censures' Israel for its 
  attack on Samu in the West Bank, then under Jordanian control". * 
  Resolution 237: " . . . 'urges' Israel to allow return of new 1967 
  Palestinian refugees".  Resolution 248: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for its 
  massive attack on Karameh in Jordan". * Resolution 250: " . . . 'calls' on 
  Israel to refrain from holding military parade in Jerusalem". * Resolution 
  251: " . . . 'deeply deplores' Israeli military parade in Jerusalem in 
  defiance of Resolution 250". * Resolution 252: " . . . 'declares invalid' 
  Israel's acts to unify Jerusalem as Jewish capital". * Resolution 256: " . 
  . . 'condemns' Israeli raids on Jordan as 'flagrant violation". * Resolution 
  259: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to accept UN mission to probe 
  occupation". * Resolution 262: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for attack on 
  Beirut airport". * Resolution 265: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for air 
  attacks for Salt in Jordan". * Resolution 267: " . . . 'censures' Israel for 
  administrative acts to change the status of Jerusalem". *Resolution 270: " 
  . . . 'condemns' Israel for air attacks on villages in southern Lebanon". * 
  Resolution 271: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's failure to obey UN resolutions 
  on Jerusalem". * Resolution 279: " . . . 'demands' withdrawal of Israeli 
  forces from Lebanon". * Resolution 280: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli's attacks 
  against Lebanon". * Resolution 285: " . . . 'demands' immediate Israeli 
  withdrawal form Lebanon". * Resolution 298: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's 
  changing of the status of Jerusalem". * Resolution 313: " . . . 'demands' that 
  Israel stop attacks against Lebanon". * Resolution 316: " . . . 'condemns' 
  Israel for repeated attacks on Lebanon". * Resolution 317: " . . . 'deplores' 
  Israel's refusal to release Arabs abducted in Lebanon". * Resolution 332: 
  " . . . 'condemns' Israel's repeated attacks against Lebanon". * Resolution 
  337: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for violating Lebanon's sovereignty". * 
  Resolution 347: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli attacks on Lebanon". * 
  Resolution 425: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to withdraw its forces from 
  Lebanon". * Resolution 427: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to complete its 
  withdrawal from Lebanon. * Resolution 444: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's lack of 
  cooperation with UN peacekeeping forces". * Resolution 446: " . . . 
  'determines' that Israeli settlements are a 'serious obstruction' to peace and 
  calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention". * Resolution 
  450: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to stop attacking Lebanon". * Resolution 
  452: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied 
  territories". * Resolution 465: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's settlements 
  and asks all member states not to assist Israel's settlements program". * 
  Resolution 467: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's military intervention 
  in Lebanon". * Resolution 468: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to rescind illegal 
  expulsions of two Palestinian mayors and a judge and to facilitate their 
  return". * Resolution 469: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's failure to 
  observe the council's order not to deport Palestinians". * Resolution 471: 
  " . . . 'expresses deep concern' at Israel's failure to abide by the Fourth 
  Geneva Convention". * Resolution 476: " . . . 'reiterates' that Israel's 
  claim to Jerusalem are 'null and void'". * Resolution 478: " . . . 'censures 
  (Israel) in the strongest terms' for its claim to Jerusalem in its 'Basic 
  Law'". * Resolution 484: " . . . 'declares it imperative' that Israel re- 
  admit two deported Palestinian mayors". * Resolution 487: " . . . 
  'strongly condemns' Israel for its attack on Iraq's nuclear facility"

ugnet_: TV fiction glosses over ugly facts

TV fiction glosses over ugly facts

Maureen Dowd September 7, 2003

WASHINGTON -- On one channel tonight, we can watch the iconic side of the Bush presidency. In the risibly revisionist Showtime movie "DC 9/11: Time of Crisis," George W. Bush is Vin Diesel-tough as he battles terrorists. "If some tinhorn terrorist wants me, tell him to come get me," the fictional president fictionally snaps on Air Force One after the 9/ll attacks. "I'll just be waiting for the bastard." On network channels at the same time -- W is pre-empting himself! -- we can watch the ironic side of the Bush presidency. Even though Bush the Younger has done everything in his power not to replicate the fate of his dad, he is replicating the fate of his dad. Only months after swaggering out of a successful war with Iraq, he is struggling with the economy. His numbers have fallen so fast, Top Gun is now tap dancing. He will address the nation to try to underscore the imaginary line that links the budget-busting pit of Iraq to the heartbreaking pit of 9/11.

Just as the father failed to finish off Saddam, so the son has failed to finish off Saddam. Just as the conservatives once carped that the father did not go far enough in Iraq, now the "cakewalk" crowd carps that the son does not go far enough.

"We need to get Iraq right, and we're trying to do it a little bit on the cheap," Bill Kristol, the Weekly Standard editor, chastised on "Nightline." "I think we could use more troops; we could certainly use more money."

The more you do, the more you need to do. That's the Mideast quicksand, which is why it is so important to know how you're going to get out before you get sucked in.

Dick Cheney's dark idea that a show of brutal force would scare off terrorists has ended up creating more terrorists.

Sunday night will be a stomach-churning moment for Bush, and he must be puzzling over how he got snarled in this nightmare, with Old Europe making him beg, North Korea making him wince, the deficit making him cringe, the lost manufacturing jobs making him gulp; with the hawks caving in to the United Nations and to old Saddam Baath army members who want to rebuild a security force; with Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., demanding the unilateral heads of Rummy and Wolfie, so that "Uncle Sam doesn't become Uncle Sucker"; with the FBI warning that more Islamic terrorists who know how to fly planes may be burrowing into our neighborhoods.

Does Bush ever wonder if the neocons duped him and hijacked his foreign policy? Some Middle East experts think some of the neocons painted a rosy picture for the president of Arab states blossoming with democracy when they really knew this could not be accomplished so easily; they may have cynically suspected that it was far more likely that the Middle East would fall into chaos and end up back in its pre-Ottoman Empire state, Balkanized into a tapestry of rival fiefs -- based on tribal and ethnic identities, with no central government -- so busy fighting each other that they would be no threat to us, or Israel.

The administration is worried now about Jordan and Saudi Arabia in the face of roiling radicalism.

Some veterans of Bush 41 think that the neocons packaged their "inverted Trotskyism," as writer John Judis dubbed their rabid desire to export their "idealistic concept of internationalism," so that it appealed to Bush 43's born-again sense of divine mission and to the desire of Bush, Rummy and Cheney to achieve immortality by transforming the Middle East and the military.

These realpolitik veterans of Bush 41 say that Bush pere, an old-school internationalist who ceaselessly tried to charm allies as U.N. ambassador and in the White House, "agonized" over the bullying approach his son's administration used at the U.N. and around the globe.

Some of the father's old circle are thinking about forming a Republican group that would speak out against the neocons. "What's happening in Iraq is puzzling," said one Bush 41 official. "The president ran on no-nation-building. Now we're in this drifting, aimless empire that is not helping the road map to peace."

W has always presented himself as the heir of Reagan, and dissed his father's presidency, using it as a template of what not to do.

But as he tries to dig himself out on Sunday night, he may wish he had emulated the old man, at least when it comes to slicing the deficit and playing nice with the allies.

Maureen Dowd's e-mail address is [EMAIL PROTECTED]

ugnet_: What do Iraq, Vietnam, Bay of Pigs have in common?

What do Iraq, Vietnam, Bay of Pigs have in common?
BY WALTER PINCUS

It has all the elements of a summer potboiler: a president obsessed with overthrowing a foreign leader, an intelligence chief on the hot seat, and the clash of cultures between American soldiers abroad and the people of a proud foreign nation.

But the book I've been reading is no potboiler. It's A Look Over My Shoulder, the recently published memoir by the late Richard Helms, the legendary CIA director who died last October and whose retrospective account of the use and misuse of intelligence during his experience with Cuba and Vietnam four decades ago bears a sobering resemblance to what appears to be happening today with Iraq.

The word that comes to mind about U.S. policy when reading Helms isn't ''quagmire.'' It's ignorance or maybe arrogance -- combined with a willful disregard of facts that do not correspond with the personal or political priorities of American decision makers. And for this reason, Helms' story is one that deserves attention, not just on the pages of book review sections, but in the White House itself.

Helms, who took over the running of Cuban covert operations during the Kennedy administration, describes how President John F. Kennedy and his brother, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, were fixated on ousting Fidel Castro almost to the exclusion of other, more serious, world problems. To readers today, there is an obvious parallel to President Bush and his administration's singular focus on Saddam Hussein and regime change in Iraq while pushing aside the war on terrorism and other international issues.

JFK's fixation on Castro stemmed from the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion. The Bush fixation arises in part from his view and the view of those around him that his father should have taken out Saddam in 1991 at the time of the first Gulf War. Bush is also settling a score over the alleged 1993 Iraqi plot to kill the senior Bush.

''It was the ouster of Castro and his unelected government that interested the president,'' Helms wrote of the early 1960s. ``The agency's operational arm was stretched taut and thin. Our response to President Kennedy's demands had already resulted in what must have been the largest peacetime secret intelligence operation in history.''

Yet Kennedy failed in a task that many thought would be, to borrow a more recent phrase, a cakewalk. Helms quotes then-CIA inspector general Lyman Kirkpatrick, who back in 1962 attributed the Bay of Pigs failure to a series of miscalculations:

• An overall lack of recognition on the part of the U.S. Government as to the magnitude of the operation required to overthrow Fidel Castro.

• ``The failure on the part of the U.S. Government to plan for all contingencies at the time of the Cuban operation including the necessity for using regular U.S. military forces in the event that the exiled Cubans could not do the job themselves.

• ``The failure on the part of the U.S. Government to be willing to commit to the Cuban operation as planned and executed those necessary resources required for its success.''

Sounds familiar, particularly when you substitute Iraq for Cuba.

The U.S. focus on Cuba as a potential communist threat in the midst of the Cold War became self-fulfilling as the Soviets arrived with their missiles, creating a major confrontation. The Bush administration's unproven allegations of Iraqi links with terrorists who threatened the United States also have become self-fulfilling. The charges helped justify the U.S. invasion and now Islamic fighters from throughout the Middle East are attacking Americans inside Iraq.

Perhaps the most distressing parallels arise from Helms' retelling of incidents from the Vietnam War period. In both cases, there was a tendency to accentuate the positive -- and suppress the negative.

When Helms' deputy testified before Congress and mentioned the high number of civilian casualties caused by the U.S. bombing of North Vietnam military and industrial targets, President Johnson got hold of the CIA director the next day and told him, '`The next time you or one of your fellows plans to mention civilian casualties in North Vietnam, I want you both to come down and have a drink with me before you go to testify on the Hill.' There was no more sensitive subject for President Johnson than civilian casualties in that war,'' Helms writes.

When was the last time anyone heard a Bush administration official discuss Iraqi civilian casualties?

CIA Director George Tenet has probably suffered the same discomfort over Bush's public statements about Iraq that Helms had when Johnson repeatedly publicized the good news about the war in Vietnam.

Like Helms, Tenet has, at times, tried to play the honest interpreter in the National Security Council and other White House meetings. Tenet spoke up when intelligence was going to be misused in one of Bush's speeches on Iraq in October 2002, but it is less clear what interventions the CIA di

ugnet_: What about the 90-day occupation?

What about the 90-day occupation?

Jay Bookman

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 9/8/03: Last February, with invasion just weeks away, sources in the Bush administration told Newsweek that they were expecting a postwar occupation of Iraq of 30 to 90 days.

"Every day you get past three months, you've got to expect peacekeepers to have a bull's-eye on their head," the sources explained.

Even at the time, a spokesman for Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith suggested that three months might be too optimistic. It was probably wiser to think five or six months on the outside, Lt. Col. Michael Humm said.

At the time, Pentagon officials also claimed that Iraq's oil wealth would make it unnecessary to ask other countries for financial help with reconstruction. "I don't see the need for panhandling like that," the Pentagon source said.

A month later, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz issued his own warning of how tough the occupation would be. Ruling Iraq, he said, would be like ruling liberated France after World War II.

He and his colleagues ought to be fired. Not only did they believe those fantasies, they also made their ideological pipe dreams the basis of our postwar planning, and today we're reaping the consequences.

Just last week, retired Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni fiercely lambasted our postwar planning, warning that "there is no strategy or mechanism for putting the pieces together." As a result, "we're in danger of failing." His audience, comprising Navy and Marine officers, broke out in prolonged applause.

A day or two earlier, someone in the Pentagon had leaked a top-secret analysis -- commissioned by the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- that had also been harshly critical of the Pentagon's occupation planning.

In response, defenders of postwar planning in essence ask, "Who knew . . . ?"

Who knew Iraq's oil industry was so decrepit? Who predicted guerrilla war? Who knew it would cost so much? Who knew that the Iraqi army, which we disbanded back in May, would have been so useful in keeping peace?

Well, a lot of people knew. The administration simply did not listen.

Nine months ago, the well-respected Center for Strategic and International Studies warned that we were sorely ill-prepared for an occupation, listing 10 key steps the United States had to take before invading. Not one was achieved.

The CSIS report cautioned that Iraqi oil proceeds could not begin to cover reconstruction costs. It warned that the Iraqi army had an important role to play, and recommended a donors conference be convened even before war began.

It stressed, in underline and in italics, "Do not underestimate post-conflict security needs."

Another report, this one by the Council on Foreign Relations and the James A. Baker Institute for Public Policy, also stressed the importance of maintaining the Iraqi army, and it too warned against "a great deal of wishful thinking about Iraqi oil." Released in December, it estimated that up to $100 billion would be needed to reconstruct Iraq.

But perhaps the most perceptive work was done by the U.S. Army War College, the military's own think tank. Its report, issued in February, reads like an after-the-fact autopsy:

• "Having entered into Iraq, the United States will find itself unable to leave rapidly, despite the many pressures to do so."

• "A small number of terrorists could reasonably choose to attack U.S. forces in the hope that they can incite an action-reaction cycle that will enhance their cause and increase their numbers."

• "If the United States assumes control of Iraq, it will assume control of a badly battered economy."

• "To tear apart the [Iraqi] army in the war's aftermath could lead to the destruction of one of the only forces for unity within the society."

Most chilling of all, however, is the report's conclusion:

"Without an overwhelming effort to prepare for occupation, the United States may find itself in a radically different world over the next few years, a world in which the threat of Saddam Hussein seems like a pale shadow of new problems of America's own making."

Like I said, these guys ought to be fired.

ugnet_: Heavy odds against winning

2003-09-08 Thread Owor Kipenji

Comment Tuesday, September 9, 2003

Heavy odds against winning the peaceBy HENRY OWUOR
A nightmare scenario, that is what the US is facing in Iraq.
Five months after its swift victory over Saddam Hussein's forces, it has lost 148 soldiers from sporadic attacks organised by a force about whose origin even senior Pentagon officers have admitted they are no wiser.
During the war, early this year, the US lost 138 soldiers. That more troops have been killed since the war was declared over means the occupation is going very badly.
One would have hoped that the killings of soldiers was tragic enough. However, a new tactic has entered the picture: Suicide or truck bombs. The first target was the Jordanian embassy, where 12 people were killed.
Next in line was the UN headquarters in Baghdad, with Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top UN official in Iraq, among the 22 victims.
The attack triggered off evacuations of all but essential staff by humanitarian organisations like the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross. One aid agency, Oxfam, ended its Iraq operations altogether.
The next blast came at a shrine in the holy city of Najaf, 190 kms south of Baghdad, killing 80 faithful, among them the Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim, whose body could not even be found.
After the three blasts, where next the "bomb'' will go off in Baghdad or anywhere else in Iraq is a secret just open to the groups organising the resistance against US forces in this land blessed with abundant oil, the precious commodity that drives the world crazy.
At this juncture, to understand what is going on in Iraq, the US needs just to look back at Somalia in 1993. After outgoing President George Bush (Senior) sent in troops late in 1992, incoming President Bill Clinton had to pull out after losing close to 60 soldiers, some of whose bodies had been dragged through the streets of Mogadishu by fighters of warlord Mohamed Aideed.
Clearly defeated, the US pulled out of Somalia and left the United Nations to keep guard. It may be recalled that even UN troops, especially the Pakistanis, suffered many casualties and had to pull out, leaving Somalia to the warlords.
On Iraq, it was sweet victory for the US as TV stations beamed images of Saddam's downfall, his many statues toppled and the masses carting off his belongings from his magnificent palaces.
Add to this the fact that the US had less then two years earlier toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the September 11, 2001, attacks, it was a question of who next after Iraq.
No wonder Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi reached a quick settlement over a bombed American airliner.
Months later, the lesson in Iraq is that occupation is much more difficult than the march to a nation's capital, especially when there are no strong allies to help rule the conquered country. Iraq is surely no playground for any foreign troops.
Having found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the US needs to pull out its forces and hand over the country to the UN, which should immediately prepare it for elections. Any cosmetic measures will just pile up the toll of young soldiers.
A larger occupation force, as is currently being discussed at the UN, may simply mean more casualties for the occupying forces.
The countries preparing to send troops to Iraq need to recall that, just the other day, German soldiers were killed in a bombing in Afghanistan where they are helping the US restore order after the overthrow of the Taliban.
Recalling the debate over justification for attacking Iraq, early this year, one cannot compare it to the post-September 11 days, when even Col Gaddafi said the US was justified to seek out Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from his mountain hideouts in Afghanistan.
In Iraq, questions linger over the justification for the war. In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair is trying his best to wriggle his way out of the crisis caused by the suicide of his top expert on Iraq.
It is now clear that after the resignation of Mr Blair's media guru, Mr Alastair Campbell, the next victim will be Mr Blair himself, especially if Judge Lord Hutton, the man chairing the probe into weapons expert David Kelley's death, criticises the Blair government's handling of the crisis caused by an alleged leak to a BBC journalist by the expert.
President Bush, for his part, need not worry as most Americans backed the war even if the alleged weapons of mass destruction were never found.
However, with the US election campaign picking up speed, the failure to find any weapons of mass destruction will surely cause Bush to sweat when he finally faces his Democratic challenger in elections late next year.
It is in his interest to keep the Iraqi occupation going even if it means loss of American lives. He dare not pull out before he wins a new term.

Mr Owuor is the Foreign Editor, Daily Nation.Comments\Views about this article

ugnet_: Lessons from the Kenya Veep's death

2003-09-08 Thread Owor Kipenji





Comment  Tuesday, September 9, 2003  



Lessons from Wamalwa's deathBy DAVID MAKALI 
Saturday's state burial of Vice-President Michael Wamalwa brought the curtain down on two weeks of national mourning proclaimed by President Kibaki. 
Condolence and felicitation messages have flowed over the loss of a man so loved, a politician so gentle.  
The expanse of the newsprint and airtime dedicated to mourning him has surpassed that of his mentors, Jaramogi Odinga and Masinde Muliro, the two most colossal losses of the last 10 years  indeed, the only ones who exceeded Mr Wamalwa's stature.  
But while we pay tribute and bid farewell to our illustrious  yet not too lucky  compatriot, we must also ponder certain important questions that will not rest even after his burial. 
First is the precedent we have set. Two weeks of state mourning, many agree, was rather tenuous and too expensive. 
Is that standard sustainable? If it is two weeks for the VP how many days shall we officially mourn a president or a speaker? How shall we treat the deaths of other notables who are not politicians or do not hold political office? 
Secondly, it is well that Mr Wamalwa was interred at his Kitale home, a proposal to do so at an undefined Heroes Square having failed. Precisely who or which heroes will be buried at such a national cemetery is far from settled.  
Because political values are defined by those who wield power, we are likely to end up with a discriminatory use of such a tag as "hero". 
Just as many did not approve of some of the people President Moi rewarded with commendation medals, so is the current Government likely to face that challenge.  
Then there is the recurrent question of our leaders' health and what we (should) know. While he convalesced in London, several delegations who visited Mr Wamalwa found it morally suitable to encourage the country when it was apparent that their statements were not based on medical facts but were common euphemisms during an important person's illness. 
His death was unexpected. But those who knew him better say he had been in bad shape for a while. The question is: Didn't his visitors have an obligation to inform the country correctly on the VPs health?  
Granted that the health of every individual is a private affair, we need to find a standard for handling the status of public officials who impact on the lives of others. 
Leadership demands that leaders use their influential positions in society to mobilise the public against afflictions. 
It is a fact that the clinic Mr Wamalwa checked into in London is noted for outstanding work relating to HIV/Aids. It has also been established that one of the causes of pancreatitis, which the Vice-President was suffering from, is excessive use of anti-retrovirals.  
We are not saying Mr Wamalwa, or other leaders who have died in the recent past, suffered from these diseases. But how exemplary it would be, for instance, if parliamentarians formed a lobby called MPs Against HIV or Leaders Combating Cancer and began to aggressively crusade against these killers.  
That would create public awareness and add value to the rhetoric of the august House. President Kibaki must have had that in mind when he participated in an ill-fated filming for a campaign against Aids early this year.  
First Lady Lucy has taken up that mantle as part of the mission of African First Ladies. Still, she needs a helping hand in that onerous job. 
Early this year, Mr Wamalwas wife, Yvonne, kicked off a campaign against Aids and became the goodwill envoy of the Princess Diana Foundation. Diana attached her beauty and humanity to the mission to eradicate land mines, which have killed thousands in armed conflict and left many orphaned or maimed children in Africa. She died a heroine. 
Mr Wamalwa died in a London hospital, which raises fundamental questions about the state of our healthcare system. If every important person who falls ill  from the president to his ministers  must seek medical treatment overseas, what about those who cannot afford it? Think about public health. 
I have heard people complain that the Narc administration is fated with bad omen, which is why many of its leaders are dying.  
That is yet more politics. I have a hunch our leaders are dying in proportion to other ordinary Kenyans. The difference is that some will make it to the headlines and others will not even receive a footnote.  
I knew Mr Wamalwa as a journalist would a newsmaker. He was a perfect gentleman with infectious charm. But as a politician, he was less adventurous and his modest achievements exceeded him in death.  
It is appropriate to say that, as a journalist, I have lost a most personable news source and subject. 


Makali is the director of The Media Institute.Comments\Views about this article




 



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ugnet_: Arrow Boys Are UPDF Reserves

Awangee Banauganda... KITALO... the ant is in Yosweri Pants!!

Arrow Boys Are UPDF Reserves

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The Monitor (Kampala)

OPINION
September 8, 2003
Posted to the web September 8, 2003

Yoweri Museveni
Kampala

The small standing army has defeated Kony...Maybe the only question to ask is, why he has not been eliminated?

It is tragic to read about the puerile lies and misinformation by the editor of The Monitor in his editorial of September 5, 2003.

The Monitor is very worried about the people's uprising against their ally - [Joseph] Kony. The Monitor and those that have, for long, been the enemies of democracy, principled unity of the people and social transformation are very worried about the people's uprising.

Their lies go as follows:

* By the people taking up arms, it means that "UPDF has failed to do their constitutional duty of defending the people";

* By the people taking up arms to defend their families, their peace and their development, it means that "the society is being militarised";

* "If Kony has not been defeated by the UPDF, what chances do the armed civilians have? They will simply be massacred by the rebels".

What a wonderful "engineer" of lies for sinister motives The Monitor is?

Let us deal with the lies one by one:

* "The UPDF has failed; that is why the people are taking up arms to defend themselves." What, then, is UPDF? The Monitor does not know that it is the Uganda People's Defence Forces. It is a defence force comprising of the people of Uganda. Right from the beginning, we enunciated the line of democratising the gun. This was in order to prevent the dictatorships that used to use narrow tribal armies.

Indeed, Article 3(4) of the 1995 Constitution makes it mandatory for all able-bodied Ugandans to master military science in order to defend the sovereignty of Uganda and the Constitution. Kony and his allies - including The Monitor - have for long been violating both. They are traitors, who work with external sinister forces to kill our people, infect children with Aids, and disrupt development programmes. In so doing, they also violate the Constitution.

The Kony bandits with their internal and their external allies should expect the legitimate fury of the overwhelming majority of the people of Uganda. The people of Uganda have more than the legitimate cause to fight Kony and his internal and external backers.

In order to remind The Monitor, there is no distinction between UPDF and the people. Surely, Monitor remembers that in 1991, we opted for a small standing army that would be a nucleus of a vast National Defence Force. A small standing army comprised of officers, NCOs and technical teams, as well as a very large militia force. When there are no security threats, we only maintain the small standing army, Police and intelligence services. When there are security threats, then, we call up a militia force to expand the capacity of the national defence.

In the last 17 years, we have trained two million fighters through mchakamchaka. Therefore, the Arrow groups, the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) of Karamoja, the LDUs in all parts of the country, are all part of the vast national defence capacity. Therefore, those who have been making trouble should have known the ultimate consequences of their treason.

We have been reluctant to activate this vast potential in order not to squander resources. This is why, in spite of being in conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sudan, etc, mainly combating terrorists sponsored by some regional states, we have maintained a peacetime budget at only 2 percent of GDP.

However, those that are associated with treason and terrorism should know the ultimate consequences of their actions. If ever we need to go to a wartime budget, it will be done. Therefore, the activation of the militia groups, who are the reserves of the UPDF, should not be surprising except to those blinded by greed and evil mindedness like The Monitor.

If you fly over Acholi and, now some parts of Teso and Lango, you see numerous brand new buildings for schools, health centres, etc. with shining mabaati (iron sheets). People's personal homes in areas like Teso are, for the first time, being built in permanent materials. It is the idea of interfering with these wonderful developments and also interfering with the children's schooling timetable that drives the population mad.

Therefore, UPDF has not failed in their duty. On account of persistent terrorist activities, UPDF is calling up reserves. Fortunately, on account of huge anger against the traitors, there is massive over-subscription in terms of volunteers.

This is mainly because of the great development programmes that have opened people's eyes. We are training selected numbers from these militias. The traitors will be overwhelmed by the might of the united people of Uganda.

"Are t

ugnet_: Re: Army Supports Using Militia to Fight Rebel Group

In a message dated 9/8/2003 3:56:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

Opondo said they were provided with guns so they could defend themselves against the LRA, who were also armed. "We are keeping track of every last bullet we hand out, and at night we take back the guns we give out for safekeeping. Everything is accountable," he said.



Listen to this...so at night NRM/UPDF takes back the guns given to the so called arrow group. Impying that the Arrow  Groups is but sitting ducks for the so called LRA rebels  during night time!!

Matek

ugnet_: Re: Army Supports Using Militia to Fight Rebel Group

In a message dated 9/8/2003 3:56:08 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

In the last few weeks, slowly but surely, we are neutralising [LRA leader Joseph] Kony in Teso. By 'neutralise' I mean we are diminishing his means to make war," army spokesperson Maj Shaban Bantariza told IRIN.


Bantariza said the Ugandan army, with the help of local militia like the Teso "Arrow Group", had in the last month recovered several hundred guns from the LRA, freed around 900 abductees and killed hundreds of rebel fighters. IT WAS NOT  IMMEDIATELY POSSIBLE  TO OBTAIN INDEPENDENT  CONFIRMATION OF THIS.

"We are training a number of militias as zonal forces. We have already trained, passed out and armed six subcounties [the second smallest unit of local government after the village]," he continued.

ugnet_: Re: Arm Acholi Youths, Says Ali

In a message dated 9/8/2003 3:52:19 PM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

Ali said some of the ambushes attributed to the LRA rebels were carried out by civilians who wanted to benefit from the insecurity there.

ugnet_: Arm Acholi Youths, Says Ali

Arm Acholi Youths, Says Ali



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New Vision (Kampala)

September 8, 2003 
Posted to the web September 8, 2003 

Charles Ariko
Kampala 

THE First Deputy Premier, Lt. Gen. Moses Ali, has said Acholi youth should be armed to help fight the LRA rebels in northern Uganda.

"We need to recruit more LDUs and homeguards in the Acholi region. It appears this is the policy now," Ali said.


"If other areas have been allowed to get arms, why not Acholi?" Ali said.

He was referring to the local militias, The Arrow Group in Teso and the Rhino Group in Lango, which were recently armed by government.

Ali was on Friday speaking as the chief guest at the inauguration of a new executive of the Acholi Parliamentary Group at the residence of Lamwo county MP Hillary Onek in Luzira.

Veteran politician Zachary Olum is the new chairman, while Onek is the deputy.

The inauguration was attended by the Acholi paramount chief, Rwot Achana and several MPs, most them from the Acholi sub-region.

Ali said some of the ambushes attributed to the LRA rebels were carried out by civilians who wanted to benefit from the insecurity there.

"If we identify those who are supporting the rebellion, it will help us end this war," Ali said.

ugnet_: Army Supports Using Militia to Fight Rebel Group

Army Supports Using Militia to Fight Rebel Group

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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

September 8, 2003
Posted to the web September 8, 2003

Kampala

The Ugandan government has said that its technique of arming militia groups in the eastern Teso region is succeeding in weakening the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group.

"In the last few weeks, slowly but surely, we are neutralising [LRA leader Joseph] Kony in Teso. By 'neutralise' I mean we are diminishing his means to make war," army spokesperson Maj Shaban Bantariza told IRIN.

Bantariza said the Ugandan army, with the help of local militia like the Teso "Arrow Group", had in the last month recovered several hundred guns from the LRA, freed around 900 abductees and killed hundreds of rebel fighters. It was not immediately possible to obtain independent confirmation of this.

"We are training a number of militias as zonal forces. We have already trained, passed out and armed six subcounties [the second smallest unit of local government after the village]," he continued.

Government spokesman Ofwono Opondo told IRIN the militias were being used mostly for intelligence gathering. "Their main work is to give intelligence and track the movements of suspected infiltrators. The bulk are from Acholi [northern] and Langi [northeastern] tribes so they speak the language of the LRA."

Opondo said they were provided with guns so they could defend themselves against the LRA, who were also armed. "We are keeping track of every last bullet we hand out, and at night we take back the guns we give out for safekeeping. Everything is accountable," he said.

Uganda's involvement of local militia groups in its war against the LRA has received mixed reactions, with some Members of Parliament and international observers fearing it could be creating future warlords. They say the government's effort to militarise eastern Uganda is a repeat of mistakes already made in the north of the country.

"I know people think these militias are something new," said David Achana, a senior representative of the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative, a group trying to encourage dialogue between the government and the LRA. "But militia groups have been armed in northern Uganda before. They did it in the early 90s. It had very limited success. It was because of it that the LRA started punishing the people of Acholi by chopping off hands and mutilating [them]."

ugnet_: Army Supports Using Militia to Fight Rebel Group

Army Supports Using Militia to Fight Rebel Group

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UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

September 8, 2003
Posted to the web September 8, 2003

Kampala

The Ugandan government has said that its technique of arming militia groups in the eastern Teso region is succeeding in weakening the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group.

"We are training a number of militias as zonal forces. We have already trained, passed out and armed six subcounties [the second smallest unit of local government after the village]," he continued.

ugnet_: Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq

Weapons of Mass Deception:
The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq

by Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber

U.S. publisher: Tarcher/Penguin
Bookstore price: $11.95 U.S. / $17.99 Canada
ISBN 1-58542-276-2

United Kingdom publisher: Constable & Robinson
Bookstore price: £6.99
ISBN 1-84119-837-4

Australian Publisher: Hodder Headline Australia
Bookstore price: AU $19.95
ISBN 0-73361-812-X

Ask for it in your local bookstore or order it directly. To order by mail, send $15/book (includes postage & handling) to: CMD, 520 University Avenue, Suite 310, Madison, WI 53703.

Description
Contents
About the Authors
Book Reviews and Author Interviews
Order Online:
United States
United Kingdom
Australia
Webmasters: Add a WMD banner ad to your site “No more bed-time stories ... these guys are here to wake you up.”
--Greg Palast

“A major contribution for those who want to take control of their own future, not be passive subjects of manipulation and control.”
--Noam Chomsky

It was a day for the history books. On April 9th, 2003, millions of Americans sat glued to their television sets as U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens joined together to topple the statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad’s Firdos Square. Like the fall of the Berlin wall, the fall of Saddam’s statue appeared to be one of those iconic moments that proved - spontaneously and undeniably - that democracy would always triumph over totalitarianism, that freedom was the great equalizer.
“If you don’t have goose bumps now,” said Fox News anchor David Asman as the extraordinary footage rolled, “you will never have them in your life.”

“Jubilant Iraqis Swarm the Streets of Capital,” read the New York Times headline.

Or did they?

In their eye-opening new exposé, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush’s War on Iraq, Rampton and Stauber take no prisoners as they reveal - headline by headline, news show by news show, press conference by press conference - the deliberate, aggressive, and highly successful public relations campaign that sold the Iraqi war to the American public. April 9th seemed to confirm what Washington and pro-war pundits had been saying for months: that the Iraqi people would eventually come to see America as their liberator, not their enemy. Yet the American media chose to focus on headlines such as “Iraqis Celebrate in Baghdad” (Washington Post) rather than on a Reuters long-shot photo of Firdos Square showing it to be nearly empty, or the Muslim cleric who was assassinated by an angry crowd in Najaf for being too friendly to the Americans, or the 20,000 Iraqis in Nasiriyah rallying to oppose the U.S. military presence.

We’ve always known what good PR and advertising could do for a new line of sneakers, cosmetics, or weight-loss products. In Weapons of Mass Deception, Rampton and Stauber show us a brave new shocking world where savvy marketers, “information warriors,” and “perception managers” can sell an entire war to consumers. Indeed, Washington successfully brought together the world’s top ad agencies and media empires to create “Operation: Iraqi Freedom” - a product no decent, patriotic citizen could possibly object to. With meticulous research and documentation, Rampton and Stauber deconstruct this and other “true lies” behind the war:

Top Bush officials advocated the invasion of Iraq even before he took office, but waited until September 2002 to inform the public, through what the White House termed a “product launch.”
White House officials used repetition and misinformation - the “big lie” tactic - to create the false impression that Iraq was behind the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States, especially in the case of the alleged meeting in Prague five months earlier between 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and Iraqi intelligence officials.
The “big lie” tactic was also employed in the first Iraq war when a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl named Nayirah told the horrific - but fabricated - story of Iraqi soldiers wrenching hundreds of premature Kuwaiti babies from their incubators and leaving them to die. Her testimony was printed in a press kit prepared by Citizens for a Free Kuwait, a PR front group created by Hill and Knowlton, then the world’s largest PR firm.
In order to achieve “third party authenticity” in the Muslim world, a group called the Council of American Muslims for Understanding launched its own web site, called OpenDialogue.com. However, its chairman admitted that the idea began with the State Department, and that the group was funded by the U.S. government.
Forged documents were used to “prove” that Iraq possessed huge stockpiles of banned weapons.
A secretive PR firm working for the Pentagon helped create the Iraqi National Congress (INC), which became one of the driving forces behind the decision to go to war. Weapons of Mass Deception is the first book to expose the aggressive public relations campaign used to sell the American public on the war with Iraq. It is a must-read for

ugnet_: Africans "intolerant "over gay bishop

2003-09-08 Thread Owor Kipenji

Last Updated: Monday, 8 September, 2003, 15:56 GMT 16:56 UK

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Africans 'intolerant' over gay bishop

Bishop Robinson was just being honest, says the archbishopA South African church leader has defended the appointment of an openly gay bishop in the United States against the criticism of other African archbishops.
The Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane, said the apointment of gay people to the clergy was not a question of faith and doctrine but a matter of church order.
"There is an assumption that there are no god loving and god fearing people in the United States," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa.
He said the subject of women priests and divorce was treated differently by different Anglican communions and homosexuality should be no different.
"Each of the autonomous churches within the Anglican church has its own structures. We have to respect these structures whether we agree with them or not, " he said.
"If the church in the US wants to do its thing then that's its business"

Mr Ndungane also warned against the selective use of bible passages in the debate on homosexuality, adding that in the past quotes from the bible had been used to defend slavery and apartheid.
Gene Robinson's appointment as bishop of New Hampshire in August led to warnings from evangelical and conservative Anglicans that it could split the church.
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, backed by many other African church leaders, led criticism of the appointment, describing it as "a Satanic attack on God's church".
Hypocritical?
In comments to the British Guardian newspaper, Mr Ndungane said it was arrogant to assume that Americans did not know what they were doing and said there were other issues that should be priorities for the Anglican church - such as world hunger, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Aids.
He also urged Africa's leaders to be careful of appearing hypocritical.

Africa's church is deeply conservative"There is a woman waiting to be stoned to death for adultery in Nigeria and yet we are not hearing any fuss from the leadership of the church there about that," he said.
"It is no secret that there are gay clergy and there are gay bishops, and the institutional church seems to be turning a blind eye when we should be encouraging honesty. If Gene Robinson had kept quiet there would have been no issue."
The spiritual head of the Anglican church, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has called an emergency meeting next month in London to discuss the impact of Mr Robinson's appointment.

Re: ugnet_: BAD NEWS .. MUSEVENI LABELS NEWS PAPER TRAITOR

2003-09-08 Thread Assumpta Kintu

Fellow Ugandans!
Read his lips. He is telling you exactly what he
himself as a British/USA Mercenary or Gun for hire has
been doing to Ugandans and Africans at large the last
17 years. 
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Referring to a Monitor editorial of September 5, the
> President accuses the 
> paper of greed, evil-mindedness and engineering lies
> for "sinister interests".
> 
> "Kony and his allies - including The Monitor...are
> traitors, who work with 
> external sinister forces to kill our people, infect
> children with Aids, and 
> disrupt development programmes," the President said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


__
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Re: ugnet_: BAD NEWS .. MUSEVENI LABELS NEWS PAPER TRAITOR

2003-09-08 Thread Assumpta Kintu


--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Referring to a Monitor editorial of September 5, the
> President accuses the 
> paper of greed, evil-mindedness and engineering lies
> for "sinister interests".
> 
> "Kony and his allies - including The Monitor...are
> traitors, who work with 
> external sinister forces to kill our people, infect
> children with Aids, and 
> disrupt development programmes," the President said.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 


__
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Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
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ugnet_: Is Teso Paying Dearly for the Arrow Group?

Is Teso Paying Dearly for the Arrow Group?



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The Monitor (Kampala)

September 7, 2003 
Posted to the web September 8, 2003 

Patrick Elobu Angonu
Kampala 

The eerie atmosphere and stench smell of first decomposing bodies filled the air as you enter Atirir village, the scene of the September 1 ambush in which the rebel LRA fighters attacked a Gateway bus and set it ablaze after killing more than 25 passengers.

In downtown Soroti, people were standing in small groups discussing the attacks.

Ms Akunyo was one of the lucky ones who escaped unharmed after a bus attack that occurred in this dusty village, 17 km North of Soroti town along Soroti Lira highway.

Akunyo says the rebels sprayed the bus with bullets deflating its tires instantly.

"When the bus came to a halt, the rebels started pulling out passengers one by one and killing them instantly," she said.

Among those killed was the Kaberamaido District Security Officer (DISO) Lt. Chris Ruyongo and a Catholic priest Fr Lawrence Oyuru.

"The rebels were heavily armed. They numbered about 100 and dressed in uniform similar to that of the UPDF," she said.

Another survivor, Ms. Betty Asege was not so lucky, she dumped her 8-month baby, Sam Eniru. "I don't know whether my baby has survived," the tearful Asege said.

Ambushes like that of Atirir are now daily occurences in Teso ever since the LRA invaded the area last June.

As I sat in my office to write this article on September 3 a fleet of tanks and armored vehicles crisscrossed Soroti town before they eventually hit the Soroti-Lira highway as onlookers stood along the roadsides in shock and awe.

Soroti town that has for long been touted for cleanliness is now littered by garbage left behind by internally displaced people who spend nights on shop verandahs, as well as mud and chain marks left on the roads by armored vehicles and tanks.

Moments later, news filtered through that the LRA staged another ambush at almost the same spot as the Gateway bus incident.

But this time the President who was on a shooting range mission at the nearby Oculoi rocks some 8kms north of Soroti town, quickly ordered his Presidential Guard Brigade soldiers to confront the LRA who had planed to set the lorry ablaze.

One PGB soldier was reportedly killed and a mamba damaged by the rebels. "I am sorry for what has happened," Museveni told some of the UPDF and Arrow Group soldiers who were nursing bullet wounds at Soroti hospital shortly after the ambush was bust.

"The whole thing is a challenge. When you read the map and join the lines to areas where the rebels have reached, It is a challenge," says regional Police Commander Bob Ngobi.

But the mind boggling question that is often asked is: Why has the LRA become more brutal in Teso in recent days than when it invaded the sub-region three months ago?

What is even more disturbing is that Joseph Kony's LRA seem to be committing horrendous atrocities against their latest Teso victims in the face of President Yoweri Museveni's camping in the sub-region ostensibly to decimate the LRA once and for all.

"Teso will provide a Waterloo for LRA," Museveni recently told a congregation of some 200 delegates most of whom were Movement ideologues and a handful of LC officials and religious leaders at Soroti Hotel.

At a risk of being branded unpatriotic, I will attempt to delve into circumstances that tend to point out as to why we are not making any meaningful headway to end the terrorist acts of the LRA.

First of all it has to do with intelligence gathering and dissemination for appropriate action against he LRA. Since Museveni moved to Teso to oversee the UPDF offensive against the LRA, he has held a series of meetings including the holding of a cabinet meeting at Soroti in frantic efforts to end the suffering of the people.

The president, however, does not seem to notice that the people he is meeting are the very ones that have been providing him information that has failed to end the war for the last 17 years.

It would have been meaningful if the August 30 cabinet meeting Museveni summoned in Soroti had been a national conference that would involve the opposition and diplomatic corps to chant out an alternative means to end the war peacefully.

The only attempt to have a representative view on how to flush out the LRA from Teso was when Museveni met Teso politicians at the Presidential lodge in Soroti.

However, the leaders treated him bizarre scenes. A fracas broke out between his state minister for health and Soroti Municipality MP Mike Mukula and other leaders in Teso.

In the end they failed to present a joint memorandum on how to end the brutality of the LRA.

The president took only 17 points enumerated by the Ms Alice Alaso Asianut, Women MP for Soroti.

Museveni was at a loss when Mukula was singled out for "confusing" and being "divisive" inTeso.

This un

ugnet_: MP Okumu tell us more

What we have now, is what we call the home guards. That partly explains the fact why there are more acholi foot soldiers in norhern Uganda," he said.

"If you compare the number of home guards in Acholi now, they outnumber the arrow group in Teso," Okumu said.

The MP says that more home guards are being trained Lugole Prison farm, the former Patiko prison farm in Gulu.

Okumu says at the time the home guards were doing a good job, many of them were withdrwan and taken to fight in DR Congo and Kasese.

"Many were killed and others diserted the army. This has been a dissappointment," he says.

Say that again Mr. MP   "many were killed and other diserted the army"

in essense MP Okumu is saying that many  UPDF ( or home guards were killed in DRC  CONGO). 

the question then is:
 Has the regime in Kampala ever admitted that  so many  Ugandan UPDF soldiers  ( home guards if you want) died  while fighting in DRC CONGO in  Yoweri Museveni's  Missadventure ?  Now  MP Okumu has let the cat out of the bag , so to say, What does Okumu know that the people of Uganda need to know? Where were this UPDF soldiers burried in DRC Congo?

Matek

ugnet_: We Need Peace, Children Cry Out

We Need Peace, Children Cry Out

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New Vision (Kampala)

September 6, 2003
Posted to the web September 7, 2003

Kampala

Pardon rebels

Denis says, "Government of Uganda should pardon the rebels and not attack them and the LRA rebels in the bush should also stop killing and abducting children, ambushing vehicles on roads so that they can be pardoned and come out of the bush freely. As an orphan, I also want the government to pay for my school fees so that I can complete my studies.

Stop recruiting children

Agnes,14, who wants to become a primary school teacher suggested that, "Government should stop recruiting more children from Acholi and take them to fight Kony rebels in the bush. She said the government should construct for her and her parents a shelter in town to sleep at night and buy her clothes, food, beddings, books pens, mathematical set and provide good security so that rebels cannot abduct her at night.

MPs should help

Mary 15, says, "I want President Yoweri Museveni to accept to talk with Kony. Kony should also not refuse to talk peace with Museveni, because if the government continues to fight rebels, then this war will finish us. And it is mainly children who are being killed. I think our MPs like Norbert Mao (Gulu municipality), the LC5 chairman of Gulu, Lt. Col. Walter Ochora and other leaders here (in Acholi), but not Museveni, should go to Sudan and talk with Kony because Museveni and Kony do not like one another." She also said government should pay her school fees and provide other materials for school. She wants to become a nurse.

Get mediator

Ouma's father was killed by LRA rebels in 1997 said, "I think the United Nations should get a peace mediator between President Museveni and the leader of the LRA, Joseph Kony so that both sides are taken somewhere in a different country neither Uganda nor Sudan where Kony hides so that they sit and talk peace from there in order to end the northern war.

Too much suffering

Daphne Tumwebaze, 12, says, "The Kony war is in northern Uganda. There is too much suffering of children and innocent people. This discourages children from continuing with their studies because of the torture. Girls are raped and they get diseases like AIDS, boys are taken as war soldiers. Government should have peace talks with Kony and get more forces to fight them. Here at school we have collected clothing, blankets and shoes for them."

Kony, Museveni forgive each other

Ajok, 14 "I think Museveni should stop being president since he has been there for many years now. He and Kony should pardon one another and stop fighting because the rebels are killing us. She said she wants to be a primary school teacher. She asks government to pay her for her fees.

Help the displaced people

Aisha Khauka says, "This war has created orphans, they are displaced and suffering a lot. The war is affecting the emotional development of the children hearing about it and the others who are defiled. We feel bad that others are suffering. I want government to settle peace talks with the rebels outside Uganda, the way they did in Ivory Coast. Government should deploy more Uganda People's Democratic Forces (UPDF) to help if the peace talks fail. It should provide soldiers with enough guns and deploy more soldiers in people's homes day and night. It should advertise in the media to get clothes from non governmental organisations (NGOs) and get money too in order to help the displaced."

Fight soldier to soldier

Davis Manzi 15, Kony is killing people, destroying property, people are displaced from their homes and the environment is being destroyed. Children are growing up with the wrong attitude. Government should find a camp for those people so that it can fight Kony properly soldier to soldier. Government should make an agreement with Sudan to allow them fight Kony when he runs there.

It should remove civilians like mothers and children especially girls because they are delicate.

End the war

Ajok 14, the government should talk to the rebels so that they can come out of the bush. She said she wants the government to finish the war so that she can go back to sleep at home with her parents. She wants to become a nun.

Have a ceasefire

Proscovia 16, says, "Kony and Museveni should have a cease fire. The rebels think they will be killed, if they come back home. When I was still in the bush in 1997, the rebels were telling us not to escape or to surrender under the Amnesty Law because government would kill us."

Provide tight security

Navin Vishram,14, says, "That man is dangerous because he kills people who have done nothing and separates children from their parents. Government should provide tight security by employing more people to fight. Should get more guns and weapons to fight against those people and help by providing food and clothes so that they are not attracted

ugnet_: Rebel Suspect Charged

NO MORE SLEEPING TULO for  fellow citizens of  Buganda.  Desperate as the NRM regeime is, they have now turned to locking up and charging buganda citizens  as rebels and or rebel collaborates!

Matek 


Rebel Suspect Charged






The Monitor (Kampala)

September 7, 2003 
Posted to the web September 8, 2003 

Lydia Mukisa
Kampala 

A housewife has been charged with treason at Buganda Road Chief Magistrate's Court.

Ms Nnalongo Namukasa Margaret of Matugga zone in Wakiso could not plead to the charges, Friday, because treason is a capital offence - only triable by the High Court.

She was jointly charged with Eng. Pascal Gakyaro, the manager of Civil Aviation Authority in charge of Upcountry Airfields, M/s Thabiti Ali, George Kasozi, Ausi Semanda and Neri Lukyamuzi.

Others are M/s Muhammed Lubwama, Steven Mukama, Henry Suubi, Nicholas Luzinda, Ibrahim Lubega and Charles Kaggwa.

The accused allegedly established a rebel group called National Democratic Alliance, solicited and received funds, and military equipment. They allegedly distributed the items to the rebels between May and December 2002 in different parts of the country.

ugnet_: CMI Arrests Another Doctor Over People's Redemption Army Drugs

CMI Arrests Another Doctor Over People's Redemption Army Drugs

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The Monitor (Kampala)

September 7, 2003
Posted to the web September 8, 2003

David Kibirige
Kampala

The Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence has arrested another medical officer, suspected of supplying drugs to rebels.

Sunday Monitor has learnt that Dr Aggrey Byamukama was a few days back arrested from Mgahinga Hospital in Fort Portal.

He was accused of supplying drugs to the People's Redemption Army (PRA). He has already been handed over to police for prosecution.

Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) boss Col. Noble Mayombo confirmed the arrest, Saturday morning.

'That is two weeks ago when that doctor was arrested and he was handed over to police for prosecution,' he said.

Sources at CMI told Sunday Monitor that Dr Byamukama is directly linked to Dr Gideon Rukundo and Dr Lyene Masereka.

The duo have also been linked to supplying drugs to PRA. Rukundo fled the country, last month, but Masereka was arrested and is in police custody.

Sunday Monitor failed to get a comment from CID boss, Ms Elizabeth Kuteesa.

Masereka is the principal pharmacist at Mulago Hospital's private wing while Rukundo worked for Mulago Hospital and Kitante Medical Centre.

Internal Security Organisation (ISO) and CMI staff are treated at Kitante Medical Centre.

A senior UPDF officer is said to have business interests in Kitante Medical Centre.

Government linked PRA to renegade UPDF officers Col. Edison Muzoora, Lt. Col. Samson Mande and Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale. All three are in exile.

ugnet_: Arrow Group Failed in Acholi

Arrow Group Failed in Acholi

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The Monitor (Kampala)

September 7, 2003
Posted to the web September 8, 2003

Alex B. Atuhaire
Kampala

The arrow group in Teso is not the first attempt by the population to end the LRA rebellion.

In 1993, efforts by civilians to resist Lord's Rebel Army rebellion in northern Uganda fell flat on its face with hundreds of members of the Arrow Brigade massacred by the rebels.

In Acholi, the population was in May 1992 mobilised by norhtern Uganda leaders including Resident District Commissiners: Ocaya of Gulu and Ongom of Kitgum to form the arrow brigade, an effort that did not go beyond that year.

On June 1, 1988, the Uganda People's Army (UPA) negotiated with government and signed a peace accord.

Their commander, Lt. Col. Lokelo Angelo told president Yoweri Museveni that they wanted the peace effort to be delayed so that they could bring Joseph Kony on board or if Kony refused to negotiate at that time, they would be able to form a joint brigade with the UPDF and fight the LRA.

"Unfortunately he told the president that Kony was likely to be a menace because those who were in the bush failed to understand him," Aswa County MP, Ronald Reagan Okumu says.

According to Okumu, because the president did not trust the UPA, initially they were deployed in Gulu and eventually they were transferred to Moroto and Kampala.

The Kony menace continued until May 1992. By August 1994, Acholi leaders together with Betty Bigombe mobilised the population.

A minimum of 300 youth per sub-county were recruited to be trained as home guards.

About 12,000 home guards were then trained and would be supervised by the UPDF.

Okumu says the agreement with government was that the home guards were expected to protect every sub-county where they came from as the UPDF did its mobile work of tracking down the rebels.

The home guards were under the command of UPDF. In 1996, Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, then army commander told parliament that there were 18,000 homeguards figthing alongside governnment troops.

Okumu says its therefore not true that the people in Acholi have refused to resist the rebelllions.

"What we have now, is what we call the home guards. That partly explains the fact why there are more acholi foot soldiers in norhern Uganda," he said.

"If you compare the number of home guards in Acholi now, they outnumber the arrow group in Teso," Okumu said.

The MP says that more home guards are being trained Lugole Prison farm, the former Patiko prison farm in Gulu.

Okumu says at the time the home guards were doing a good job, many of them were withdrwan and taken to fight in DR Congo and Kasese.

"Many were killed and others diserted the army. This has been a dissappointment," he says.

Okumu says that the pay for homeguards is very poor as they get a basic salary of Shs 10,000 and a consolidated cash allowance of 30,000 making it 40,000. "Considering that they do 60 percent of the job, their pay should be raised," he said.

ugnet_: BAD NEWS .. MUSEVENI LABELS NEWS PAPER TRAITOR

Referring to a Monitor editorial of September 5, the President accuses the paper of greed, evil-mindedness and engineering lies for "sinister interests".

"Kony and his allies - including The Monitor...are traitors, who work with external sinister forces to kill our people, infect children with Aids, and disrupt development programmes," the President said.

ugnet_: We have defeated Kony - Museveni

"Mr Museveni also defends the recruitment of civilians into militias such as Teso's Arrow Group and says that 2,000,000 people who have been trained in mchaka mchaka in the country and can be called upon to fight when the need arises."

This one is now yupping like a derranged LUNATIC who knows not what to do!! Where are this 2,000,000 people of which he talketh: and who are on standby to fight kony?

Perhaps they are in Buganda or are they prehaps in Nyakatura Museveni's Village ?
Matek

We have defeated Kony - Museveni
By Our Reporter
September 8, 2003-Monitor

KAMPALA - President Yoweri Museveni has said that the army has defeated the Lord's Resistance Army rebels under Mr Joseph Kony.

In a statement that is very critical of The Monitor's coverage of the war in northern Uganda, the President also makes a strong case for the recruitment of a reserve army, and accuses the paper of supporting Kony and therefore being a traitor.

"The small standing army [the UPDF] has defeated Kony. That is why he has never captured a single trading centre. That is why he has no liberated territory," President Museveni wrote in his statement.

Referring to a Monitor editorial of September 5, the President accuses the paper of greed, evil-mindedness and engineering lies for "sinister interests".

"Kony and his allies - including The Monitor...are traitors, who work with external sinister forces to kill our people, infect children with Aids, and disrupt development programmes," the President said.

Mr Museveni also defends the recruitment of civilians into militias such as Teso's Arrow Group and says that 2,000,000 people who have been trained in mchaka mchaka in the country and can be called upon to fight when the need arises.

"Therefore, the activation of the militia groups, who are the reserves of the UPDF, should not be surprising except to those blinded by greed and evil mindedness like The Monitor," he writes.

The Editor in Chief of The Monitor, Mr Wafula Oguttu, defended the publication yesterday.

"We are for peace," he said. "The Monitor is for the peaceful resolution of that conflict."

ugnet_: African divisions over gay bishop-BBC

Last Updated: Monday, 8 September, 2003, 10:24 GMT 11:24 UK

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African divisions over gay bishop

Bishop Robinson was just being honest, says the archbishopA South African church leader has accused other African archbishops of arrogance over the issue of homosexuality.
The Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, Winston Njongonkulu Ndungane, said his colleagues were being intolerant after the appointment in the United States of their first openly gay bishop.
His comments in the British Guardian newspaper follow warnings from evangelical and conservative Anglicans that the appointment of Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire could split the church.
"It is very arrogant to assume that the people in America do not know what they are doing," he said.
Mr Ndungane said there were other issues that should be priorities for the Anglican church - such as world hunger, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Aids.
Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola, backed by many other African church leaders, led criticism of Bishop Robinson's appointment in August, describing it as "a Satanic attack on God's church".
Hypocritical?
But Mr Ndungane urged Africa's leaders to be careful of appearing hypocritical.

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ugnet_: We have defeated Kony-Museveni

We have defeated Kony - Museveni By Our Reporter September 8, 2003-Monitor

KAMPALA - President Yoweri Museveni has said that the army has defeated the Lord's Resistance Army rebels under Mr Joseph Kony.
In a statement that is very critical of The Monitor's coverage of the war in northern Uganda, the President also makes a strong case for the recruitment of a reserve army, and accuses the paper of supporting Kony and therefore being a traitor.
"The small standing army [the UPDF] has defeated Kony. That is why he has never captured a single trading centre. That is why he has no liberated territory," President Museveni wrote in his statement.
Referring to a Monitor editorial of September 5, the President accuses the paper of greed, evil-mindedness and engineering lies for "sinister interests".
"Kony and his allies - including The Monitor...are traitors, who work with external sinister forces to kill our people, infect children with Aids, and disrupt development programmes," the President said.
Mr Museveni also defends the recruitment of civilians into militias such as Teso's Arrow Group and says that 2,000,000 people who have been trained in mchaka mchaka in the country and can be called upon to fight when the need arises.
"Therefore, the activation of the militia groups, who are the reserves of the UPDF, should not be surprising except to those blinded by greed and evil mindedness like The Monitor," he writes.
The Editor in Chief of The Monitor, Mr Wafula Oguttu, defended the publication yesterday.
"We are for peace," he said. "The Monitor is for the peaceful resolution of that conflict."

ugnet_: UPDF commits gross abuses.....offers no portection to civilians

While the Ugandan government is obligated to intervene to stop 
> > these violations, its own forces have committed gross abuses, 
> > including torture, rape, underage recruitment, and arbitrary 
> > detention. The government has also increased the suffering of 
> > northern Uganda's population through the FORCED  DISPLACEMENT OF CIVILIANS  INTO IDP CAMPS, WHICH HAVE  LITTLE  OR NO PROTECTION.

matek

ugnet_: Kampala, a place of hills and lugambo

Kampala, place of hills - and lugambo By Loy Nabeta September 8, 2003-Monitor

Did you know that a certain tycoon has sexual preference for both men and women? Did you know that one famous radio personality was ditched by his wife - with whom he has two children - after she caught him one night having sex with a male guest in the visitors' bedroom?
Did you know that one famous lawyer left home one morning, remembered he had left his office keys back, returned to his house only to find his wife already in the sack with a friend of his?
Did you know that a top presidential aide is sterile? And did you know that your husband is a cannibal?
If you didn't know, then you are probably from out of this world. Kampala is the city where people mostly talk and, more often than not, the things they say - true, untrue, or half-true - stick.
First, the tycoon. He has never been caught - at least not by the journalists or the Police - so we don't know if in fact he has such strange tastes. The radioman and his wife are still very much together - tight as glue, friends say.
The lawyer's marriage has only grown from strength to strength since the day that devastating rumour first broke.
The presidential aide? Well, he was the one pictured just recently holding a baby they said he had just had with his wife, wasn't he? As expected, many theories have since been spawned over how this baby came to be.
As for your husband's cannibalism don't ask me, it is Rachael who told me. (It turned out that in fact what Rachael said of Lindah's husband was that "Michael aly'abakazzi!" meaning: "Michael eats women." What Rachael meant, however, is that Michael is a skirt-chaser).
Some stories defy logic. But you need not raise any queries, just relish the story. And though you will have been warned not to, pass it on. That is what every one did along the way, right up to Rachel, your most immediate source.
Lugambo. We live it, we love it, we breathe it, eat it. Some people said it was a woman's thing. But I think the men have got better too.
We are so good at it; Alex Mukulu did a hit song about it a few years ago. By the way, there is some gossip about the origin of the song. too.
Mr Eric van Veen of MTN has in the past been quoted saying that the amount of time Ugandans spend on the phone is amazing.
But all that airtime was neither about cloning our own Dolly nor about ending the Kony war. It was about you, your boss and me.
Gossip cuts across class and age. Poor people as well as rich people thrive on gossip.
Yet for some reason, it is the gossip about the seemingly more successful people that appeals the most.
A friend observed recently: "Uganda is a small town of too many unhappy people, and nothing helps many people overcome a sense of their own miseries than seeing boyfriend-girlfriend, husband-wife relationships going up in smoke - especially over cheating."
That doesn't mean that successful people don't want their own dose each day. Lugambo is empowering. Forget that warning about people in glass houses - we throw rocks, boulders, saucepans, anything, through our glass windows.
That is why gossip is the only thing that compares to money. You can never get enough of it. The more bizarre, the better. Cheating, break-ups, sickness (you know which one), arrests, disasterswell, now you're talking.
People as young as six gossip about their classmates or playmates. When they grow older, they get better at it.
The trained listener knows the right moment to punctuate with "eh-eh" or "ah-ha," just how loud "olimba!" should be and when to cross or uncross the legs.With more incomes today there are even more rumours in circulation.
People have cars, mobile phones and access to email today. Except for me - my employer forced the mobile phone upon me - many people don't know what to do with theirs except to call and talk shop. (Lately, they also call into radio stations and "send regards" - whatever that means - to people who live with them.)
The cars? Well, mine wasn't my idea either - blame it on Boss. For many like me it merely gets them to work and back home. In between, they don't know what to do with it except check on Lindah or Sheila "for the latest" in gossipville.
The speed at which word travels today is another matter. What with the text messaging, email and idle cars.
A friend who prefers gossip to lunch is in the habit of sending a blank sms - implying that you must fill it with gossip, as you would a plate with food, and return it to her.
If gossiping were a disease, the Big Brother Africa reality TV show was just the perfect antidote. We spent hours dissing housemates, heaping praises on our representative and comparing groins and tumba (bum a'la Cherise) sizes, that it seemed for a while the regular victims of our deadly tongues got some breathing space.
Now the show has ended. And you can bet our ears will be itching for their daily dose.
You might try hard to be a good person, to stay out of trouble and hope that no

Re: [Ugandacom] Fwd: ugnet_: Uganda: Sharp Decline in Human Rights

In a message dated 9/8/2003 10:03:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

"Not only has the Ugandan government failed to protect its citizens 
>>adequately," said Samuel B. Tindifa, director of the Human Rights 
>>and Peace Centre. "They have also actively violated their rights, 
>>detained them for long periods without showing cause, and recruited 
>>children into the army and home guards." 
>>

Like  amuka group or Arrow group!!!

mATEK

Re: [Ugandacom] Fwd: ugnet_: Uganda: Sharp Decline in Human Rights

In a message dated 9/8/2003 10:03:03 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

The UPDF in northern Uganda arrests civilians on suspicion of rebel 
>>collaboration with little or no evidence, often holding them for 
>>rough interrogation or torture before turning them over to the 
>>police for prosecution. The prosecutors then charge the suspects 
>>with treason or terrorism, which allows the government to hold them 
>>for up to 360 days without bail and without having to present any 
>>evidence. 
>>

Matek

ugnet_: Big Brother Victory: Scenes of celebration in Zambia-BBC

Last Updated: Monday, 8 September, 2003, 12:23 GMT 13:23 UK

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Zambian wins African Big Brother

Cherise Makubale won $100,000A 24-year-old Zambian woman has won the first pan-African version of TV reality show Big Brother.
Cherise Makubale was crowned winner on Sunday, picking up prize money of $100,000 (£63,000)
Although the show, which has aired in 46 countries, has proved popular with viewers, politicians and religious leaders have been less keen.
In Malawi it was pulled off air after it was deemed immoral, but its High Court overturned the ban.
About 30 million viewers regularly tuned in to watch the 12 contestants from different African countries being whittled down to just one winner.
Although there had been Big Brother shows in individual African countries, this was the first time they were combined.
Scenes of celebration were reported in Zambia.

Motorists sounded their horns on the streets of the capital while others poured onto the streets singing.
One newspaper quoted Vice President Nevers Mumba as saying the young woman had done the country proud.
During the run, the UK's eventual winner Cameron Stout spent a week in the African house, which was based in Johannesburg, South Africa, while Gaetano Kagwa from Uganda joined the UK version.

Stout was back in South Africa to take part in the final live show and welcome out the winner.
House-buying
Ms Makubale, a procurement officer from the Zambian town of Kitwe, was overwhelmed to learn she been voted the winner.

The programme was deemed "immoral" in some countries
"I'm still almost too excited to talk. The money means a great deal to me and my family and will help a lot in getting our lives together. So far we have had a hard life.
"I want to go home now and discuss what to do with it with my family.
"But the one thing that I'm definitely going to do is to buy my self-employed father, who works as an electrician, a house," she said.
Mwisho Mwampamba, a 22-year-old man from Tanzania was the runner-up.
The show did attract criticism from several African countries, with some calling it "immoral" and too explicit, including the much-hyped "shower hour".
Namibian President Sam Nujoma called on the country's NBC channel to take broadcasts off the air, claiming it encouraged immorality.
But the channel resisted calls for a ban.
And in Zambia, a group of churches also demanded Big Brother be pulled from air, starting a petition urging the government to stop the broadcasts.

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Fwd: ugnet_: Uganda: Sharp Decline in Human Rights

2003-09-08 Thread NOC´LADUMAS GEORGES



>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>Subject: ugnet_: Uganda: Sharp Decline in Human Rights 
>Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 08:36:30 EDT 
> 
>Human Rights Watch 
> > 
> > Uganda: Sharp Decline in Human Rights 
> > 
> > http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/07/uganda071503.htm 
> > 
> > (Kampala, July 15, 2003) Abductions, torture, recruitment of child 
> > soldiers, and other abuses have sharply increased in the past year 
> > in northern Uganda due to renewed fighting between Ugandan 
> > government forces and rebels, a coalition of national and 
> > international organizations said in a report released today. 
> > 
> > "The United Nations and members of the international community need 
> > to take a more active role to end this desperate state of affairs 
> > in northern Uganda. The government and LRA peace talks have ended 
> > and the war is continuing at a heightened pace, with worse impact 
> > than ever on the entire population of Acholiland." 
> > 
> > Jemera Rone, counsel for the Africa division of Human Rights Watch 
> >  The 73-page report, "Abducted and Abused: Renewed War in Northern 
> > Uganda," details how a slew of human rights abuses have resulted in 
> > a humanitarian crisis. Since June 2002, the rebel Lord's Resistance 
> > Army (LRA) has abducted nearly 8,400 children and thousands more 
> > adults, a sharp rise from 2001. The LRA has also escalated the 
> > seventeen-year war against northern Uganda's civilians by targeting 
> > religious leaders, aid providers, and those living in internally 
> > displaced persons (IDP) camps. 
> > 
> > "Child abduction, murder, and mutilation are the signatures of the 
> > LRA in this war," said Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian minister for 
> > external affairs. "This is a war that has been fought primarily 
> > against the children and people of northern Uganda." Axworthy is 
> > CEO and executive director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues 
> > in Vancouver, which issued the report together with the Peace and 
> > Human Rights Center in Kampala, Human Rights Focus in Gulu, and 
> > Human Rights Watch in New York, of which Axworthy is a board 
> > member. 
> > 
> > The seventeen-year conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan 
> > government intensified in March 2002, when the government army, the 
> > Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF), launched a military 
> > offensive, "Operation Iron Fist," against LRA bases in southern 
> > Sudan. The offensive failed to accomplish its aim of destroying the 
> > LRA, which evaded the UPDF and in June 2002 returned to northern 
> > Uganda. The renewed conflict is taking its highest toll ever: 
> > 
> > * Since June 2002, the LRA abducted 8,400 children, the highest 
> > rate of abductions ever in seventeen years of war. 
> > 
> > * Fear of LRA abduction has driven approximately 20,000 children to 
> > escape nightly into Gulu and other towns. These children sleep on 
> > verandas, on church grounds and at local hospitals, returning home 
> > each morning, becoming locally known as "night commuters." 
> > 
> > * An estimated 800,000 northern Ugandans are internally displaced 
> > due to LRA attacks and government orders-approximately 70 percent 
> > of the entire population of the three war-affected districts in 
> > northern Uganda. 
> > 
> > * Respective Mortality Rate (for three months in 2003) for children 
> > under five in two IDP camps near Gulu was 5.67/1,000, where 4/1,000 
> > is considered an emergency. This rate was the highest recorded in 
> > five years, yet it was not caused by any outbreak of disease, 
> > leading the agency conducting the survey to raise the possibility 
> > that the children had simply "died of hunger." 
> > 
> > * Although overall HIV prevalence in Uganda has reportedly declined 
> > substantially in recent years, there is lingering high prevalence 
> > in the north: Gulu reportedly has the second highest rate of HIV 
> > prevalence after Kampala, attributed among other things to the 
> > higher rate of HIV among combatants. Among expectant mothers tested 
> > at one of two hospitals in Gulu, the rates of HIV prevalence were 
> > 11-12 percent, where 5 percent is the national rate. 
> > 
> > The report draws on interviews with recently abducted children who 
> > escaped from the LRA. It gives voice to internally displaced 
> > persons living in the IDP camps that have been attacked by the LRA, 
> > and the aid workers attempting to reach these victims despite 
> > frequent LRA ambushes on relief convoys. 
> > 
> > While the Ugandan government is obligated to intervene to stop 
> > these violations, its own forces have committed gross abuses, 
> > including torture, rape, underage recruitment, and arbitrary 
> > detention. The government has also increased the suffering of 
> > northern Uganda's population through the forced displacement of 
> > civilians into IDP camps, which have little or no pr

Re: ugnet_: UGANDA: LRA gets close to presidential guard

2003-09-08 Thread NOC´LADUMAS GEORGES


The UPDF SAYS:
 
 Meanwhile, the Ugandan People´s Defence Forces (UPDF) say they are making
progress in driving the LRA out of Teso region.
 
Driving them out of the Teso region into where???
 
How about us?
Noc´l 










>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
>Subject: ugnet_: UGANDA: LRA gets close to presidential guard 
>Date: Mon, 8 Sep 2003 08:31:20 EDT 
> 
> 
> 
>UGANDA: LRA gets close to presidential guard 
> 
> 
>Â© Â irin 
> 
>UPDF searches for LRA 
> 
> 
>KAMPALA, 5 Sep 2003 (IRIN) - The Lordâs Resistance Army (LRA), which is 
>active along the Soroti-Lira road in eastern Uganda's Teso district, on Friday 
>attacked a truck further up the road along which President Yoweri Museveniâs own 
>security convoy was travelling. 
> 
>"It was very nearby," army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza told IRIN. 
>"Possibly about 25 minutes before the presidentâs arrival, according to our sources on 
>the ground.â 
> 
>âWhen they got to the scene the rebels had already fled," he added. "They 
>were not within shooting range.â 
> 
>Presidential Press Secretary Mary Okurut said no changes to the presidentâs 
>travel plans in Teso region were being scheduled. 
> 
>âThis was not an attack on the president, they just arrived to find an ambush 
>had taken place. Weâll be continuing as normal,â she said. 
> 
>Meanwhile, the Ugandan Peopleâs Defence Forces (UPDF) say they are making 
>progress in driving the LRA out of Teso region. 
> 
>âWe are diminishing [LRA leader Joseph] Konyâs means to make war," Bantariza 
>told IRIN. "We have armed militias in six sub-counties in Teso and we are 
>having much success in capturing and killing these thugs, and recovering their 
>weapons.â 
> 
> 
>[ENDS] 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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ugnet_: Uganda: Sharp Decline in Human Rights

Human Rights Watch
> 
> Uganda: Sharp Decline in Human Rights
> 
> http://www.hrw.org/press/2003/07/uganda071503.htm
> 
> (Kampala, July 15, 2003) Abductions, torture, recruitment of child
> soldiers, and other abuses have sharply increased in the past year
> in northern Uganda due to renewed fighting between Ugandan
> government forces and rebels, a coalition of national and
> international organizations said in a report released today.
> 
> "The United Nations and members of the international community need
> to take a more active role to end this desperate state of affairs
> in northern Uganda. The government and LRA peace talks have ended
> and the war is continuing at a heightened pace, with worse impact
> than ever on the entire population of Acholiland."
> 
> Jemera Rone, counsel for the Africa division of Human Rights Watch 
>  The 73-page report, "Abducted and Abused: Renewed War in Northern
> Uganda," details how a slew of human rights abuses have resulted in
> a humanitarian crisis. Since June 2002, the rebel Lord's Resistance
> Army (LRA) has abducted nearly 8,400 children and thousands more
> adults, a sharp rise from 2001. The LRA has also escalated the
> seventeen-year war against northern Uganda's civilians by targeting
> religious leaders, aid providers, and those living in internally
> displaced persons (IDP) camps.
> 
> "Child abduction, murder, and mutilation are the signatures of the
> LRA in this war," said Lloyd Axworthy, former Canadian minister for
> external affairs. "This is a war that has been fought primarily
> against the children and people of northern Uganda." Axworthy is
> CEO and executive director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues
> in Vancouver, which issued the report together with the Peace and
> Human Rights Center in Kampala, Human Rights Focus in Gulu, and
> Human Rights Watch in New York, of which Axworthy is a board
> member.
> 
> The seventeen-year conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan
> government intensified in March 2002, when the government army, the
> Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF), launched a military
> offensive, "Operation Iron Fist," against LRA bases in southern
> Sudan. The offensive failed to accomplish its aim of destroying the
> LRA, which evaded the UPDF and in June 2002 returned to northern
> Uganda. The renewed conflict is taking its highest toll ever:
> 
> * Since June 2002, the LRA abducted 8,400 children, the highest
> rate of abductions ever in seventeen years of war.
> 
> * Fear of LRA abduction has driven approximately 20,000 children to
> escape nightly into Gulu and other towns. These children sleep on
> verandas, on church grounds and at local hospitals, returning home
> each morning, becoming locally known as "night commuters."
> 
> * An estimated 800,000 northern Ugandans are internally displaced
> due to LRA attacks and government orders-approximately 70 percent
> of the entire population of the three war-affected districts in
> northern Uganda.
> 
> * Respective Mortality Rate (for three months in 2003) for children
> under five in two IDP camps near Gulu was 5.67/1,000, where 4/1,000
> is considered an emergency. This rate was the highest recorded in
> five years, yet it was not caused by any outbreak of disease,
> leading the agency conducting the survey to raise the possibility
> that the children had simply "died of hunger."
> 
> * Although overall HIV prevalence in Uganda has reportedly declined
> substantially in recent years, there is lingering high prevalence
> in the north: Gulu reportedly has the second highest rate of HIV
> prevalence after Kampala, attributed among other things to the
> higher rate of HIV among combatants. Among expectant mothers tested
> at one of two hospitals in Gulu, the rates of HIV prevalence were
> 11-12 percent, where 5 percent is the national rate.
> 
> The report draws on interviews with recently abducted children who
> escaped from the LRA. It gives voice to internally displaced
> persons living in the IDP camps that have been attacked by the LRA,
> and the aid workers attempting to reach these victims despite
> frequent LRA ambushes on relief convoys.
> 
> While the Ugandan government is obligated to intervene to stop
> these violations, its own forces have committed gross abuses,
> including torture, rape, underage recruitment, and arbitrary
> detention. The government has also increased the suffering of
> northern Uganda's population through the forced displacement of
> civilians into IDP camps, which have little or no protection. But
> UPDF soldiers and other government forces accused by civilians of
> serious crimes such as murder, torture, or rape often escape trial
> or sanction, creating the public perception of impunity.
> 
> "Not only has the Ugandan government failed to protect its citizens
> adequately," said Samuel B. Tindifa, director of the Human Rights
> and Peace Centre. "They have also actively violated their rights,
> detained them for long periods without sho

ugnet_: Dying at our roots: Seasons of war in northern Uganda

Dying at our roots: Seasons of war in northern Uganda
> 
> By Gina L. Bramucci, AVSI (Association of Volunteers in
> International Service, Italy)
> 
> [reposted with permission]
> 
> http://www.alertnet.org
> 
> August 7, 2003
> 
> It's been 14 months now. Fourteen months of daily rebel attack,
> villages burned, buses ambushed, children abducted. The numbers
> continue to climb 800,000 displaced, 20,000 "night commuters,"
> 8,500 abducted and we declare one more humanitarian crisis for the
> global tally. 
> 
> But the world tired of the story of northern Uganda long ago. The
> past months may have been more violent than usual, but armed rebel
> conflict has continued for nearly 18 years here. Peace is an alien
> word, and it's easy to abandon hope from continents and oceans
> away. Still, on a mid-July day in Kitgum town, one of northern
> Uganda's main urban centers, civilians offered the world one small
> reason to take note. 
> 
> Approximately 20,000 young people marched through the town on July
> 14, carrying messages directed at Uganda's political and religious
> leaders, and protesting a rebel insurgency that has put countless
> children on intimate terms with violence, hunger and death. They
> held signs that asked for a lasting peace and an end to fear: "We
> don't want to become killers." "We do not want to die." "We
> children cry day and night for peace."
> 
> Most children in northern Uganda have little knowledge of peace.
> They have spent their childhoods displaced from their homes and
> schools, sleeping in bus parks, on shop verandas or on the grounds
> of hospitals and Catholic missions. Parents, hoping to protect
> children from rebel abduction, send them each evening to population
> centers or any place of perceived safety.
> 
> The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has abducted more than 20,000
> children since the late 1980s. Captives are forced to serve as
> porters, soldiers and, in the case of girls, sex slaves. Within the
> LRA ranks, around 90 percent of "soldiers" are estimated to be
> abducted children. They are often forced to murder family members
> and neighbors, and then placed on the frontlines against the
> government army. Human Rights Watch reports that the LRA has
> abducted 8,500 children since June 2002 alone.
> 
> Violence in Uganda's Acholiland, a region named for the ethnic
> group that dominates three northern districts, escalated when the
> government army launched an aggressive offensive against the LRA in
> March 2002. While the military continues to promise a near victory,
> rebel activity has increased steadily, spilling over into districts
> to the southeast that were previously untouched by the war.
> 
> The history of the conflict is long and complex. A series of rebel
> movements took hold in the late 1980s, after President Yoweri
> Museveni fought a guerrilla war to overthrow the short-lived
> presidency of Tito Okello, an Acholi. 
> 
> Defeated and disenfranchised, armed Acholi soldiers retreated back
> to the north. Acholiland became the breeding ground for several
> resistance movements, the most prominent of which was the Holy
> Spirit Movement of Alice Lakwena. Claiming to take orders from a
> holy spirit, Lakwena won the loyalty of former soldiers as well as
> highly educated Acholi. Their cause was defined as a war against
> evil, which they identified in the government army.
> 
> The Holy Spirit forces marched toward Uganda's capital city, coming
> within 80 kilometers and incurring heavy losses before finally
> facing defeat. During this period, a breakaway faction headed by
> Lakwena's young cousin, Joseph Kony, was building momentum. His LRA
> rebels continue to fight today.
> 
> For years the Ugandan government and international observers alike
> have trivialized the LRA's long-running insurgency. Viewed as an
> incomprehensible and crazed band of rebels that poses no real
> threat to the government, the LRA becomes easy to dismiss.
> 
> Despite this, as recently as 2000 the LRA's political arm submitted
> a paper at a peace conference organized by Acholi leaders in
> Nairobi. The rebel movement's statement explained its original and
> primary objective as the defense and protection of civilians
> against the aggression of the Ugandan government army.
> 
> "Members of the LRA are ordinary peaceful law-abiding peasants," it
> read. "LRA [is] fighting to defend their lives, human rights and
> dignity[,] protect their people and land and assist others to
> liberate themselves." 
> 
> Because it runs so contrary to LRA actions, most long-time
> observers in the region are at a loss when asked to react to such
> statements. Far from sowing peace, the LRA moves through the
> countryside looting and burning villages, killing and maiming
> civilians, planting landmines and abducting children. 
> 
> Nonetheless, President Museveni, who billed "Operation Iron Fist"
> as a war on terrorism, has proclaimed his troops largely
> successful. He has requested

ugnet_: UGANDA: LRA gets close to presidential guard



UGANDA: LRA gets close to presidential guard


©  irin

UPDF searches for LRA


KAMPALA, 5 Sep 2003 (IRIN) - The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), which is active along the Soroti-Lira road in eastern Uganda's Teso district, on Friday attacked a truck further up the road along which President Yoweri Museveni’s own security convoy was travelling. 

"It was very nearby," army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza told IRIN. "Possibly about 25 minutes before the president’s arrival, according to our sources on the ground.”

“When they got to the scene the rebels had already fled," he added. "They were not within shooting range.”

Presidential Press Secretary Mary Okurut said no changes to the president’s travel plans in Teso region were being scheduled.

“This was not an attack on the president, they just arrived to find an ambush had taken place. We’ll be continuing as normal,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Ugandan People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) say they are making progress in driving the LRA out of Teso region. 

“We are diminishing [LRA leader Joseph] Kony’s means to make war," Bantariza told IRIN. "We have armed militias in six sub-counties in Teso and we are having much success in capturing and killing these thugs, and recovering their weapons.”


[ENDS]

ugnet_: Re: Cabinet endorses new land acquisition Bill

2003-09-08 Thread NOC´LADUMAS GEORGES

THIS IS REALLY A SEROUS MATTER.
Land is serious matter! It is serious matter in Mubende, Acoli, Buganda, 
Zimbabwe and indeed all over the world. The Red Indians are still struggling 
to recover their lost rights however hopeless the outcome seems. That is 
Land.

I concur with Ldt. Ogaba.

The way I se it, the Northern Ugandan regions should withhold concession 
from the Land Bill recently approved by the government until when the 
natives are properly repatriated into their former LAND and are able to 
actively participate in the discussions over their land issues.

At the moment it is wrong because they have basically been removed from 
their land to the so-called Protected Villages (LIBERATED FROM LAND 
OWNERSHIP)

WHAT DO OUR MPs SAY?
Rgds
Noc´l
Lukaka,
We are getting back to square one. Watch out for those Salim Saleh's,
Rhodesians, etc vying for Acholi land for "investment", since it is
now "empty". After all, they used to grow tobacco there, a staple of
these people.
Ogaba
Cabinet endorses new land acquisition Bill

CABINET has approved a proposal to allow government compulsorily acquire
land or property for investment, writes Richard Mutumba.
A source told The New Vision yesterday that according to the proposal,
compensation shall not be a pre-condition for the land acquisition, as it
usually takes time for government to find the money. Compensation should
be maintained but should not be prior to acquisition or expropriation,
the source quoted Cabinet members as saying.
The source said the Cabinet last week raised the need to harmonise
Articles 26 and 237. The former provides that compulsory acquisition of
land must be only necessary for public use or in the interest of
defence, public safety, order, morality or health. Article 237 provides
that Government or a local government may, subject to Article 26 of the
Constitution, acquire land in the public interest. However, the term
public interest is not defined under that Article. The source said
Cabinet has proposed a constitutional amendment to handle Article 26.
The amendment would introduce the element of compulsory acquisition of
land not only for public use but also include land required for
investment.
The source said the possibility would be to adopt the Kenyan approach
which provides for property being compulsorily acquired in the interests
of promoting the public benefit.
Published on: Wednesday, 3rd September, 2003
_
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ugnet_: THIS WAR ON TERRORISM IS BOGUS