British Queen May 'Walk On Dead Bodies', Says FDC
The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
April 25, 2006
By Gerald WalulyaTHE Forum for Democratic Change has said it will organise a demonstration the day Queen Elizabeth II will arrive in Uganda next year.The party Spokesman, Mr Wafula Oguttu, told a weekly media briefing at Najjanankumbi yesterday that the demonstration would be intended to express Ugandans' dissatisfaction over President Yoweri Museveni's "dictatorship.""We shall demonstrate right from Entebbe [airport] and Kayihura can organise enough tear gas," Oguttu said."Let the Queen come and jump dead bodies on her way to Kampala if it is what it takes to achieve democracy in Uganda."Queen Elizabeth II is expected to attend a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting slated for November 2007.Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura is the Inspector General of Police.The police have previously crashed several FDC demonstrations including one that targeted the visit of South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki last year.Oguttu said the decision to hold a peaceful demonstration would not change unless Museveni's government makes substantive political reforms between now and early next year that would guarantee democracy in the country.Among the reforms, FDC wants is the establishment of a consultative forum for all political parties to deliberate on the country's political future.The FDC also wants the government to stop discriminating and harassing opposition politicians.Contrary to earlier reports that the opposition party was lobbying against the Queen's visit, Oguttu said his party supports the visit of the Queen and other efforts to hold the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in Kampala next year.In an April 10 letter to the British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Mr Jack Straw, FDC asked Britain to "review its position regarding the participation of Her Majesty the Queen in the 2007 meeting of the Commonwealth heads of government, which is expected to take place in Uganda."But Oguttu said the team that included Ms Beti Kamya, a special envoy in the FDC president's office, Mr Kassiano Wadri, a party deputy secretary general, and Mr Sam Akaki, the FDC envoy to the UK, were in Britain to attend other meetings, but not to lobby against the Queen's visit.The FDC said that their main query with the 53-country summit is that the foreign dignitaries would be coming to Uganda to endorse an illegitimate government. Wafula made his case by referring to the April 6 Supreme Court ruling where seven judges unanimously ruled that the February presidential elections did not neither follow the electoral laws nor was the electoral exercise free and fair."The Queen should not come here to endorse an election which was not free and fair," Oguttu said.He attacked the Commonwealth for what he called double standards when dealing with different nations.Maj. Rubaramira Ruranga, the chairman of FDC's Electoral Commission said there is nothing much that an ordinary Ugandan would benefit from the summit.He said the meeting would only escalate Uganda's debt burden by incurring costs of organising the summit.Last week the government said, it would spend Shs90 billion to organise the summit.&&&&&&&&&Treat Uganda As Zimbabwe, Says FDC
New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
April 25, 2006
By Mariam Nalunkuuma
KampalaTHE Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has demanded that Uganda be subjected to some benchmarks like Zimbabwe to meet the Commonwealth standards.FDC officials said the party was not against the visit of Queen Elizabeth II of England but was concerned that there was a lot of politicking and double standards in Uganda hosting the 2007 commonwealth Heads of government Meeting.FDC spokesperson Wafula Oguttu said, "If the Queen was scared of going to Zimbabwe, why then Uganda yet both presidents are violating the rights of the people?"The party allegedly sent a team of top officials to lobby the UK government to stop the Queen from attending the summit as a way of denying President Yoweri Museveni legitimacy."We want to be clear though that we support the Commonwealth meeting. But the commonwealth has its own criteria and standards a country must meet."If a country has had an election that is not free and fair, why should it hold such an important meeting? We think the Commonwealth and the Queen should think twice before coming to Uganda," Oguttu said.
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