Chavez defends Idi Amin <http://www.ugandarecord.co.ug/index.php?issue=33&article=428&seo=Chavez%20defends%20Idi%20Amin>
Amin arrives in Lahore, Pakistan, Feb. 22, 1974, for an Islamic conference. Hugo Chervez, the controversial president of Venezuela, has stated that Id Amin was not the man he has been portrayed to the world. Speaking in the capital Caracas on Friday night, Nov. 20, Chavez said: "We thought he was a cannibal. I have doubts ... Maybe he was a great nationalist, a patriot." Chavez's comments sparked off a round of protest by Ugandan government officials. Mary Karooro Okurut, a spokeswoman for the NRM party told the Associated Press news agency on Sunday Nov. 22 that "Anybody who says that Amin was good has something wrong with him. Amin was brutal. He killed many Ugandans and made many run into exile. There is something wrong with whoever praises Amin." President Yoweri Museveni's Press Secretary Joseph Tamale Mirundi, also in remarks to the Associated Press, said "If you marry a woman and you later kill her, then you are not worth being called a good husband. That is what Amin did...The way he killed Ugandans in big numbers cannot qualify him to be a nationalist." Chavez's statements have returned the name of Amin to the world news headlines and revived debate on that still-traumatic era in Ugandan history, the eight-year rule of Idi Amin from 1971 to 1979. If Chavez seeks to absolve Amin of the atrocities of the 1970s, who then committed the atrocities during Amin's rule? As it is with the RPF in Rwanda and the NRA in Uganda, the story of the rule of Idi Amin is one of the great deceptions of African history. Millions of the best-educated people on earth, in journalism, history, and political science have been deceived, blinded, or misled by information they took at face value. The fact of how millions of well-intentioned and otherwise sophisticated people in every corner of the world continue to be deceived about Amin, is one of the best proofs or at least suggestions that there must be a great invisible Being in the universe that schemes to blind the human mind, as Christians believe in their various doctrines. Jan. 25, 1971: Idi Amin takes power In the weeks and months after coming to power in a military coup on Jan. 25, 1971, the former army commander, Maj. Gen. Idi Amin spend much of his time speaking of plots and moves to oust his new military regime. To Amin, the biggest and most obvious threat to his regime was the recently ousted government of President Milton Obote and former cabinet ministers and military and intelligence officers of that ousted UPC government. Soon after the coup, the former Quartermaster General of the army, Lt. Col. David Oyite-Ojok, fled to Owiny-Kibul in southern Sudan where he and other soldiers organised the first resistance to Amin. Amin took this threat so seriously that on May 13, 1971, a government spokesman announced a reward of one million Uganda shillings to anyone who could bring back alive to Uganda former President Obote and rewards of 500,000 shillings each for the former director of the General Service Protection Unit, Naphtali Akena Adoko and Lt. Col. Oyite-Ojok. The origins of FRONASA What Amin did not know at the time was that a group of former intelligence officers led by Raiti Omongin and Yoweri Museveni had fled to Tanzania and had plans to start their own resistance against Amin's government. Museveni had been a student radical at the University College of East Africa at Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in the late 1960s. In 1969, Museveni had written a 15-page paper titled Fanon’s theory on violence: its verification in liberated Mozambique, in which he outlined his experiences in the camps of the Mozambican guerrilla group FRELIMO and supporting the notion that there is a place and justification for violence as a political weapon. After university, he got a job in the Office of the President as a Research Assistant in a new counterintelligence department called the State Research Bureau within the General Service Unit. As soon as the 1971 Amin coup took place, Museveni fled the country and on to Tanzania. A few weeks into exile, in February 1971, he formed a guerrilla group called “Temporary Committee”, financed by the Tanzanian government of President Julius Nyerere to engage in guerrilla moves against Amin inside Uganda. In March 1971, it changed its name to “Committee Seven” because it was founded by seven people. The founders of "Committee Seven" included Museveni; former UPC party youth winger and GSU intelligence agent Raiti Omongin; GSU agents and former secondary Ntare School mates of Museveni, Capt. William (“Black”) Mwesigwa and Martin Mwesiga; another GSU agent Zubairi Bakari. Museveni was named as the Tanzania Liaison Officer for Committee Seven, having the widest knowledge of Tanzania of all in the group. About August 1971, Committee Seven took on the name the Front for National Salvation, or FRONASA. FRONASA took part, along with the Obote group Kikosi Malum (“Special Force”), in the abortive guerrilla attack on Mbarara on September 17, 1972. Museveni sat in the fifth and last truck, right at the back of the convoy carrying the guerrillas. After the invaders were soundly defeated by the Simba Battalion commanded by Lt. Col. Ali Fadhul, Major Yusuf Gowan, and a Lt. Ndahura, Museveni fled back into Tanzania. The differences in strategy between Obote and Museveni were exacerbated and they parted ways. Museveni --- who had always insisted that Kikosi Malum’s preferred approach of a conventional war, pitting army against army, would never succeed because Amin was still very popular and his army powerful --- now decided to go into full-scale guerrilla warfare. In January 1973, a number of guerrillas were captured inside Uganda. On January 22, president Amin appointed a military tribunal sat to try the captured guerrillas. The tribunal was chaired by Lt. Col. Joseph Ozo, the commander of the Moroto battalion and others included Lt. Col. Hussein Marella, a Major Gabriel, a Captain Sengendo, Captain Mohammed Yasin (later commanding officer of the Entebbe Airforce base), a Captain Amin and its secretary, a Lieutenant Awuzu. A meeting of the Defence Council had been called on Monday January 22, 1973 at the presidential lodge in Makindye, a district of Kampala, to discuss the capture of the guerrillas. According to the government-owned newspaper, the Voice of Uganda (formerly called the Uganda Argus), in its edition of January 23, 1973, the Defence Council --- which was the highest decision-making body in Amin’s military government --- “was seriously concerned over the mysterious disappearance of prominent Ugandans, confirming that this was the work of the former President, Dr Obote and some of his former ministers. This is clearly shown by the evidence of two people who were recruited as guerrillas and who abandoned and deserted a training camp in a forest in southern Busoga where guerrillas were training in kidnapping tactics.” This statement by the Defence Council, as has been mentioned, assumed Obote and his loyalists to be the biggest threat to Amin and did not know enough about FRONASA to expand their view of the threats against Amin. These captured FRONASA guerrillas had been training in Lugala forest near the Busoga District Farm Institute and most were from Kigezi district in southwest Uganda. On the night of January 23, 1973, the Military Tribunal reached a decision to execute by firing squad, in public, in their respective home districts “as an example to the people”, the following guerrillas: former Uganda Army Capt. Tom Masaba from Bugisu; William Nkoko from Busoga; Joseph Bitwari from Kigezi and former District Commissioner of Bugisu; James Karambi from Kigezi; and a former Uganda Police officer Phares Kasoro from Toro. In a statement, in English, the Military Tribunal said: “Now these subversive elements have found a direct confrontation [with the Uganda Army] impossible so they are operating in small bands. They disguise as soldiers and try to disgrace the Government by hijacking high officials.” On January 30, 1973, a guerrilla named Yusuf (or Joseph) Malibo Abwooli from Wesenene, Mwenge, in eastern Toro, was arrested at the Uganda Bookshop Tea Room in Kampala by the Public Safety Unit. He had in his possession a pistol and three magazines. The Public Safety Unit, headed by a senior police commissioner Ali Towilli, was a new department of the Uganda Police that had been created to curb the rampant armed robberies and murder of prominent Ugandans after Amin came to power. Upon interrogation, according to the Voice of Uganda on January 31, 1973, “The guerrilla [Malibo] said he was sent from Tanzania with several others to assassinate and kidnap certain important people in Uganda. Malibo’s targets were, first, the Foreign Minister, Mr Wanume Kibedi; second, the Minister of Education, Mr [Edward] Rugumayo; third, the Minister of Culture and Community Development, Mr [Yekosofati] Engur. The acting Commander of the Army, Col [Francis] Nyangweso would be the fourth target and Mr Ali Bablo, a Kampala sportsman was fifth. Malibo was carrying with him a group photograph of the five men.” John Labeja of Awere and Amos Obwona from Atiak, in West Acholi district, were arrested in Gulu. They had in their possession five rifles, ten magazines, and more than 100 rounds of Russian-made ammunition. As the Amin government continued to puzzle over who might be behind these captured guerrillas from Tanzania --- having first assumed it to be the Obote group but after interrogating the captured men, now getting conflicting new information --- the mystery was cleared on February 4, 1973. On February 4, the young guerrilla called Yoweri Museveni told the British newspaper, The Observer on Sunday, that the guerrilla camp found by the Ugandan security forces near Mbale town in eastern Uganda on January 15, 1973 belonged to his force. Reported Voice of Uganda on February 5, 1973: “A Military Spokesman reaffirmed yesterday [Feb. 4]…that activities of guerrillas that have been going on in Uganda recently have been confirmed to be a plan of a master brain in Tanzania...Mr Yoweri Busebemi [sic, Museveni]…The movement, called FRONASA (Front for National Salvation) was trying to overthrow the Ugandan leader and had already set up training camps in the country...” It is important to bear in mind the methods of operation of FRONASA. They would 1) kidnap or abduct prominent public officials 2) the aim of these kidnappings was to then have the crime blamed on Amin and his army or intelligence and by that, stir up public anger against Amin who at that time was extremely popular in Uganda. FRONASA’s guerrilla operations and methods The Uganda Argus newspaper, in its edition of August 4, 1971 ran a brief news story that read as follows: “A reward of 20,000/- is offered to any one giving information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for the murder of the late Ali Maulidi Simay, a Police officer, which occurred on July 15 [1971] at about 4:45 p.m. on Kitante Road, Kampala.” This is the first publicly announced case of a mysterious murder that occurred during the rule of the new President Idi Amin. On September 10, 1971, a Mercedes sports car, registration number UWN 230 and owned by the President of the Uganda Industrial Court, Michael Kabali-Kaggwa, was found on flames by a guard of the Securikor company at 3:25 a.m. at Kyadondo Road, Mengo, near Mengo Guest House. These was the early period of Amin’s rule and the euphoria that had greeted his takeover in January was still bubbling, but the first concrete cases of unexplained murders and disappearances were starting to be recorded by the media. At this point, Amin and his government still did not understand what was going on. Swaibu Nsubuga, the former president of the Conservative Party, disappeared in January. Then came all the mysterious disappearances we have come to read from our history. Joseph Mubiru, former Governor of Bank of Uganda, September 1972. In a phone call to me on October 30, 2007, Semwanga Kisolo, a historian who used to presents a Friday evening programme on Star FM and is now on 88.5 Super FM, said a man called Peter Owilli and some men in the pro-Obote Kikosi Malum force, posing as State Research Bureau agents and abducted Mubiru on September 19, 1972. The reason that this seems unlikely, as we have seen, is that Obote’s armed effort against Amin emphasized direct military battle between their soldiers and Amin’s army. Obote did not believe in guerrilla warfare, and that is why he fell out with Msueveni. So exactly what is guerrilla warfare? What does it involve? According to the 1989 New American Desk Encyclopedia, the desire of the guerrilla is “to so disorganize the fabric of society that a faction can seize power without relying on popular support. To this end ambush, hijacking and bombing, directed at both specific targets and simply at the populace at large, have become increasingly common.” (p. 542) Museveni, now as president, told National Resistance Army (NRA) officers in a paper presented at the Bombo Military Academy on August 17, 1990 that “Insurgents do not have to do much, but they will have succeeded in their devices if they simply terrorize the population, stop them from producing wealth for the country, dismantle the network of civil administration…” If Museveni as a university student could write a thesis advocating the use of violence as a political tool, when it came to time for fighting Amin, would we not expect that he would resort to the very methods he so fervently believed in and had so clearly laid out in his thesis? When the Chief Justice and President General of the Democratic Party, Benedicto Kiwanuka disappeared in September 1972, the Amin government put out a statement that read: “The government last night directed the Armed Forces units and members of the public to make a thorough search for the whereabouts of the Chief Justice, Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka…The public is being informed that yesterday information was received to the effect that some guerrillas were seen around Kampala area. The presence of these guerrillas might have some connections with the disappearance of the Chief Justice.” Speaking about the disappearances of prominent Ugandans during the four years of his rule, “President Amin said there was a high rate of disappearances in September 1972. He explained that there was the FRONASA guerrilla [group], then, creating confusion in Uganda by kidnapping many Ugandans. General Amin said in 1972 Uganda was invaded from Tanzania by guerrillas who killed many Ugandans including the former Chief Justice, Mr Kiwanuka…General Amin reiterated that an evil organisation called FRONASA which led by a man called Musebeni was in the early years kidnapping important people in Uganda…just to cause confusion and disunity…” (Voice of Uganda, June 26, 1975, p. 1, 6) Amin accused FRONASA of carrying out the abduction of Ben Kiwanuka. In 1973, a number of prominent Ugandans like Prof. Edward Rugumayo, Prof. Dani Nabudere, and Prof. William Banage fled into exile believing Amin was out to murder them. Amin denied any such intention. As the Voice of Uganda explained it on January 14, 1974, “Al-Hajji Amin also said that the former Ministers of Education, Mr Edward Rugumayo, Animal Resources, Professor Banage…are all not bad people. He said they were among his best friends because they were carrying out their duties very efficiently but were only confused by a few bad elements and decided to ran away…The General said he was happy that all of them were employed where they were.” Was Amin right? Confirmation of his denial over trying to kill Rugumayo, Banage, Nabudere came six years later. On April 11, 1980, in an article to mark the first anniversary of the fall of the Amin regime, in a new private newspaper called the Weekly Topic, Yoweri Museveni, now minister of Regional Cooperation in the Godfrey Binaisa government, explained his activities as a guerrilla. Museveni wrote: “…During this period…[w]e however caused a lot of destabilisation as far as Amin’s Government was concerned. It was following these encounters that…some of the most prominent members in [Amin’s] government decided to run away and start opposing him. These included people like Wanume Kibedi, Wadada Nabudere, Edward Rugumayo and others.” Let us trace the resignation of Prof. Rugumayo. In a February 21, 1973 telegram to Amin, Rugumayo said he was resigning “…based on the fact that I have found it increasingly difficult to carry fulfill my duties in the atmosphere that prevails in our country.” What atmosphere did Rugumayo mean? Misinformation was rife in the air. Letters were being sent to the homes or offices of prominent Ugandans, warning them that Amin was about to kill them and so they should flee into exile. In its edition of January 10, 1973, the Voice of Uganda had a news story on John Wycliffe Kazzora, a prominent lawyer from Ankole and relative of the current Ugandan First Lady, Janet Museveni. Kazzora was in exile and, as recognized by Museveni in his memoirs, contributed a lot to the anti-Amin struggle. Said Voice of Uganda: “Over Christmas holiday [December 1972] some persons were arrested by security personnel who were sent by J. Kazzora to come and assassinate prominent people in Uganda. These people were found carrying 50,000/- and pistols in their car.” On May 28, 1979, in an interview in the Uganda Times, a journalist and former guerrilla, Chris Nyombi, told the Editor-in-Chief Paul Waibale Sr. about how his organization called FRONASA had undermined Amin during his time in office. Nyombi was a brother to 2nd Lt. Fred Mule Muwanga, the only Muganda among the group that attacked Kabamba barracks near Mubende on February 6, 1981 under Museveni’s command. Both men died during the NRA guerrilla war in the 1980s. ““[Nyombi] said he was arrested by Amin’s soldiers at the Uganda-Kenya border at Malaba in March 1975…Nyombi explained that on searching his luggage the soldiers found a banch [sic] of anti-Amin pamphlets…The pamphlets had been produced in Kampala by the Front for National Salvation of which he was an active member. ‘I was responsible for publicity and propaganda in FRONASA, so I was the author of most of these pamphlets,’ Nyombi confessed…Elaborating on the methods of distributing FRONASA material…he said: ‘Mainly we operated at night. We delivered the pamphlets into shops and offices by slipping them under closed doors, but at times we visited offices and secretly left the pamphlets behind…Another method was to post the documents to various addresses all over the country…” Having outlined some of the activities by FRONASA, freely and openly admitted by Museveni and some of his guerrillas, we can at least now wonder afresh about some of the prominent Ugandans who were abducted and never seen again during Amin’s rule. We now start to understand the many reports of letters and pamphlets that ordinary Ugandans would find in their postal boxes. We can see, as proudly admitted by Museveni in the Weekly Topic in 1980, that his FRONASA actively created chaos and confusion among the political and intellectual elite, made them believe that Amin was about to arrest and murder them, and as a result have them flee into exile and so make Uganda appear ungovernable and under a “reign of terror” by a mad man called Idi Amin. ENDS
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