Subject: Museveni - The Ugandan Narkisses (3) Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 12:51:57 EDT Salaam. They received arms from FRELIMO and the Tanzania government and later from Gaddafi and infiltrated these into Uganda in order to end what he calls "the monopoly of arms by the northerners." By the time of the collapse of Amin's regime, on 11 April, 1979, the Fronasa force (largely Museveni's personal army) 227 had grown to 9000 while Obote's Kikoosi Maalum numbered only 1500. Under both Presidents Y. K. Lule and Godfrey Binaisa, Oyite Ojok for Obote and Museveni continued to recruit their kinsmen into the army with the latter accusing the former of recruiting only the northerners and the former accusing Museveni of recruiting only the Banyarwanda. By the time they took over in 1986, the National Resistance Army had 20,000 soldiers under its command. The few northerners remaining in the army were either eliminated or forced into exile. Museveni's prejudice and hatred against the northerners is further revealed in his assertion that "the whole community in Acholi and Lango had become involved in the plundering of Uganda for themselves." (p. 178). Some of the northerners might have been corrupt, but to condemn whole communities indiscriminately as Museveni does is merely to express some deep-seated hatred. He uses this condemnation to justify his punitive measures against the northerners probably in search of a "final solution." As Museveni continues, with the help of the Americans, to hunt for "bandits" - as he calls northern leaders who are fighting for human dignity - thousands are dying in the unending civil war while others are herded into "protected camps." Is this not genocide? Recently, Museveni has even defended the activities of his eldest son, Mohoozi Kainerugaba, who was accused by several Uganda M.P.s of recruiting 200 fresh graduates from Makerere University to serve in the army's Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) that protects his father. His son has no right to carry out army recruitment, and many of these recruits were, in the father's words - "his friends" (read Westerners).4 Can one be more secretarian and authoritarian than this? It is easy, in retrospect, to demonize Obote and the "northerners" and make it appear as if he was merely responding to the ethnic paranoia of his people. The reality, however, was much more complicated as we have tried to suggest. Looking at the evidence presented in this book, it is obvious that Museveni sees himself as the Earnest "Che" Guevara (the legendary South American guerrilla leader) of Africa. He gives details of war strategies, plans and battles, ending up with a kind of guerrilla warfare manual which he expects other progressive African leaders to adopt in order to "Sow the Mustard Seed" in their countries. Is it any wonder that since he came to power in Uganda, he has used people like Paul Kagame in Rwanda and Laurent Kabila in the Democratic Republic of Congo, to apply the teachings of his manual in their countries. Kagame was of course, an officer in the National Resistance Army of Uganda, and many of the so-called Kabila Tutsi death squads operating in Congo where they have been accused of killing scores of Hutu children and women refugees, 228 as well as innocent Congolese civilians, are actually Ugandans or Rwandese trained by Museveni. No wonder the New York Times of June 15, 1997 was so lavish in its praise of Museveni. It wrote: Yoweri Museveni is a "leader secure in his power and his vision. The recent victory of Laurent Kabila's troops over Mobutu Sese Seko's government army in Congo marked perhaps the most impressive of Museveni's moves in the international area." Obviously the United States and other European powers, seem to see the role of Museveni in the Eastern and Central Africa as that of removing certain regimes from power and replacing them with those that will put the interests of foreign business before the needs of their pe ople. This is tantamount to recolonisation of Africa with the collaboration of native guerrilla leaders!
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