[Ugnet] Dream On, America (Attn Mitayo)

[Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga]

Copyright 2005 Newsweek  
Newsweek

For original reprints (with graphics) available 
http://www.rsicopyright.com/ics/prc_main/prs_request.html/

*January* 31, 2005 Atlantic Edition
*SECTION:* COVER STORY: REACTION; Pg. 22
*LENGTH:* 2924 words
*HEADLINE:* Dream On, America
*BYLINE:* By Andrew Moravcsik; With Christian Caryl in Tokyo, Katka 
Krosnar in Prague, Mac Margolis in Rio de Janeiro, Tracy McNicoll in 
Paris, Paul Mooney in Beijing, Henk Rossouw in Johannesburg and Marie 
Valla in London

*HIGHLIGHT:*
The U.S. Model: For years, much of the world did aspire to the American 
way of life. But today countries are finding more appealing systems in 
their own backyards.

*BODY:*
Not long ago, the American dream was a global fantasy. Not only 
Americans saw themselves as a beacon unto nations. So did much of the 
rest of the world. East Europeans tuned into Radio Free Europe. Chinese 
students erected a replica of the Statue of Liberty in Tiananmen Square.

You had only to listen to George W. Bush's Inaugural Address last week 
(invoking "freedom" and "liberty" 49 times) to appreciate just how 
deeply Americans still believe in this founding myth. For many in the 
world, the president's rhetoric confirmed their worst fears of an 
imperial America relentlessly pursuing its narrow national interests. 
But the greater danger may be a delusional America--one that believes, 
despite all evidence to the contrary, that the American Dream lives on, 
that America remains a model for the world, one whose mission is to 
spread the word.

The gulf between how Americans view themselves and how the world views 
them was summed up in a poll last week by the BBC. Fully 71 percent of 
Americans see the United States as a source of good in the world. More 
than half view Bush's election as positive for global security. Other 
studies report that 70 percent have faith in their domestic institutions 
and nearly 80 percent believe "American ideas and customs" should spread 
globally.

Foreigners take an entirely different view: 58 percent in the BBC poll 
see Bush's re-election as a threat to world peace. Among America's 
traditional allies, the figure is strikingly higher: 77 percent in 
Germany, 64 percent in Britain and 82 percent in Turkey. Among the 1.3 
billion members of the Islamic world, public support for the United 
States is measured in single digits. Only Poland, the Philippines and 
India viewed Bush's second Inaugural positively.

Tellingly, the anti-Bushism of the president's first term is giving way 
to a more general anti-Americanism. A plurality of voters (the average 
is 70 percent) in each of the 21 countries surveyed by the BBC oppose 
sending any troops to Iraq, including those in most of the countries 
that have done so. Only one third, disproportionately in the poorest and 
most dictatorial countries, would like to see American values spread in 
their country. Says Doug Miller of GlobeScan, which conducted the BBC 
report: "President Bush has further isolated America from the world. 
Unless the administration changes its approach, it will continue to 
erode America's good name, and hence its ability to effectively 
influence world affairs." Former Brazilian president Jose Sarney 
expressed the sentiments of the 78 percent of his countrymen who see 
America as a threat: "Now that Bush has been re-elected, all I can say 
is, God bless the rest of the world."

The truth is that Americans are living in a dream world. Not only do 
others not share America's self-regard, they no longer aspire to emulate 
the country's social and economic achievements. The loss of faith in the 
American Dream goes beyond this swaggering administration and its war in 
Iraq. A President Kerry would have had to confront a similar 
disaffection, for it grows from the success of something America holds 
dear: the spread of democracy, free markets and international 
institutions--globalization, in a word.

Countries today have dozens of political, economic and social models to 
choose from. Anti-Americanism is especially virulent in Europe and Latin 
America, where countries have established their own distinctive 
ways--none made in America. Futurologist Jeremy Rifkin, in his recent 
book "The European Dream," hails an emerging European Union based on 
generous social welfare, cultural diversity and respect for 
international law--a model that's caught on quickly across the former 
nations of Eastern Europe and the Baltics. In Asia, the rise of 
autocratic capitalism in China or Singapore is as much a "model" for 
development as America's scandal-ridden corporate culture. "First we 
emulate," one Chinese businessman recently told the board of one U.S. 
multinational, "then we overtake."

Many are tempted to write off the new anti-Americanism as a temporary 
perturbation, or mere resentment. Blinded by its own myth, America has 
grown incapable of recognizing its flaws. For there is much about the 
American Dream to fault. If the res

Re: [Ugnet] The C.I.A. Report That Aggravates Brussels

[Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga]

Ndugu Mitayo
Interesting how the white cousins are jokeying for power. There is 
another view, on the other end of the pole that I read today at the 
office. I will post it as soon as I retrieve it.

vukoni
_
Mitayo Potosi wrote:
*The C.I.A. Report That Aggravates Brussels*
By Alexandrine Bouilhet
Le Figaro
Friday 21 January 2005
*/ EU: Americans draw a portrait of a Europe overtaken
economically by China, India, and even Brazil in 2020. From
Brussels: /*
Seen from Washington, the European Union is not a power of the 
future. In 2020, it will be surpassed on an economic level by China, 
India, and even Brazil or Indonesia. Weighted down by an aging 
population, tanking growth, and unending enlargement, Europe will be 
incapable of playing the role to which it aspires on the international 
scene. In fifteen years, only the United States will still be able to 
avail itself of the superpower title. These are the not very 
encouraging conclusions for the Old Continent of a forecasting study 
published mid-January by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the 
C.I.A. Director's "think tank." ^ ( ^ 1 
 )

"Europe's ability to weigh in on world affairs will depend on its 
political cohesion," we read in the report. "The integration of ten 
new countries will be a brake on the deepening of its institutions, 
the emergence of a common strategic vision, foreign policy, and 
European defense." According to the NIC study, directed by Robert 
Hutchings, in fifteen years the combined military expenditures of 
member states will be less than those of China or the United States. 
"European countries always have trouble coordinating their military 
expenditures," the report indicates. Europe's ability to establish a 
common army remains an "open question," especially since it would 
"compete with NATO forces." Champion of "multilateralism," Europe 
could, at best, "serve as a model of regional governance" for emerging 
powers seeking alliances apart from the United States.

Entitled, "Mapping the Global Future," this document, a synthesis 
of 120 pages edited from the analyses of over one thousand experts 
across five continents, has thrown a chill over Brussels' offices. Not 
only does it give no mention to the planned Constitution, but also the 
enlargement to the East, a project which the United States nonetheless 
supported, is largely depicted as an economic brake, "Brussels having 
only a small fraction of the funds necessary for the new member states 
to catch up economically." Turkey's entry is analyzed as a source of 
tensions because of the integration of a "large Muslim population."

In the absence of major economic reforms, notably in Germany, 
France, and Italy, "the European Union runs the risk of exploding into 
pieces or disintegrating," renouncing the adhesion of Turkey and the 
Balkans, and, at the same time, of playing a major role on the global 
scene. Eurocrats are all the more aggravated by this "simplistic" and 
"catastrophic" vision of the Union in that they are minutely preparing 
for George W. Bush's visit to Brussels February 22. "If the NIC 
experts believe the Union to be a negligible quantity, why should the 
President of the United States waste his time coming to Brussels?" one 
asks. "We don't have time to waste with these kinds of polemics," 
dryly retorts an official from the entourage of Union diplomatic head, 
Javier Solana. "Our policy is not to talk about Americans, but to 
speak with them! We have to work together on Russia, the Ukraine, the 
Middle East. It's not the time for theory, but for practice." The 
Americans' recent commentaries on Turkey's entry into the Union have 
had a talent for irritating the Finnish Commissioner for Enlargement. 
"The United States has no business interfering in negotiations between 
Brussels and Ankara," he repeated to Parliament this week. 
"Enlargement is a European, not an American, affair."

 ^ ( ^ 1  ) 
www.foia.cia.gov 


/*/* "  I'm thinking of  a God very different from the God of the 
Christian and the God of Islam, because both are depicted as 
omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins. "   Philosopher  
Antony Flew 1922 - . */*/


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[Ugnet] The C.I.A. Report That Aggravates Brussels

[Mitayo Potosi]

The C.I.A. Report That Aggravates Brussels By Alexandrine Bouilhet Le Figaro 
Friday 21 January 2005 
EU: Americans draw a portrait of a Europe overtaken economically by China, India, and even Brazil in 2020. From Brussels:
Seen from Washington, the European Union is not a power of the future. In 2020, it will be surpassed on an economic level by China, India, and even Brazil or Indonesia. Weighted down by an aging population, tanking growth, and unending enlargement, Europe will be incapable of playing the role to which it aspires on the international scene. In fifteen years, only the United States will still be able to avail itself of the superpower title. These are the not very encouraging conclusions for the Old Continent of a forecasting study published mid-January by the National Intelligence Council (NIC), the C.I.A. Director's "think tank." (1) 
"Europe's ability to weigh in on world affairs will depend on its political cohesion," we read in the report. "The integration of ten new countries will be a brake on the deepening of its institutions, the emergence of a common strategic vision, foreign policy, and European defense." According to the NIC study, directed by Robert Hutchings, in fifteen years the combined military expenditures of member states will be less than those of China or the United States. "European countries always have trouble coordinating their military expenditures," the report indicates. Europe's ability to establish a common army remains an "open question," especially since it would "compete with NATO forces." Champion of "multilateralism," Europe could, at best, "serve as a model of regional governance" for emerging powers seeking alliances apart from the United States. 
Entitled, "Mapping the Global Future," this document, a synthesis of 120 pages edited from the analyses of over one thousand experts across five continents, has thrown a chill over Brussels' offices. Not only does it give no mention to the planned Constitution, but also the enlargement to the East, a project which the United States nonetheless supported, is largely depicted as an economic brake, "Brussels having only a small fraction of the funds necessary for the new member states to catch up economically." Turkey's entry is analyzed as a source of tensions because of the integration of a "large Muslim population." 
In the absence of major economic reforms, notably in Germany, France, and Italy, "the European Union runs the risk of exploding into pieces or disintegrating," renouncing the adhesion of Turkey and the Balkans, and, at the same time, of playing a major role on the global scene. Eurocrats are all the more aggravated by this "simplistic" and "catastrophic" vision of the Union in that they are minutely preparing for George W. Bush's visit to Brussels February 22. "If the NIC experts believe the Union to be a negligible quantity, why should the President of the United States waste his time coming to Brussels?" one asks. "We don't have time to waste with these kinds of polemics," dryly retorts an official from the entourage of Union diplomatic head, Javier Solana. "Our policy is not to talk about Americans, but to speak with them! We have to work 
together on Russia, the Ukraine, the Middle East. It's not the time for theory, but for practice." The Americans' recent commentaries on Turkey's entry into the Union have had a talent for irritating the Finnish Commissioner for Enlargement. "The United States has no business interfering in negotiations between Brussels and Ankara," he repeated to Parliament this week. "Enlargement is a European, not an American, affair." 
(1) www.foia.cia.gov 




" I'm thinking of  a God very different from the God of the Christian and the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins."   Philosopher  Antony Flew 1922 - . 

 

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[Ugnet] Beware: We could really be headed for a new rebellion

[gook makanga]

Beware: We could really be headed for a new rebellion
By Patrick Matsiko wa Mucoori
Jan 27, 2005
It may sound like war mongering to say that Uganda looks inevitably headed 
for another cycle of armed struggle. But looking at the sequence, 
circumstances and precursors of our post independence armed struggles and 
compare it with what is happening today, it would not be farfetched to infer 
that this country is slowly and certainly sliding into a new rebellion.

Apart from the January 25, 1971 coup by the late Idi Amin, the bulk of the 
subsequent armed struggles germinated after national elections.

MEAN GUNS: Striving for peace would eliminate the need for buying expensive 
arsenal to fight for same peace
The 1981-86 National Resistance Army rebellion which catapulted President 
Yoweri Museveni to power on January 26, 1986, was a result of the disputed 
1980 general elections in which Milton Obote acquired a second term as 
president.

I will not draw any comparison from the 1987-88 rebellions by Alice 
Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement and the resultant Lord's Resistance Army by 
Joseph Kony for some reason. Because the two rebellions comprised mainly 
people from the north who had lost power to southerners, one can safely say 
they were desperately hoping to regain the status quo.

But there is an insurgency trend that has been building up in the last ten 
years, which suggests that every time Museveni seeks and achieves another 
presidential term, a new rebellion is born.

When Museveni was re-elected in early 1996, the Allied Democratic Forces, 
which had not been heard of before, made their daring surprise attack in 
western Uganda in November 1996. They overran Mpondwe border post and held 
it for two days until they were driven out by the Uganda People's Defence 
Forces. It took the government about five years to put down the insurgency.

Though the ADF was not directly connected to Dr Paul Ssemogerere, whom 
Museveni defeated in the 1996 polls, the cause of that rebellion cannot be 
divorced from the anger accumulated from Museveni's re-election.

Those who took up arms against him were the opposition who saw his 
re-election as an attempt to perpetuate himself in power. They were also 
part of the opposition disappointed by the loss of an election they believed 
Museveni had made unfree and unfair to their disadvantage but to his 
benefit. So this gave them a reason to fight.

After 1996 there were Movement people who no longer supported Museveni, but 
who could not take up arms against him because they genuinely believed he 
would retire in 2001.

They patiently waited for the opportunity for them to try a shot at the 
presidency. But by 2001, Museveni was showing no signs of leaving power. 
Some of his former bush war colleagues like Col. Dr Kizza Besigye and others 
deserted the Movement wagon to stand against him.

Besigye lost the elections and petitioned court but lost the legal battle 
too on a 2-3 majority ruling. However, all the five judges of the Supreme 
Court, including those who ruled in his favour, agreed there had been 
serious election rigging in various parts of the country. But they also 
ruled that the amount of rigging was not enough to suggest that if such had 
not happened the winner would have been Besigye. But the point had been made 
-- that the elections had been rigged.

Perhaps the court could have made a similar ruling in 1980 elections if 
Museveni had filed an election petition. Museveni's Uganda Patriotic 
Movement (now National Resistance Movement), won only one seat in Parliament 
but he went to the bush claiming the elections had been rigged and he wanted 
to stop such from happening again. So the court could have ruled that though 
the elections had been rigged, there was no proof that if such cheating had 
not happened, Museveni would have become the winner.

But all the same Museveni used the election rigging and the resultant anger 
and desperation not only to justify his armed rebellion that cost lives and 
property for five years, but also to mobilise recruits for his rebellion.

Similarly when Besigye lost in 2001, he and his supporters said the 
elections were rigged. Reports started trickling in that Besigye was 
organising a rebellion. The government started restricting his movements. He 
escaped and soon after army officers, Lieutenant Colonels Samson Mande and 
Anthony Kyakabale deserted the UPDF and declared "a struggle" against 
Museveni's government. They cited, among others, election rigging. Another 
senior UPDF officer Col. Edison Muzoora, and other officers followed them 
later.

Now the country is awash with reports that the said officers in partnership 
with Besigye are training a rebel group called the People's Redemption Army 
(PRA). The government strongly believes PRA exists under 
Besigye-Mande-Muzoora-Kyakabale command.
The government has arrested some people it says are members of PRA. The 
government may not be right on PRA, but neithe

[Ugnet] NYT: In Thrown-to-Lions Trial, Bloody Clothes Remain

[musamize]

 


January 26, 2005
In Thrown-to-Lions Trial, Bloody Clothes RemainBy MICHAEL WINES 




OHANNESBURG, Jan. 25 - Prosecutors in a rural South African hamlet on Tuesday produced the blood-soaked clothes of a man they said had been fed to lions by his former employer, the latest chapter in a gruesome murder trial that has alternately riveted and revolted many here. 
Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, is accused of murder in the death last Jan. 31 of Nelson Chisale, 41, the man he had fired from his farm the previous November. Mr. Scott-Crossley is accused of ordering two other employees, Simon Mathebula and Richard Mathebula, to beat Mr. Chisale and dump him into a nearby breeding enclosure for 20 rare white lions, where he was devoured. 
All three men originally pleaded not guilty to murder charges, but this week Richard Mathebula, who is not related to Simon, changed his plea to guilty, saying he had been following his employer's orders. 
The trial, now in its second day, has roiled tiny Phalaborwa, a village about 280 miles northeast of Johannesburg where the proceedings are unfolding in the Circuit Court. On Tuesday, demonstrators from South Africa's governing African National Congress and the South African Communist Party chanted so loudly outside the courtroom, protesting the murder as a racist legacy of the nation's days under apartheid, that bailiffs had to order them to lower the volume. Mr. Scott-Crossley is white; Mr. Chisale was black. 
As outlined in court testimony, Mr. Chisale's murder was the stuff of nightmares. Prosecutors said Mr. Chisale had returned to the Scott-Crossley farm last January, two months after his dismissal, to retrieve some pots and other belongings when he encountered Mr. Scott-Crossley. 
According to the prosecutors, Mr. Scott-Crossley ordered his workers to attack Mr. Chisale, who was then beaten with a machete, tied to a tree, kicked and threatened with a rifle before being dumped into the back of a pickup truck. The workers were said to have driven to the 49-acre enclosure of the Mokwalo White Lion Project, a breeding ground for the rare lions near Hoedspruit, and tossed Mr. Chisale over the fence. 
The police later found scraps of Mr. Chisale's bloodstained clothes, a skull and some bone fragments at the site. 
In testimony on Tuesday, a 19-year-old security guard, Forget Tsaku Ndlovu, said he first learned of the crime when Simon Mathebula met him at the farm's main gate, his sleeves and hat bloodied, and said he had been "playing" with Mr. Chisale. To illustrate his point, Mr. Ndlovu said, Mr. Mathebula drew a finger across his throat. 
"I said to myself that this is not a sign of playing with somebody," he said. 
Mr. Ndlovu said that a domestic worker on the farm had come to warn him of the assault, but that he himself had taken no action to stop it. "I was concerned to a certain extent," he said, "but there was nothing I could do at that stage because I was busy with my work." 
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[Ugnet] NYT: When Shadows Float Before Your Eyes

[musamize]

 


January 25, 2005
When Shadows Float Before Your EyesBy JONATHAN KOLATCH 




y introduction to floaters came on a sunny September afternoon in the orchard. I was high on a ladder picking Jonagold apples when I felt a pop in my left eye, followed by blurriness. I thought that maybe a branch had slapped across my glasses, dirtying the lens, and I went inside to clean it. But the blurriness - a sort of floating haze - persisted overnight. 
After hearing the symptoms, my ophthalmologist, Dr. William Kirber, diagnosed a posterior vitreous detachment, one of several causes of floaters, sensations that many people describe as specks, bugs or cobwebs floating in their fields of vision. In 85 percent of cases, the floaters caused by posterior detachment are mere annoyances, but when they occur suddenly, immediate medical examination is essential. 
The most common type of floater is caused by aging. Sitting directly between the lens and the retina is a cavity known as the vitreous or vitreous humor. Its outer boundary is defined by a crust like the skin of Jell-O. The function of the vitreous, which makes up four-fifths of the volume of the eye, is to give it its shape, to be a shock absorber in younger eyes and, some argue, to nourish the inner eye. 
The vitreous cavity is filled with a clear, sticky gel that is 99 percent water. The balance consists of strands of a protein called collagen and acidic molecules. With aging, the molecules break down, releasing water that gathers in pockets. At the same time, strands of collagen, normally translucent, bunch into larger opaque fibrils or wispy sheaths. 
It is these clumps of protein and water, of varying shape, meandering unpredictably within the vitreous cavity, that are the source of most floaters. As light passes through the vitreous, floaters cast annoying shadows on the retina, the eye's movie screen. Most adults experience this type of floater at some time.
Much less common is a second type, floaters caused by specks or globs of blood, the result of bleeding brought on by rips in the retina or as a complication of diabetes. 
In each case, the brain almost always gets used to the floaters or they migrate out of view. The third kind of floater, however, caused by a posterior vitreous detachment, is far more likely to impair vision. 
In posterior vitreous detachment, as the fluid from the degenerating vitreous gel moves between the skin of the vitreous and the retina, the vitreous separates from the retina, usually near the optic nerve. As the vitreous tears from the retina, a fragment of tissue remains attached to the receding vitreous.
Because the tissue is tethered to the vitreous, this fragment, known as Weiss's ring, sometimes remains in the central field of vision. Under the ophthalmologist's slit lamp, Weiss's ring resembles a blob of oil floating on water under a lattice of blood vessels. How disabling this vitreous detachment is depends on how far the vitreous peels from the retina.
Posterior vitreous detachments occur in fewer than 10 percent of people under 50, but in 60 percent of people over 70. In 10 to 15 percent of detachments, as the vitreous separates, it tears the retina, requiring immediate treatment, either with a laser or through surgery. 
The question is, When are floaters alarming and when are they benign?
"Almost everyone has floaters," Dr. Jim Garrity, a Mayo Clinic ophthalmologist, stresses in a periodic lecture he offers for general practitioners. "It is the sudden onset of the tiny ones accompanied by flashes of light that you have to be concerned about." 
Many ophthalmologists underrate floaters because they cannot be visualized precisely and because the potential complications from removing the vitreous, the only sure remedy, heavily outweigh the benefits, some experts say.
Dr. William Schiff, a retinal surgeon at Columbia and the lead author of a 2000 article in the journal Retina on vitreous removal to relieve disabling floaters, has called the surgery "eminently doable but universally discouraged." Surgical complications include the almost certain development of cataracts, bleeding and retinal detachment as the vitreous is peeled from the retina.
Still, in rare instances surgery is necessary.
Dr. Stanley Chang, chairman of ophthalmology at Columbia, says that in many cases eye doctors do not appreciate the effect floaters have on patients' lives. 
In screening patients for surgery, Dr. Chang evaluates the floaters' impact on reading speed, the ability to read signs and newsprint, the ability to play sports and driving ease. He says he follows patients for a year to see if the surgery, which he performs only once every year or two, is really needed.
Dr. Chang sometimes refers patients to an article written by a retinal surgeon, Dr. Travis A. Meredith, about his own trials with floaters. "When patients say that their floaters are driving them crazy," Dr. Meredith confesses, "it is not such an exaggeration as I had imagined." 

[Ugnet] NYTimes.com: The Brain: False Assumptions and Cruel Operations

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January 26, 2005





Books of The Times: 
The Brain: False Assumptions and Cruel Operations






By WILLIAM GRIMES



Two new books — one about phrenology, the other a biography of a proponent of lobotomy — examine discredited theories of the brain.


 

		













		










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5. The Minimalist: Fresh Pasta at Ferrari Speed 



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[Ugnet] Army Blocks Gen. Muntu From Fundraising in Lira

[Matek Opoko]

 
Men and women who have the gift of vision ( can see far) have many a times warned  those whose intention it is to plunge our country into more chaos...but they are not listening...they will  only have themselves to blame!
MK
Army Blocks Gen. Muntu From Fundraising in Lira












 

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







The Monitor (Kampala)
January 25, 2005 Posted to the web January 24, 2005 
Agness NandutuKampala 
Former Army Commander and now a member of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu, was on Sunday blocked by the army from attending a fundraising function at Aromo Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp in Erute North in Lira district.
He was expected to be the chief guest.











 
The fundraising was organised by Erute North MP, Mr Charles Angiro, and the Pentecostal Pastors from Masindi district to raise money to buy a public address system to use while conducting church services in the camp.
When The Monitor contacted Muntu yesterday, he admitted he and other Members of Parliament, Ms Cecilia Ogwal (Lira Municipality), Mr Omara Atubo (Otuke County) and Margaret Ateng (Lira district Woman MP), were blocked 5km to the venue of the fundraising.
He said Local Defence Unit (LDUs) personnel, who were manning a roadblock, told him they had been instructed by the army not to allow anybody to proceed beyond that point because there were rebel movements in the area.
But Muntu wondered why he was stopped when civilians, who were on foot, were allowed to continue.
He said he and the MPs returned to Aromo army detach to ask for escorts. But the detach commander, Lt. Okwir, told them they had received instructions from above not to allow anybody to proceed.
Muntu said the army had told him there were only 10 rebels moving in the area.
"I have been an Army Commander myself and 10 rebels is not a big deal. They (army) behaved as if it was a full scale war in the area. These people are just afraid of the opposition," he said.
"It should have been a deliberate move and if it was true that the army was playing monkey ticks, they will not continue doing that. I was put under the bridge on Sunday, but I will not allow to be stopped any more," Muntu said.
He said when there is insecurity anywhere in the country, the army should provide military escorts. "This was just a fundraising and there was no reason of stopping me. But this will not concern me any more. My focus is how we shall handle our political activities and access people in all parts of the country," he said.
"What I am putting to the army is that we should not be intimidated but given adequate escort to carry out our politics in case of insecurity," he said.
He said he was waiting for the place to stabilise and he would return to attend the fundraising. "I will have to go back because people were expecting me to talk to them. I hope the army will drive away the rebels such that I can go back," Muntu said.
This is the second time Muntu is blocked from attending a fundraising. Last year, police stopped him from addressing people at a church fundraising in Luweero district.
Ogwal said there were no rebels in Erute North, but the army only intervened after learning Muntu would be the chief guest. "I see this as politics. How can you allow civilians to go to the venue and then block politicians? Ogwal asked.
"This is a total ban on the opposition to have direct access to the people. It was no different from the incident when MPs were beaten," she said.
Some MPs from the north were on November 22, 2004 beaten by soldiers as they tried to address a rally in Pader district.
Angiro said he had been on the ground and there was no rebel activity in the area.
"It was an intention to disrupt the function because even the civilians told me there were no rebels. I am demanding an explaining from the army," he said.
He said he had personally notified the Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, and the 5th Division Commander, Lt. Col. George Etyang.
He said he even held a meeting with the army personnel and they promised to deploy soldiers on the road to protect the MPs.











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"The army had okayed me to go ahead with the function, but just changed their mind after hearing the news on Lira Radio One FM that Muntu would be the chief guest," he said.
He said though Muntu was not able to officiate at the fundraising, he (Angiro) went ahead and fundraised more than Shs1.5 million. He said he would organise another function and Muntu would go back to address the people
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[Ugnet] Human Rights Watch Gives Kenya Mixed Review, Slams Uganda

[Matek Opoko]

"The Ugandan government is continuing to support armed groups in the Ituri region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to Human Rights Watch. This support for proxy forces inside the DRC is in part intended to protect Uganda's border region but also "to ensure continued control over the lucrative trade in natural resources from the DRC, particularly gold," the report says."  Beloved ..and you wander as to why Tutsi refugges are flooding into Uganda...Visionaries have clearly noted that Museveni is yet to see the  Mother of All crises in Uganda..let him continue with his Militaristic NRM policies.
MK.
 
Human Rights Watch Gives Kenya Mixed Review, Slams Uganda












 

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The East African (Nairobi)
January 24, 2005 Posted to the web January 26, 2005 
Kelvin KelleyNairobi 
THE KENYAN government receives a mixed evaluation in the latest annual survey by Human Rights Watch, which criticises the Ugandan government for a variety of alleged abuses. Tanzania is not included in the survey of more than 60 nations worldwide.
The New York-based non-governmental organisation also calls for large-scale United Nations military intervention in Sudan's Darfur region, saying the African Union force being dispatched to Darfur lacks the capacity to operate effectively. But Human Rights Watch holds out little hope that the nations comprising the UN Security Council will initiate life-saving action.












For a YEAR IN REVIEW excerpt from the Africa 2005 guidebook, click here.(Adobe Acrobat).
To buy the book, click here.
"Everyone has something more important to do than to save the people of Darfur," says Kenneth Roth, the group's director.
In the two years it has held power in Kenya, the government of President Mwai Kibaki gives cause for "both hope and disappointment," Human Rights Watch finds. While Kenyan authorities have committed "few serious abuses," there is potential for serious problems because "much of the repressive state machinery from the Moi era remains intact," the report notes.
Among the "commendable and promising steps" taken to address human-rights issues, the report cites the Kenyan government's appointment of well-known activists to high office as well as efforts to reform the judiciary, police and prison services.
Human Rights Watch approvingly notes the forced resignation of High Court Chief Justice Bernard Chunga. The group also hails as "a welcome step" the shake-up of the judiciary following a report that accused 23 judges of corruption.
But due-process protection was not observed in the case of those dismissals, Human Rights Watch suggests, noting, "The expulsion of judges considered - but not yet found - guilty of corruption, ineptitude or improper conduct amounts to a denial of due process."
The report also sees gains for freedom of the press in Kenya in 2004. And although its findings were compiled prior to the government's recent actions against a Standard editor and reporter, the Human Rights Watch report does note that some Moi-era restrictions on the press remain intact.
The Narc government is rebuked for allegedly failing to punish corruption within its own ranks.
"There is growing impunity for actions by those in the inner circle of government," Human Rights Watch charges. "Since the new government came to power, there have been several instances of government ministers publicly expressing their intention to disregard court injunctions; property expropriated by executive order; and reluctance to prosecute violations by the president's supporters."
A double standard is being applied, the report suggests - one for official misdeeds of the Moi era and another for those alleged to have occurred during the past two years. "High-ranking Kibaki officials are not being held to account for abuses in the same way as former Moi government officials," Human Rights Watch observes.
Kenya's current leadership is further faulted for delaying action on the draft Constitution, which is described as "a symbol of the hopes and aspirations of Kenyans for a participatory democracy." The proposed Constitution represents "the most widely consultative rights document that Kenya has ever seen and contains better human-rights guarantees than the current Constitution," according to the report.
Human Rights Watch says the government appears unwilling to adopt institutional reforms "that would fundamentally limit the extensive presidential and executive powers it inherited".
In its section on Uganda, the rights group's annual survey deplores abuses committed by the Lord's Resistance Army while accusing government forces of torturing suspected LRA members and sympathisers.
But the report also approvingly notes the "unprecedented step" taken by President Yoweri Museveni in referring the LRA case to the International Criminal Court. Human Rights Watch adds, however, that Uganda peace activists "remain wary that Museveni will manipulate thi

[Ugnet] Time Running Out for Uganda Transition...and Movementisim too..

[Matek Opoko]

Time Running Out for Uganda Transition












 

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The East African (Nairobi)
January 24, 2005 Posted to the web January 26, 2005 
David KaizaNairobi 
MEMBERS OF the political opposition in Uganda are working to avert what they say is a brewing political crisis as the time runs out for transition to a multiparty system.
Members of Parliament opposed to the Movement system, who number only 81 in the 304-strong parliament, are lobbying the Speaker of the House, Edward Ssekandi, to avert a build-up of political tension by speeding up the transition from single-party rule to a multiparty system.
The date proposed in 2004 in the roadmap was April 2005, by which time the laws that restrict political parties were to have been amended appropriately. But it is only two months to April and not a single constitutional amendment has been effected to let parties operate.
Between February and April, parliament will have to debate and make changes to 119 constitutional provisions to effect the transition. But the Bill is yet to be tabled for debate, while campaigns for the next elections are slated to start later in the year.
Opposition MPs are asking the Speaker to abandon the 119 proposals, when they come up for debate, and focus on lifting the ban on parties and amending the Police Act, which bars political rallies, and the Referendum Act.
Under the political roadmap, the referendum to determine the political system to be followed was supposed to take place in February. But officials of the Electoral Commission said they were not sure when the referendum would take place as they were waiting for parliament and for funds. The exercise requires up to $19 million to accomplish.
It is these three Acts that bar political parties from operating freely, oppositionists say. The rest of the changes, they say, are not that urgent and can be tackled by a different government and parliament.
The 119 proposed changes have been lumped together in what has been termed the "Omnibus Bill." The chairman of the Parliamentary Rules Committee, Ben Wacha, characterised the inclusion of the Land Act, the powers of the courts and the debate on the president's powers over parliament in the transition debate as a "blindfold."
"These are not urgent matters. They are not even important to the transition, but have been brought in as a blindfold. This is a whole overhaul of the constitution; who needs that right now?
"I have a feeling that there is a deliberate move to slow down the process so that towards the end, things are done in a hurry. We have had this situation a number of times. We need not have a crisis because a lot of things that are contained in the White Paper are not things that need urgent review. We should focus only on those provisions that affect the transition from Movement to multiparty politics and leave the rest."
Parliament is on recess - in spite of criticism by the opposition that the Speaker should never have let the House go on holiday with so much on their plate - until February 1.
Some MPs say that they will not discuss the White Paper or any other business of parliament until the question of the transition has been settled.
Ken Lukyamuzi, the MP for Rubaga South in Kampala, told The EastAfrican, "Before we begin effective discussion work on the White Paper, we would like parliament to work on a roadmap."











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In response, Ssekandi told The EastAfrican that April need not be seen as a deadline since it was only a suggestion by the government and not a legal requirement. He said he could not do anything because the Bill proposing these changes is yet to be tabled for debate.
"The best thing to do is to wait for the Bill to be presented," he said. "Before this is done, we are just speculating."
 
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Ear to the Ground 

By Charles Onyango Obbo The curse of Jan. 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31Jan 26, 2005




To hang on long enough for the crimes to recede in the distant past; for the evidence to decay; for the witnesses to the crimes to die; and long enough for the survivors and direct victims of the atrocities to become a minority.
The last two weeks of January have been dramatic days in Ugandaâ and elsewhere in the world for almost the same reasons.On Monday January 24, a ceremony to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Liberation of Second World War Nazi concentration camp was held in the former Auschwitz death camp in Poland to mark its liberation by Soviet troops on Jan. 27, 1945. Between one million and 1.5 million prisoners - most of them Jews - perished in gas chambers or died of starvation and disease at Auschwitz. Overall, six million Jews were killed in the Nazi campaign. 





President Museveni greets senior officers at Kololo: Anniversary celebrations are painful to some people, but a cause of happiness for others who have benefitted from the reigning regime (File photo). 
In Uganda, on January 30, 1964, there was an army mutiny. When Defence minister Felix Onama went to sort things out, troops detained him, demanding a pay rise. On January 25, 1970, in an event that continues to shape Uganda's politics in many indirect ways, the commander of the Army's Second Infantry, Brig. Pierino Okoya, and his wife Anna, were shot dead at their home in Gulu. That murder of Okoya, viewed as a Democratic Party sympathiser, was to shape aspects of the Uganda National Liberation Front Army's conduct of the war against Yoweri Museveni's NRA rebels in Luwero in the early 1980s - and the second coup against Milton Obote in July 1985. The DP backed that coup, and several of its leaders were given ministerial positions. January 25, 1971, the army overthrew Obote, and Amin became president. On January 24, 1973 guerrillas arrested after the failed September 1972 invasion from Tanzania were executed by firing squad in several towns in Uganda. On January 31, 1977 one of the largest massacres of the Acholi and Langi communities by the Amin army begun in Gulu and Lira towns. On January 21, 1979, a force of the Tanzanian army together with Ugandan exiles, crosses the border and captures Mutukula in retaliation against Amin's invasion of Tanzania in October 1978. And so started the war that was to oust the Amin regime in April.On January 21, 1985, former President Yusuf Lule and Chairman of the National Resistance Movement died in London, opening the way for Museveni to become both the military and political leader of the organisation.On January 23, 1986, Museveni's NRA's rebels intensify their attacks on Kampala. On January 25 - the same day as the Amin coup and the murder of Okoya - the game is over. Military ruler Gen. Tito Okello flees to Kenya. And on January 26, the NRA announces it has captured power. January 29, guerrilla leader Museveni is sworn in as president, promising that the wanton killing of Ugandans was over. We can go on and onâhowever, January 26-29, 1986 didn't mark the end of massacres of Uganda. It was the period that saw the shift of the killing fields back to northern Uganda, and later the western border with the ADF rebellion. Today, the north still bleeds. In one account, which I recorded many years later from a survivor of the January 31, 1977 pogroms in the north, I was told that Amin's soldiers went around collecting mothers who had breast-feeding babies. They ordered them to put the babies in mortars in which the people usually pounded groundnuts and simsim, and crush the children to pulp. The thing about this, is that it's what Kony's men and other criminal parties are still doing in the north today.I looked at the footage of the Jews in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and I couldn't help thinking of some of the grim images from the "protected camps" in the north. Violence and crime of this magnitude makes it difficult to heal, and distorts a country's politics and psychology in extreme ways.Recently I spoke to someone who had just toured Luwero. He told me he had spoken to people who had told him that the reason Luwero has never been fully rehabilitated by the government is precisely because of the suffering that the people there went through during the war. They believe it's possible some people

[Ugnet] African envoy seized in Moscow

[Edward Mulindwa]

 African envoy seized in 
Moscow The students are angry about unpaid stipends Moscow-based 
students from the African state of Guinea Bissau are holding their country's 
ambassador hostage in a dispute over unpaid student grants. Russian 
television showed footage of up to 100 students in the embassy, who said they 
would continue their protest until all debts owed to them were paid. 
They said the 200-odd Guinea Bissau students in Russia had not received 
their $60-a-month stipends for a year. Diplomat Rogerio Herbert said the 
students' demands had been passed on. The Soviet authorities invited large 
numbers of Third World students to study free in the USSR, as a means of winning 
influence abroad. Numbers have declined, but many overseas students still come 
to Russia to study. However, some complain of severe financial problems.  
Police not involved Moscow police received reports at 1230 local time (0930 GMT) 
that a group of young people forced their way into the ambassador's apartment, 
which also serves as an embassy. Embassy staff refused offers of help from 
the police, Russian media reported. It was not clear what the 
hostage-takers intended to do if their demands were not met, although some 
reports said they were on hunger-strike.  "The ambassador is our hostage, 
he isn't going anywhere. We will shut all the doors and the diplomatic service 
will not work until we recover our debt," a student named as Silvio Bravo told 
the TV.  Guinea Bissau is one of the poorest countries in the world, 
although theformer Portuguese colony was once a model for economic 
development in Africa. 

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