By Chris Obore
July 21, 2003 Monitor
|
The UPC wants the government to let former President Idi Amin return home. The Uganda People's Congress, whose government was deposed by Mr Amin in January 1971, says that it would be wrong for President Yoweri Museveni to let a former president die in exile without support. According to the UPC, Amin is a Ugandan citizen, and the government has the responsibility to look after him. Amin has lived in exile in Saudi Arabia since he was overthrown in 1979. On Saturday, The Monitor broke a story that the former head of state was ill and in coma at the King Fahad Hospital in Riyadh. Mrs Nalongo Madina Amin told The Monitor that she had asked President Museveni to allow her ailing husband to return home. Mr Museveni reportedly answered that he would instead arrest Amin the moment the former President set foot on Ugandan soil. A government official has now indicated that the family would be allowed to bring back the former President's body if Amin were to die in exile. The UPC, whose own leader, Mr Milton Obote, lives in exile in Zambia, sees it rather differently. "Why should Museveni want to finish off a man who is ailing? He is behaving like a witch," said Mr Peter Walubiri, a member of the UPC's Presidential Policy Commission. Walubiri said that Amin is a Ugandan who has the right to be home. "Let him be allowed home. After he is well, we can discuss the suspicion that he committed crimes. The police and the DPP will take action," he said. Walubiri said that the duty of the government is to care for all its citizens, including those in prison. "For us in UPC we definitely have no love for Amin, but we would not deny him the right to be a citizen," he said. Walubiri said that Museveni should respect the sanctity of life. The President has no moral authority to condemn other people, Walubiri said; adding that many people have died since 1972 because of Museveni's activities. "Let Amin get investigated after treatment by the state. If the UPC got back to power, we would treat Museveni if he fell sick," the UPC official said. President Museveni once said that he would shoot dead Obote, if the twice-deposed former President dared step on Ugandan soil again. |
© 2003 The Monitor Publications
Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!
