Mr. President,
This is an exciting time in America for peace lovers and those who
cherish justice. This is a Godsend time for those suffering under
repressive dictators and governments. Your actions against international
terrorism and dictatorial regimes have put hopes for peace and democracy
in the hearts of all the oppressed of this world. We the members, board
of directors, and the executives committee of Friends for Peace in
Africa (FPA) have such hope and we, therefore, humbly ask you to
answer our cry for peace in Northern Uganda.This is because President
Museveni has been waging a vicious war against child soldiers in Northern
Uganda for the past 17 years and forcing innocent citizens to live in
camps under horrendous conditions.
Although President Museveni is sometimes portrayed as an African leader
of the new breed, he has a dark side that most American people do not
know. President Museveni has been fomenting war in the Great Lake Region
of East and Central Africa long before he became President of Uganda. He
overthrew the governments of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zaire. In each
of these countries, unprecedented levels of killing attended the
overthrow governments, the best known of which was the Rwanda genocide of
1994. He tried, though without appreciable success, to do the same in
Kenya through the Wakenya rebels, and in Sudan through the SPLA. In
his own country, he has herded a whole Acoli nationality into
concentration camps, ostensibly to protect them from the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. He and his brother Gen. Salim Saleh now
have plans to completely destroy the Acoli people and take away their
land.
As you prepare to host President Museveni at the White House this week,
we humbly bring up the following observations and request that you ask
him for explanations during your discourse.
1. The government of
Uganda herded up the Acoli people into ‘protected villages’ in 1996,
supposedly to protect them against raids by the LRA. Yet the LRA
raids these camps, kills, and abducts children unchallenged by the Uganda
Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF). The Acoli people are starving in the
Internally Displaced People’s (IDP) camps. The UPDF won’t allow them to
go back home and plant food crops. The Uganda government, on the other
hand, is not providing food aid, sanitation, water, medical services, or
school for children. Since the UPDF has shown that it is neither
able to defeat the LRA nor protect the camps, why can’t the President
allow the Acoli to return to their homesas they want to?
2. Several years ago,
President Museveni boasted that he had the second most powerful military
in the worldsecond only to that of the USA. How can the ‘second most
powerful military in the world’ fail to defeat a ragtag guerilla army
made up mostly of 8-13 year old children? Yet, he continues to ask for
military assistance from donor countries to arm his troops against the
abducted children turned rebel child soldiers.
3. The Uganda
government claims that the UPDF went into Congo to protect its citizens
and prevent another genocide at the scale of the 1994 Rwanda massacre.
Why was this potential genocide more of an emergency than the actual one
happening in northern Uganda? Why should President Museveni spend so much
financial and military resources trying to ‘prevent a genocide’ in Congo
but when he should stop the one that has been going on in his own
country? Why has President Museveni who has negotiated settlements of
disputes between Uganda and Rwanda, Uganda and Sudan, Burundi and its
rebels and between the Uganda Government and it other rebel groups,
steadfastly refused to end the war in Northern Uganda by negotiation.
4. The Uganda
government goes to donor countries every year to ask for more money to
fight the LRA, but the LRA grows stronger every year. Every year,
the defense budget and other defense-related appropriations take up
ever-bigger percentages of the national budget, a budget that is 50%
subsidized by donor countries. Where is the money going, and why are
corrupt UPDF officers and government officials not made to account for
their actions? What and when does he plan to do with the UPDF officers
and government officials implicated in the Congo looting and other acts
of corruption?
5. The median age of
the LRA rebels drops every year, and is now closer to 12. When the UPDF
fights them, it actually kills children it had failed to prevent from
being abducted by the LRA and turned into child solders in the first
place. Does the President feel good when his soldiers kill children? When
he talks of “wiping out Joseph Kony and his LRA,” why doesn’t he realize
that he is talking about wiping out Acoli children? When his
soldiers report many rebels killed, does he not realize they are talking
about killing children? Mr. Museveni has proclaimed on numerous occasions
since 1992 that the UPDF would “soon wipe out the LRA.” Why hasn’t
it happened?
6. Many local,
national, and international groups, foreign governments (including that
of the US), and individuals (including the Pope) have called on President
Museveni to seek a peaceful resolution of the northern conflict by
negotiating peace with the LRA. On several occasions, the LRA has shown
some willingness to negotiate, and made overtures to the government
through the Acoli Parliamentary Group (APG), the Acoli Religious Leaders
Peace Initiative (ARLPI), The Rwodi (Acoli chiefs), priests, other
groups, and individuals. While President Museveni agrees in words
to negotiate, he has repeatedly refused to in fact negotiate, and
pronounced a complete military victory on the battlefield as the only
acceptable conclusion to the conflict. He always puts up
preconditions on any proposed negotiation process that he knows the LRA
officers could never acceptand they always don’t. Why is the President so
opposed to negotiation of any kind? Does he not realize that by
steadfastly insisting on military victory against the LRA (a victory that
has failed to materialize in 17 years), he is in essence committing
himself and his army to creating a state of permanent war or totally
wiping out the Acoli people? We see this as a serious crime against
humanity.
President Museveni can end the war in northern Uganda; and he can do it
easily. The war has been the reason to be president for Museveni for many
years, and why he wants a third, fourth, fifth, …life term as president.
It is therefore in his own best financial and career interests to
perpetuate the war as long as it can keep him in the State House.
Although Uganda does not yet harbor terrorists that can credibly threaten
the US, Museveni is creating a condition in the Great Lake Region of
Africa that is extremely favorable to the emergence of a terrorist
culture and mentality. He must be stopped.
We believe that it is very important for your Administration to
categorically state its position on the IDP camps which were forcefully
created by the government and its inhabitants continue to be victimized
by both government troops and the LRA rebels. We do not believe that your
Administration and the American people whose tax money is used to arm
President Museveni’s soldiers directly or indirectly, would knowingly
approve of his troops using such arms to kill child rebel soldiers who
are victims of the war he refuses to end by negotiation.
The FPA and the people of the Lake region of Africa appeal to your
Administration to join the European Union countries, international public
and private agencies that operate in Uganda, and local bodies to demand
that Museveni abandon the military approach and instead pursue a
negotiated settlement of the conflict in northern Uganda.
Friends for Peace in Africa is a 501(c) 3 organization based in
the US and Canada and headquartered in Los Angeles. Our mission is to
facilitate and mediate through dialogue, advocacy, and empowerment, the
implementation of conditions that enable every individual in all regions
of Africa, to live and develop to his/her fullest potential in an
atmosphere of peace.
Respectfully,
Ochan Otim, Ph.D.
President.
Friends for Peace in Africa, P. O. Box 412131, Los Angeles, CA
90041-2131.
Cc. Colin Powell, Secretary
of State
Condoleeza
Rice, National Security Advisor
Donald
Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense