Ohio Governor speaks up for Intelligent Design

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Ohio Governor Ernie Fletcher is not afraid of the controversy regarding Intelligent Design.

"The foundation of our nation was based on inalienable rights endowed by a creator. And so the very foundation of democracy is based on intelligent design."

A provocative statement in this day age, to be sure. Downright incendiary.

"It's important to have local districts with the option of providing instruction on all theories," Fletcher stated.

He's taking the correct tact, since the issue really does boil down to freedom. And unlike the Dover School Board, appears to be rooted in mainstream attitudes.

Its time to boot the Creationists from the ID Tent, and be brave enough to focus on the issues in the way Fletcher is leading.

Uganda's Spirituality Beckons

West seeks spiritual refuge in war-torn Uganda

Daily Telegraph Mike Pflanz in Luweero, Uganda

Churches in the United States are turning their backs on religious liberalism at home and looking 9,000 miles away to "biblically orthodox" Uganda for a spiritual refuge.

In November, Anglicans at South Riding Church in Fairfax, Virginia, became the latest congregation to break from their roots and join the Church of Uganda instead.

A dozen others have done the same, a symptom of religious conservatives' deep discomfort over scriptural revisionism and the Church's growing acceptance of homosexuality.

It is a further sign of the widening schisms threatening the Anglican communion and comes as reforms implemented last week allow homosexuals in Britain to get "married".

The trend to turn to Africa was started by three Californian churches outraged that their leader, the Rev J Jon Bruno, the Bishop of Los Angeles, supported the ordination of the homosexual canon Gene Robinson and reportedly said that Jesus did not rise from the dead.

These traditionalist congregations felt betrayed and trapped, says the Rev Dr Alison Barfoot, originally from Kansas and now working with Uganda's most senior clergyman, Archbishop Henry Orombi.

UgandaPartners.org
"They were looking to their leaders for guidance and were hearing things like Jesus is not the only path to salvation, that anyone can write scripture, that the resurrection was not a fact," she said from the shaded veranda at the Archbishop's palace, high on a hillside in a Kampala suburb.

"Then they look to Uganda and see that there is the spiritual vitality here that they long for, where they can have confidence to express the view that God is a reality, not an intellectual construct.

"Believers in the West see religion being rationalised, psychologised and demystified. Here they feel that weight lifted from their shoulders and they can breathe easier."

The first three churches to break away, St James in Newport Beach, All Saints' in Long Beach and St David's in North Hollywood, chose to link with the Diocese of Luweero, 60 miles north of Kampala, after long correspondence with its Archbishop, the Rt Rev Evans Kisekka.

It is a long jump from California to Luweero. The main road leading to Uganda's war-ravaged north separates twin rows of shuttered shops, selling torch batteries, beer and cut-price mobile phones.

Occasional white and blue minibus taxis trundle past, overloaded but still honking their horns hunting for customers. Cyclists dodge cows with 4ft horns grazing in unkempt shrubs.

The Anglican St Mark's Cathedral, once a modest single-storey structure, is now wreathed in scaffolding undergoing a radical upgrade optimistically due for completion by May.

It may seem sleepy and backward, until church services start at seven on Sunday morning. "Here people are very happy to be going to church and singing and praying and praising the Lord," said Jimmy Lubanga, 22, the guitar-playing leader of the congregation's youth wing who wears an Everton shirt to church.

"I have heard there [the US] people will say God does not exist or other things which we see written in the Bible."

The Rev Barfoot says members of the US congregations regularly visit for spiritual rejuvenation. Sermons are compared by e-mail and several priests and deacons have been ordained at St Mark's.

The cathedral's renovation is being part-funded from across the Atlantic.
The Ugandan churches' magnetic pull on American Christians is, officials say, due to packed pews, booming congregations and a faithful interpretation of the Bible rather than its opposition to homosexuality.

Uganda has 9.2 million practising Anglicans, compared to fewer than one million in British churches on Sundays. Nigeria, where Christianity is growing fastest worldwide, has 17 million.

"It is not only about sexuality," says the Rev Andrew Quill, the son of a priest from Ulster, who has lived in Luweero for six years with his wife and three children.

"That is a symptom, and cannot be ignored, but this is equally about wholesale rewriting of Biblical facts, of breaking Articles of the Bible.

"That is what is driving people away and it will continue to happen until some sense returns to the way their supposed church leaders are thinking."

Time Magazine Persons of the Year

time.com

Time names Gateses, Bono ‘Persons of 2005’

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The richest man in the world, Bill Gates, and his wife, Melinda, were named Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” along with Irish rocker Bono for being “Good Samaritans” who made a difference in different ways.

“For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are Time’s Persons of the Year,” the magazine said in its Dec. 19 issue, made public on Sunday.

Managing Editor James Kelly said the three had been chosen as the people most effective at finding ways to eradicate such calamities as malaria in Africa, HIV and AIDS and the grinding poverty that kills 8 million people a year.

Time also named former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton as “Partners of the Year” for their humanitarian efforts after the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, and the unlikely friendship that developed from that work.

“Natural disasters are terrible things, but what defines us is not what happens to us, but how we react to it,” Kelly said.

“When you look at the number of people who die from the kind of diseases and poverty that the Gates’ and Bono are fighting, the death tolls are far greater than what occurs in natural disasters or wars,” he told Reuters.

The founder of computer giant Microsoft Corp., whose personal fortune of $46.5 billion topped Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest again this year, and his wife were named for their work in the Gates Foundation, the world’s biggest charity with a $29 billion endowment, while Bono was described as the “rocker who has made debt reduction sexy.”

The rocker and the geek

“The rocker’s job is to be raucous, grab our attention. The engineer’s job is to make things work,” Time said, describing the unlikely alliance that developed after the three met for dinner in 2002. They were reunited on Friday in Omaha, where Bono was performing with U2, to be photographed for the cover.

The Gates Foundation funds hundreds of projects around the world primarily focused on public health, from vaccinating children to developing new drugs, as well as educational programs and scholarships in the United States and abroad.

Bono and fellow musician Bob Geldof spearheaded a popular campaign to tackle poverty in Africa through canceling the debts of the poorest countries in the world, raising global awareness through the Live 8 concerts in July.

Partly due to popular pressure, the world’s industrialized nations agreed in July to double aid to poor countries by 2010, adding $50 billion a year, and to cancel poor countries’ debt.

“Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world’s richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest,” Time said.

Kelly said he expected the choice to surprise some people, but the unlikely alliance of the richest man in the world and a “hell-raiser” like Bono was an inspiring example of how different approaches could be effective.

Kelly said the “odd couple” of former Presidents Bush and Clinton had been among the contenders for “Person of the Year,” which ranged from talk show host Oprah Winfrey, for her influential campaigning for hurricane relief, to Mother Nature, encompassing the tsunami, hurricanes and earthquakes.

'Choice for the history books'

Time has been naming its person of the year since 1927 and the tradition has become the source of speculation every year, as well as controversy over unpopular choices such as Adolf Hitler in 1938 and Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

The aim is to pick “the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill, and embodied what was important about the year, for better or for worse.”

Time’s 2004 Person of the Year was U.S. President George W. Bush while “The American Soldier” graced the 2003 cover in the year when U.S. troops invaded Iraq.

“You want to make a choice for the history books as well as one which is fresh and interesting,” Kelly said.

Urbane Analysis: People try to put us d-down...

High School Journalist Breaks Story of "Invisible Children"

Filmmaker Jason Russell San Diego Union-Tribune

A poignant exclamation point on the issue of the news media's inability to discover the crisis of the Acholi people of northern Uganda: it has taken a high school newspaper to "break" the story about the documentary Invisible Children to the wider news audience. This underscores outstanding work being done by young (very young!) journalists - and demonstrates (once again) the wonderful propensity of young people today to reach out as a technological generation - with empathy and caring toward one another's challenges.

The 'Invisible Children' of northern Uganda
Informed Blazers try to raise awareness about guerilla war

Alex Abels, Page Editor
Silver Chips Online Print Edition: Volume 68, Issue 3

It is 4 p.m. when the doors to the broken-down hospital swing open. Small children rush in and search for a spot on the dusty floor where they will spend the night. Within a few hours, the ground is completely covered in squirming bodies, and not one square foot of space remains vacant. This is no slumber party- it is the nightly survival technique of the youth of northern Uganda.

Juniors in Social Studies teacher Jim Mogge's second period AP World History class sit, entranced by the images of African children flashing by on the television screen. Mogge has just played a rough cut of Invisible Children, a documentary film about northern Uganda started in 2003 by three young Californians who, on a trip to Africa, stumbled upon a humanitarian disaster they never knew existed. The teens sitting in the classroom continue to stare, eyes fixed on the television.

Before dawn, the crowd of children in the documentary wakes up to wash, pray and begin their daily routines. Some go to school, but most simply roam the streets. Their parents are nowhere to be found- they are either dead from the growing AIDS epidemic or in the outskirts of town where it is too dangerous for children. When 4 p.m. rolls around, it's back to the hospital, bus park veranda or dirty basement for- hopefully- another safe night. Though it is a monotonous and tiring routine, it is necessary.

According to Rachel Santos, an editor for the University of California at Davis International Affairs Journal, a guerilla war that has displaced over 1.5 million people and killed hundreds of thousands has been raging across northern Uganda for more than 19 years. The dissenting group, called the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has abducted about 30,000 children to add to their ranks as soldiers since the war began. For this reason, children sleep together in masses in highly populated towns where the Ugandan People's Defense Forces (UPDF), soldiers associated with the Ugandan government, offer them some protection.

In spite of the war's great impact on Uganda, most Americans remain unaware of it. In a survey of 100 humanitarian professionals by AlertNet in 2005, the crisis in Uganda was rated as the second most under-publicized emergency of present day. Blair's lack of awareness of the situation reflects this rating well. According to an informal Silver Chips survey of 100 students conducted on November 22 during 5A lunch, 93 percent of Blazers said they were unaware of the guerilla war in northern Uganda. The war has also been largely ignored by the U.S. government and outreach organizations. It wasn't until this year that Congress passed the Northern Ugandan Crisis Response Act, the first American legislation to address the disaster in northern Uganda yet. United Nations Humanitarian Assistant Chief Jan Egeland has described the guerilla war in northern Uganda as "the world's greatest neglected humanitarian crisis." The disaster in northern Uganda has been invisible to most for years, but the passionate few who are informed in America, and even at Blair, are working to change that.

The forgotten crisis

In 2003, Bobby Bailey, Jason Russell and Laren Poole decided to go Africa for the summer to capture startling footage of the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. But when they arrived in southern Sudan, they were discouraged by the lack of action they found and decided instead to make their way to northern Uganda. They were introduced to a society of Ugandan children, called "night commuters," on one of their first nights in Uganda. A local woman took Bailey, Russell and Poole to a nearby bus park at night, where they saw over 1,000 children lying packed side by side on a tightly spaced veranda, guarded by a single armed soldier. They were touched by the Ugandan children and decided to record their story in a documentary film that has not yet been released to theatres, entitled "Invisible Children."

The first thing Bailey, Russell and Poole needed to learn about to create their documentary was the history of the war. Uganda has had tension between its northern and southern regions since it gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. According to the United Nations, the south has always held most of the country's wealth and power, leading to a sense of neglect and inequality among the Acholi people that populate the North.

According to the documentary, the rebel movement can be traced back to one woman in the 1980s- Alice Lakwena, who believed the Holy Spirit spoke to her and ordered her to overthrow the Ugandan government for being unjust to the Acholis. Lakwena and her followers gained momentum with the growing resentment of the Acholis toward the government.

When Lakwena died, however, there was no clear leader of the movement, so Joseph Koney, who claimed to be a cousin of Lakwena's, took control of the conflict and transformed Lakwena's rebel army into the LRA. Soon, the rebels lost most of the support for their cause, so they resorted to abducting children, usually between the ages of five and 12, from their schools, homes and villages, according to Santos.

Children are considered the best option for building the LRA's ranks because they are impressionable enough to brainwash, big enough to carry a gun and plentiful enough to create huge masses of fighters. What began as a quick solution to fill the ranks has become the LRA's main method of "recruitment"- 90 percent of their troops are now children, according to the documentary.

Junior Tim Nicklas, who viewed "Invisible Children" in one of Mogge's classes, is appalled by that statistic. He believes that a rebel army predominantly made up of children his age and younger should be of more concern to Americans. "I think it's pretty messed up that no one in America knows about this," says Nicklas.

Once the children are abducted, they are brought to the "bush," as the children call it in the documentary, and the soldiers randomly choose one or two children to mutilate and kill in front of the others as an example. After the children are initiated as soldiers by means of fear tactics and attempts to break emotional attachments to their homes, the LRA teaches the children what it is they do best: kill.

According to a 2003 study of 301 former child soldiers conducted by Ilse Derluyn at the University of Ghent, 77 percent of child abductees had seen someone murdered and 39 percent had been forced to kill someone with their own hands. Most other children had also been beaten brutally and forced to burn down towns and houses and abduct other children. Furthermore, 35 percent of female soldiers had been sexually abused, according to the study.

Those who manage to escape the rebel ranks hide from the LRA during the day, because otherwise they are hunted down by name and brutally murdered for betrayal. In light of violent tactics like these, the Ugandan government is often blamed for not working harder to defeat the LRA. While there have been many attempted peace talks, either the LRA or the government has backed down on all of them. It wasn't until July 2005 that the government of Uganda finally put out five arrest warrants for LRA leaders, including head Joseph Kony.

Making them visible

When Bailey, Russell and Poole returned to California, they did not forget the children they met in Uganda. They founded Invisible Children, an organization to help raise awareness and money for the children in northern Uganda.

Bailey, Russell and Poole hope to build a safe community for the people of northern Uganda, but such a feat would cost $20 million. On the DVD of their documentary, they ask for people's time, talent and, of course, money to help the cause. They suggest that viewers throw house parties where they show the documentary to raise awareness about the crisis, because "when people know, they will act," says Russell in the documentary. They also suggest bake sales or selling bracelets inscribed with the name of one of the highlighted children in the documentary, like the ones being sold at local Target and Starbucks shops this holiday season.

People across the country have taken an interest in Invisible Children's safe community campaign, with over 60,000 money donations made to the organization, according to the Invisible Children web site, as well as a few walk-a-thons, bake sales and public viewings of the documentary. Nicklas says he plans on educating more people in his community and possibly raising some money by creating and showing a trailer of "Invisible Children" during services at a few local churches. He also plans to organize a public viewing of the documentary as soon as he finds a venue in the area.

Students for Global Responsibility (SGR) has given some attention to the crisis. The group plans to donate the money it earns from the SGR Spectacular to Invisible Children, according to junior Avi Edelman, an active member. Amnesty International also plans to raise money for the cause. While these efforts are meant to help the disaster in northern Uganda, they bring no immediate aid or solution to the victims. Mogge believes no dramatic steps have been taken to solve the problem in Uganda because this humanitarian disaster is in many ways still unseen.

As it says on the Invisible Children web site, "These innocent children are invisible: because they roam distant battlefields away from public scrutiny, because no records are kept of their numbers or age, because their own armies deny they exist." Russell's solution to the problem, as he states in the documentary: "Let's make them visible."

Urbane Analysis: Follow the example of our youth. And while you're at it, check out this backgrounder on the Invisible Children team.

How Instability Benefits Museveni

In May, Christopher Ringwald wrote in the National Catholic Reporter about linkages in the humanitarian crisis - the triangle of horror - between northern Uganda, northeastern Congo and southern Sudan. That report, and now this by Italian journalist Stefano Liberti for the French newspaper Le Monde dipolmatique, will help you Discover the Unseen about what Ringwald calls the region of most deplorable humanitarian conditions on the planet.

The pillage of former Zaire - Congo and Uganda: a rush of gold
Le Monde diplomatique

In November the UN Security Council adopted sanctions, which include freezing assets and travel restrictions, against anyone breaking the arms embargo on the Democratic Republic of Congo. The east of the country is rife with smuggling, especially in gold. Regional conflict that left 3 million dead between 1998 and 2003 has exhausted the country, and general elections that were due this year have been pushed back to June 2006.

By Stefano Liberti

MONGBWALU, a desolate village in Ituri district in the northeastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), looks like something out of an old western. A single dusty road runs through it, with cafes on either side that resemble saloons, a squalid hotel with a broken-down sign, and groups of youths observing passersby as though they were expecting a shoot-out any minute. The comparison with the Wild West isn’t fanciful, for here, as in the towns that mushroomed in the United States during the gold rush, everything revolves around gold.

Ituri is right in the middle of one of the most important gold deposits on earth (1). Several hundred kilograms are extracted every month from the primitive mines around Mongbwalu. The gold is taken illegally to neighbouring Uganda, from where it is exported to Europe, usually Switzerland. Because of the enormous profits generated, the gold is much coveted - and the cause of the bloody conflict that has plagued the DRC and this region since 1998 (2).

The subsoil of this huge African country - formerly Zaire - is so gorged with minerals that it’s sometimes called a geological outrage. From 1982, when the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko (in power from 1965 to 1997) liberalised gold mining in parts of the country, Mongbwalu became a sort of tropical Klondike. Thousands of small-scale miners threw themselves into a business that continued through the worst moments of the war. The miners still leave the village every day at dawn in battered old 4x4s and follow the earthen tracks to the mines. There they split into teams and start digging. The open pit mine resembles an enormous hive in which thousands of people busy themselves inside mud combs. Some men stand waist deep in water, digging feverishly and putting the earth in plastic crates that are passed along by men pressed against the sides of the embankment.

Each team works for itself. The soaked earth and stones are placed on a sieve above a pool of water. The first stage is to look for gold dust. Then the more promising stones are broken with clubs in the hope of finding veins of gold. “You have to know where to dig,” says Etienne, who spent 10 months in the hills of Mongbwalu. Around him a group of young men are examining stone chips in a sieve, hoping to find a few specks of gold. “No luck today,” says Etienne, “but I’m sure it’ll get better later. If we find a good chunk, we’ll manage to get $5 each.”

At the top of the embankment you can make out the ruins of a building. It is all that is left of the “factory”, the public enterprise set up for gold extraction in the Kilo-Moto region to which Mongbwalu is the gateway. Gold mining was in full swing during Mobutu’s time, when Ituri was under the control of the Kinshasa government. In those days the profits went straight into Mobutu’s pockets, enabling him to amass a fortune in foreign banks. The battle to gain control of this rich piece of land was triggered immediately after his fall in 1997.

Africa’s largest gold seam

Kilo-Moto is one of the most unstable areas in the Great Lakes region. Because of its extraordinary potential - it has the largest gold seam on the continent - it has been coveted by the main players of what has been called “the first African world war” (which pitted government forces supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe against rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda).

In 1998, when the country was invaded by Rwanda and Uganda, the region was occupied by the Kampala forces, which flew the gold straight back to Uganda. After the 2003 Sun City agreement in South Africa, foreign troops were obliged to leave the country. The area then became the scene of fighting between the Union of Patriotic Congolese (UPC), supported by Rwanda, and the Front for National Integration (FNI), backed by Uganda. Sixty thousand people are thought to have died in these conflicts, despite timid intervention by Monuc, the UN observer mission in the DRC, set up in 1999. After falling to the UPC, the region was taken back by the FNI.

The militiamen stand accused, among other things, of subjecting workers to forced labour. According to a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), the FNI takes a percentage of the mined gold and extracts one dollar a day from the workers in exchange for allowing them to work the mines (3). The soldiers hotly deny this. “It’s peace, our men are unarmed. All the men here work for themselves and for the good of the country,” says Iribi Pitchou Kasamba.
This small, stocky man became head of the front after its leader, Floribert Ndjabu, was arrested in Kinshasa for killing nine Bangladeshi Monuc troops in Ituri in February. Flanked by his “lieutenants”, Kasamba inspires fear and respect in equal measure in the zone around the mine. He describes the accusations by HRW as “total rubbish”, adding that “the only money we’ve received is the $8,000 that AngloGold Ashanti paid us quite voluntarily.”
This major South African company obtained a 10,000sq km mining concession around Mongbwalu and has recently been accused of bribing the rebel forces.

Since 2003 the UN embargo prohibits any support to armed rebels in the DRC (4). The company claims that it was obliged to pay to guarantee the safety of its employees. But the scandal has tarnished its image - particularly since it boasts an ethical policy inspired by a commitment to “corporate social responsibility” (5). In any case AngloGold Ashanti has not yet started to mine gold in its concession.

Shovels and sieves

Mining continues the primitive way, with shovels and sieves. Near the site a crowd of men equipped with scales gets ready to start buying. The luckier gold-washers crowd around them clutching handfuls of their precious find. This is the start of the transaction. The gold dust in placed on a coal heater and mixed with nitric acid to separate any impurities. The remaining gold is then weighed and sold. The price is about $10 a gram. The rate depends on the market and increases the further you get from the mining area.

In Bunia, Ituri’s main town, gold fetches $11.5 a gram. The small-time buyers at the source, as well as the dozens of others who gather in Mongbwalu’s main street, are the middlemen for traders in Bunia and Butembo in the neighbouring province of North Kivu.

Numerous small jobs are grafted on to the business of the mine itself. Women sell fruit, potatoes and rice; young motorcyclists ferry people to and from the mining sites and the centre of Mongbwalu. There is also a motley crew of musicians who seem more comfortable with guns than guitars and seem to monitor the comings and goings. The mere presence of Kasamba is enough to deter anybody from speaking.

Only later, and anonymously, does someone from Mongbwalu agree to give us his view: “In the factory and the other mines near the village, the FNI’s control is limited. Since the Monuc forces arrived the militia have had to be more discreet. But you only have to go a few kilometres further out to see them back in their old ways, forcing people to work for them, harassing them and confiscating gold.”

The 140 Pakistani soldiers from Monuc (6) who arrived in April, and who are in charge of disarming the militia, are even more discreet than the rebels. They are confined to their camp outside the village and their actions are limited to a few patrols. One of the leaders of the contingent admitted that he didn’t really know what went on in the mines.

At the Bunia headquarters, this state of affairs is confirmed. “In theory Monuc could supervise the gold traffic,” says Karin Volkner, the mission’s political affairs officer, “but in reality we don’t have the means to carry out that kind of control. There’s only one military contingent in Mongbwalu. We’re thinking of sending a group of civilians but so far we’ve only carried out exploratory missions.” The Monuc forces are occasionally called in for heavy operations and to support the elections that should end to the transition period (7), but they scarcely bother with the gold smuggling that goes on under their very noses.

In broad daylight

In Bunia gold dust is sold in broad daylight. In this village, ravaged by war and poverty where thousands of refugees are crowded into a camp by the airport, the gold trade is the only commercial activity possible. Almost everyone seems to be at it, in one or other of the two markets.

According to the new DRC mining code established in 2002, government authorisation is required for wholesale gold purchasing (8) but nobody bothers about that in a region where the state is totally absent. “Ituri suffers from government failure,” says Volkner. “The Kinshasa government is very far away and has never bothered much about the people to the east. On top of that, some ministers are directly involved in raw materials trafficking and have no interest in establishing peace in the region.”

The entire trade rests on a well-organised network of small-scale miners, buyers and intermediaries. The town’s traders sell the gold to a handful of middlemen, who smuggle it to Kampala. They use a variety of vehicles (trucks, jeeps, motorbikes), or canoes to cross Lake Albert, making the most of a total absence of controls at the Congolese border. As the process advances, the number of people involved is reduced. In Kampala only three companies buy the gold; all are managed by Indian entrepreneurs. The largest company, Uganda Commercial Impex Ltd (UCI) (9), has its headquarters in the suburb of Kamutckia.

According to Jamnadas Vasanji Lodhia, the owner of UCI: “We buy approximately 350kg of gold for a total of $5m. Our suppliers are always the same six or seven people, all Congolese from Bunia and Butembo.” The best known of these is Kambala Kisoni, owner of the Congocom Trading House. Kisoni also owns a small Antonov plane that flies between Mongbwalu and Butembo almost daily under the name of Butembo Airlines. According to UN experts, Kisoni has breached the arms embargo many times and has transported arms and FNI personnel to Mongbwalu (10).

When we reached Kisoni by telephone, he denied the accusations. “They consider us accomplices or rebels but, in fact, we’re hostage to the FNI people, who behave as though they run the area. They charge us $60 every time we land at Mongbwalu. We’d like the Congolese army to regain control of the region and establish some order.”

Kisoni did not deny exporting gold without authorisation from the mining ministry in Kinshasa. “It’s become dangerous to export with a licence,” he explained. “Given the level of corruption in the government, we’d risk losing everything. We used to have a licence but our gold cargo was stolen three times. And we know that the thieves were connected to the government.” Kisoni added that Congocom is simply an unofficial bank. “Gold is the currency here. With our clients’ gold we buy merchandise, which they sell in Congo.

The Kampala buyers like UCI open lines of credit for the big companies that supply our clients with the products. We restrict ourselves to working as middlemen between the Ugandan companies and the traders in eastern Congo.”
The gold bought by UCI is melted down in the company’s Kampala headquarters. The small ingots are then sent every month to Metalor Technologies SA in Switzerland, a leading European dealer in precious metals. But since June the market has apparently ground to a halt.

Following the publication of the HRW report, the Swiss company decided to stop gold imports. The UCI boss, Lodhia, was furious. “This trade has carried on for a century,” he said. “I don’t understand why they are making such a fuss. They accuse us of stealing wealth from Congo, but our suppliers are Congolese. With the money they earn from us they buy goods to sell in their country where there is nothing. They don’t buy arms, but sugar, coffee, blankets and clothes. What’s the point of buying arms anyway? Congo is full of them. That’s what earns the least money.”

Offshore bank accounts

Lodhia said he knew nothing about the supposed links between his suppliers and the armed rebels in Ituri. He confirmed visiting Bunia and Butembo, but denied ever having been to Mongbwalu. “I’ve occasionally been to see clients in the east of the country,” he admits, “but I’ve never visited the mines.” He showed us the company accounts that record transactions with Congolese clients worth millions of dollars. Most of the money is stored in offshore bank accounts in places like Mauritius or Hong Kong. “Our clients don’t trust local banks,” he explained, “so we pay the money into the accounts they choose. Which is totally legal.”

Indeed, the trade is legal. The Ugandan government does not require certificates of origin. It merely levies a 0.5% duty on gold exports and an annual licence fee of $1,200. In theory imported metals should be declared at the border, but it is so easy to cross the Congo-Uganda border that nobody bothers with customs declarations.

The numbers reveal the extent of this vast trade. In 2003 local gold production was worth $23,000. Officially imported gold totalled $2,000 while exported gold reached $45bn. The same data, supplied by the ministry for energy and development in Kampala, reveals that Uganda’s gold production totalled 40kg for that year, yet exports were more than four tonnes. In 2002 official production stood at 2.6kg with exports of 7.6 tonnes (11).

As a result of this vast legalised smuggling operation, gold is the second biggest Ugandan export after coffee. “That’s no secret,” said Lodhia. “Everybody knows that the gold in Kampala comes from Congo. In any case the government is virtually non-existent in former Zaire, especially in the east, and there are no controls. It’s been like that since the Mobutu era.”

Uganda has been the hub for Congolese gold since 1994, when the Kampala government decided to withdraw the central bank’s monopoly in buying precious metals, to scrap high export duties (of between 3% and 5%), and to make the regulations on trading companies more flexible.

Previously, gold from Ituri transited through Kenya where the trade had already been liberalised. Lodhia admits to having switched from Nairobi to Kampala. “From a logistical point of view, it’s much easier to work out of Uganda,” explained the Indian entrepreneur. “The country is nearer to the DRC and security is excellent.”

The value of the gold increases as it travels from the Congolese towns to the Ugandan capital. UCI buys at $13.5 per gram. The selling price abroad depends on fluctuations on the international markets. “But we work on the basis of a profit margin of 0.5%,” explained Lodhia. “Gold mining is a living for thousands of people in eastern Congo.

Those Human Rights Watch militants are lobbying intensively to stop it, but their ideological thinking will end up hurting the very people they think they’re defending. I’m losing money myself, but I’m not going to starve. If the Swiss stop buying and I don’t find other outlets, then sooner or later I’ll have to stop buying.”

There are thousands of people involved in gold smuggling, from the miners in Mongbwalu to the big traders in Kampala and the middlemen in Bunia and Butembo. Although there is no doubt that gold mining has supported - and continues to support - the rebels in the east of the country, it would be difficult to prevent this through embargoes or other means.

UN experts believe that, given the size of the country, a total export ban on natural resources would be an extremely costly measure and hard to enforce (12). For them the ideal solution would be to set up a “traceability” process that would prevent smuggling to Uganda. But a system like the Kimberley process for diamonds (13) has not yet been devised for precious metals.

According to Enrico Carisch, a UN finance expert: “The only way to stop the warlords from making money would be to put pressure on the region’s governments to end this regime of impunity. The Ugandans, in particular, should normalise bilateral trade with Congo. But to do that, the Kinshasa government must regain control over the east of the country with the help of the international community.” In a region where the state is notable for its absence and gold is the only source of revenue for the majority of people, it is hard to imagine how the gold mining business could be changed at one stroke - particularly with the strong international demand for gold.

Click on the map to see more details


Translated by Krystyna Horko
Stefano Liberti is a journalist

(1) Article 2 of the 2005 constitution makes provisions for dividing the 11 regions of the DRC into 26 provinces. Ituri, part of North Kivu province, would then become a separate province with Bunia as its provincial capital.

(2) See Colette Braeckman, Les Nouveaux Prédateurs. Politique des Puissances en Afrique Centrale, Fayard, Paris, 2003, and “Congo: a war without victors”, Le Monde diplomatique, English language edition, April 2001.

(3) “Democratic Republic of Congo. The Curse of Gold”, Human Rights Watch, 2005.

(4) See “Gold group admits militia cash ‘errors’”, Financial Times, London, 2 June 2005.

(5) www.ashantigold.com

(6) On 30 June 2005 Monuc forces stood at 15,490 troops, 703 military observers, 231 police, 747 “international civilian personnel”, 1,209 “local civilian staff” and 436 UN volunteers. Monuc’s mandate was due to expire on 1 October 2005 but has been extended to 30 September 2006. See www.monuc.org

(7) The general election that should have marked the end of the transition period was set for 30 June 2005 but was postponed and will certainly not be held before June 2006.

(8) See Human Rights Watch, op cit.

(9) The other companies are Machanga Ltd and Bhimji Ltd.

(10) Report to the UN security council of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo, New York, 25 January 2005, S/2005/30.

(11) Figures supplied by the Ugandan Bureau of Statistics, mentioned in “Banks ‘handling smuggled proceeds’”, Financial Times, London, 2 June 2005, and in Human Rights Watch, op cit.

(12) Report to the UN security council of the Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of Congo, New York, 26 July 2005, S/2005/436.

(13) Set up in 2003, the Kimberley certification scheme obliges all diamond-exporting countries to produce a certificate of origin for the stones.

Urbane Analysis: This is happening in Uganda, even as President Museveni locks up his political opponents, and thousands of children are kidnapped for soldiering - yet CNN puts on travelogues about African wildlife. This needs to change.

Discover the Unseen

CRISIS PROFILE - What’s going on in northern Uganda?
By Tim Large

CRISIS PROFILE-What’s going on in northern Uganda?

LONDON (AlertNet) - More than 20,000 children forced to serve as soldiers and sexual slaves. Gruesome massacres and mutilations. Up to 2 million people driven from their homes into camps where they live in fear and squalor.
Few horror stories rival the humanitarian crisis in northern Uganda, where a cult-like rebel group has been terrorising local people for a generation. It’s a tale of astonishing suffering and massive displacement – and all taking place in a country hailed as one of Africa’s development success stories.

Yet northern Uganda’s nightmare has been largely ignored by the international community, even as the humanitarian crisis in neighbouring Sudan generates hand-wringing worldwide and a steady flow of headlines.

In an AlertNet poll of experts conducted in March 2005, northern Uganda emerged as the world's second-worst "forgotten" humanitarian hotspot after Democratic Republic of Congo.

So what’s going on in this neglected emergency?

Brutality and more brutality. For almost 20 years, a religious group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been waging war against the Ugandan government and carrying out horrific attacks on villages, towns and camps for the internally displaced.

The group’s modus operandi is to abduct thousands of children, forcing them to fight, carry supplies and serve as sex slaves to LRA commanders. Rights groups say the children live in constant fear for their lives. Many are forced to perform terrible acts of cruelty, including the slaughter of other children, or be killed themselves.

More than 20,000 children have been kidnapped to date. Child soldiers are estimated to make up 80 percent of the LRA’s fighting machine.

It’s not only the children who live in fear. In addition to battling government forces, the rebels are targeting the wider Acholi population, the largest group in northern Uganda. Sexual violence, mutilation and massacres are common. Up to 100,000 people have been killed since the conflict began.

In its war against the rebels, the Ugandan army has ordered almost 90 percent of the population of Acholiland – made up of the Gulu, Kitgum and Pader districts – into camps. The camps lack food and clean water and are vulnerable to LRA attacks.

In this way, between 1.8 million and 2 million people have been uprooted from their homes, according to aid agencies. That's about the same number as are displaced in Sudan’s Darfur region.

What on earth is the LRA trying to achieve?

Aside from trying to overthrow the government, most analysts say the rebels have no clear political objectives.

The group is led by a former altar boy and self-proclaimed prophet named Joseph Kony, who managed to turn resentment towards the national government into an apocalyptic spiritual crusade that has sustained one of Africa’s longest-running conflicts.

So it’s all down to a bunch of religious fanatics?

That’s the easy explanation, and one that helped the international community ignore the crisis for almost 20 years. But there’s more fuelling this disaster than far-out religious beliefs, and it’s important to understand the dynamics.
Take Sudan’s involvement. Since 1994, Uganda’s northern neighbour has been backing the LRA with weapons and training and letting it set up camps on Sudanese soil.

It’s probably safe to assume the Sudan government has scant interest in Kony’s spiritualism, which, according to a report by relief group World Vision International, superficially blends elements of Christianity, Islam and traditional Acholi beliefs to psychologically enslave abducted children and instil fear in local people.

Sudan’s real interest lies in getting back at Uganda for allegedly supporting southern rebels during its own 20-year civil conflict.

But why is the LRA targeting the Acholi people?

It’s confusing, especially when you consider that LRA leaders are themselves Acholi. Flash back to 1986 when President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, seized power at the head of a guerrilla army. The northern conflict actually started as a response to the coup and loss of Acholi power on a national level.
But it didn’t take long for the LRA to lose local support. Analysts say rebels then switched focus from fighting Museveni to targeting the Acholi population as a whole, both to discredit the government and force local people into submission.

How is the government responding?

With an iron fist. In 2002, Museveni launched a military campaign aimed at wiping out the LRA for good. Rebels responded by scaling up child abductions and attacks on civilians. Some 10,000 children were seized in about a year. The number of displaced people more than tripled from around 500,000.

It was around this time the phenomenon of “night commuting” came into being. Relief groups estimate that every evening some 50,000 children, fearing abduction, walk from rural areas to towns such as Gulu to find relative safety in bus shelters, churches or on the streets.

Sounds like the government crackdown isn’t helping…

There’s no doubt the humanitarian crisis has worsened since the launch of “Operation Iron Fist”. More than 800,000 Ugandans in government-run camps now rely solely on aid from groups such as the World Food Programme and Médecins Sans Frontièers.

Meanwhile, the enduring conflict, which has spread to the east, threatens to undermine gains made in Uganda after the bloodshed and economic chaos of the Idi Amin and Milton Obote years.

At stake are Uganda’s dramatic reductions in poverty and HIV/AIDS rates, and possible instability in a part of Africa with no shortage of destabilising forces. HIV/AIDS rates in war-affected areas are almost double the national average, while malnutrition rates are soaring. World Vision estimates malnutrition rates among displaced children at 7-21 percent.

The country’s move towards democracy could also hang in the balance.

Museveni banned political parties in 1986, but government officials, under pressure from international donors, have vowed to lift restrictions ahead of elections in 2006.

Now some analysts say Museveni is using the conflict to subdue political opposition in the name of “the war on terrorism”.

Here’s how the International Crisis Group (ICG) puts it: “As long as the situation in the north is dominated by security matters, the monopolisation of power and wealth by southerners is not put into question.”

For its part, the government says it is close to defeating the LRA, but the massacres and abductions by the rebels have continued.

Both sides have stepped up attacks following the breakdown in early 2005 landmark peace talks aimed at ending one of Africa's longest-running conflicts.
Aid groups say the government is not doing enough to protect civilians. They accuse Ugandan forces of using gunships indiscriminately and failing to rescue rather than kill children abducted into LRA ranks.

Human Rights Watch says the Ugandan army and allied paramilitary groups have recruited children as fighters and arrested and tortured civilians on suspicion of collaboration with the LRA.

Would capturing or killing Kony end the crisis?

It’s hard to say. The ICG says Kony’s centrality to the LRA’s tactics and purpose, along with reported leadership tensions, means the insurgency could perhaps be split if he is isolated or removed. But World Vision’s recent report warns that a new leader could easily take his place, accessing secret weapons caches.

So what’s to be done?

Rights groups are adamant that all parties must agree that no solution can be purely military.

The ICG recommends combining a military and negotiating strategy, while recognising the limitations of both. It says northerners’ grievances should be addressed to make the Acholi feel more integrated into Ugandan society.
In the meantime, relief and rights groups say the Ugandan government and international community must give priority to protecting children and civilians. They also urge greater pressure on Sudan to stop giving the rebels a safe haven.

The International Criminal Court can also play a role by investigating crimes committed by any party in the conflict, although some experts say this could discourage LRA leaders from giving up arms.

The world court is currently probing massacres blamed on the LRA, such as a February 2004 attack in which 200 people were shot, hacked and burned to death.

Where can I read more?

The International Crisis Group’s Northern Uganda: Understanding and Solving the Conflict provides a comprehensive overview of the conflict and makes concrete recommendations to all parties.

Human Rights Watch provides essential background and rights reports in its Uganda section.

For a focus on children, see the International Rescue Committee’s Children Targeted in Uganda’s Horrific, Overlooked War.

See also the World Food Programme's Huge numbers facing food shortages amid violence in northern Uganda.

World Vision’s new report, Pawns of Politics details the historical roots of the conflict and examines the human and economic costs of the crisis.

Read more:
EXPERTS TALK: Nightmare in Uganda
ANALYSIS: Fear and apathy feed war in northern Uganda
Uganda donors urged to turn up pressure for peace
EYEWITNESS-An aid worker's diary in northern Uganda
FILM: 'Rebels Without a Cause'
PHOTOS: Northern Ugandans terrorised by conflict
PHOTOS: Life goes on for Uganda's displaced
QUIZ: What do you know about northern Uganda?

Regular Ugandans Tell Donors to Take Their Medicine

WITHOUT MINCING WORDS
Andrew M. Mwenda
The Monitor

Poor donors! Grasp your role in Museveni’s Uganda

Since opposition presidential candidate Kizza Besigye was arrested and double charged in the High Court and in the General Court Martial, Uganda's "development partners" have looked confused. Their ambassadors, who turned up at the High Court to listen to Dr. Besigye's case, found themselves held hostage by the Black Mambas Urban Hit Squad.

And when the Danish ambassador, Stig Barlying, sought to attend the military court martial hearing of Besigye's case, he was rudely ordered out; his letter of "accreditation" literally thrown back into his face as "useless".

Mr. Barlying and all other diplomats who were locked out of the military court martial did not know that in President Yoweri Museveni's Uganda, civilian institutions are subordinate to military ones. A letter of "accreditation" to a military court martial from a civilian minister has no authority when a military general like Elly Tumwine is "in charge". Do these donors ever learn?

Suspension of aid
The Dutch have since suspended a small portion of their aid, and many others may consider this option. Will donors, who finance nearly half our budget, quit? Less likely! And if they do, will they meaningfully alter the tragic path on which Museveni has placed Uganda? Hardly!

The donors are caught in a catch 22 situation: if they cut and run, they will have removed the remaining source of restraint on Museveni, crippled their influence in Uganda and their "model" African economic performer will come tumbling down like a pack of cards - this time only faster!

Should they stay? A stay will delay, but cannot stop Uganda's descent back to its tragic past. On the contrary, their money will continue to be used to prop an increasingly nepotistic, incompetent, corrupt and brutal regime.

Every time they tolerate one macabre act by Museveni, they embolden him to do worse another time - and limit their capacity to restrain him the next time.

Initially, there was a convergence of different but compatible interests between Museveni, the people of Uganda and donors: Museveni needed money as a political resource to consolidate his power; Uganda needed stability and economic recovery, donors needed a country where they could pursue economic policies favourable to international capital, but which they also thought could produce an "economic success story" in an otherwise distressing African continent - and thereby shower-up a highly discredited international aid regime.

When he captured power in 1986, Museveni inherited a collapsed state and economy, and a country where violence and impunity were widespread. Most people either fought or avoided the state. To legitimise his rule, Museveni needed to establish stability in the south and stave off armed insurgents in the north.

He also needed to ease acute scarcities of basic essential goods and deliver basic social services. In other words, what was good for Museveni to consolidate his power was coincidentally good for Uganda, but also good for the donors who were searching for an African success story.

Thus, Museveni gave donors almost complete control of the economic policy making process, and in return the donors allowed him a free hand to pursue his preferred political and security machinations like banning political party activities in the country and pursuit of military adventures at home and in the region.

It was the perfect division of labour. Here is the paradox: by giving donors unlimited control of the economic policy making field, Museveni found himself in a more favourable position financially and diplomatically to pursue his preferred political and military agendas.

What we have been witnessing since 1996 is an increasing divergence of needs. What Museveni needs to stay in power today - increased patronage, more repression and corruption - is not necessarily what Ugandans need to sustain the reform momentum on the late 1980s and early 1990s, and it is certainly not what donors need to sustain the illusion of an African success story.

In other words, what is good for Uganda, or the donors is no longer what is good for Museveni and the National Resistance Movement.

Consolidating power
This is my point: whatever compromises he made, whatever appearances he faked, and whatever donor arrogance he put up with, Museveni's objective was to win one strategic objective - power.

During most of this time, Museveni's position at the helm of the state in Uganda was not under any serious challenge - and whenever it did like in northern Uganda, his propensity to depict military muscle was always on display. Among many examples is the brutality with which then Brig. David Tinyefuza handled Operation North in 1991-92.

Museveni wants to continue consolidating his position in power. Should the donors stand in his way to this goal, their role in Uganda will come to a sad end. The same applies to a significant section of Ugandan society which wants continued economic progress and democratisation.

So, dear donors, this is just to let you know that your historical function under the NRM regime was not so much to develop Uganda; that was your own fancy. It was to consolidate Museveni's position as President. Should you threaten that goal, your role will no longer be needed in this country. I wish you a good weekend!

Urbane Analysis: Okay, time for some movie references to help everyone get on the same page. Donor nations, journalists and NGOs might want to head down to Blockbuster and rent "The Grifters" - because despite all your intelligence, sophistication and goodwill - you have all been "played" by Museveni. The sad part is that most of you haven't yet realized the grift - and it has been going on for decades in Africa. The tragic part is that even those of you that have, won't do a damn thing about it.

Uganda is heading for a conflagration (again), and you want to feel bad about it. Well sorry, the people there don't have time for your emotions. They need your action: to get off your comfortable G8 fundaments, and get your mechanicals of democracy working in Africa. "Hotel Uganda" may soon be open for business, some World Bank analysts have predicted as much.

What to do? Easy. Donor nations should end all general, budgetary and military support for the Museveni regime. Now. They should only operate with trusted on-the-ground agencies working directly with people in need (in Uganda, that is more than half the population of 25 million).

Private sector, right? As in transparent and accountable.

You NGOs should be ashamed for having turned a blind eye to this problem for so long. You should immediately hold a donor summit - and via an umbrella organization - start reporting on those stories which for so very long have been talked about (and, increasingly, blogged about) from your own employees, volunteers and contractors. The stories that tell what really is going on in Africa.

The world needs to understand that the "Hotel Rwanda" genocide in Rwanda and Burundi didn't really end: 1995 was the boiling over of a simmering stew of hatred that continues to bubble up in ethnic hatred and "informal" systematic killing.

The world needs to understand that throughout this decade almost a million people per year, on average, have died in the Congo - in a horrible hell-on-earth existence for the people there. A situation that makes every leader in the West as complicit as King Leopold's nineteenth century courtiers - by their mutual silence of a hundred years.

The world barely understands the nature of the Darfur crisis in southern Sudan. Darfur-Darfur-Darfur: they hear the word on NPR and a few specialized programs on cable news. But the systematic displacement, isolation and leaving to desert ravages of hundreds of thousands of people - systematically and purposefully by the government there. Is a holocaust. It is evil as learned from the Balkans - in other words, the purveyors of this madness have learned how to do just enough to get people efficiently killed - without attracting satellite trucks.

And then there is Uganda's own bit of the Devil's Kingdom: the situation in the north - which continues to worsen. And is something that the government in Kampala, mysteriously, cannot seem to improve one iota. Yet the goverment in Kampala can use it to scapegoat every problem with which they also cannot seem to grapple. One U.S. Embassy official in Kampala told me that the LRA "problem" suits the needs of the Museveni government perfectly - it draws attention away from the its failings, over-reaching and corruption - even as the situation allows the government to play the role of victim to western donor nations.

And that, quite simply, has to stop. The long-standing, Cold War inspired Euro-American view of Africa must rapidly evolve and mature. The abject failure of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is all the proof needed that what we are doing there does not work.

It is unacceptable to opine that Africa cannot be our focus - that the war on terror supercedes our ability to focus on Africa. First of all, the western powers are far too rich, developed and capable for that excuse to hold validity. But more importantly, if "Blackhawk Down" taught us anything - it was that it is far cheaper to win wars economically, socially and politically. And quite frankly, nigh-on impossible to win them militarily.

Africa security expert Kurt Shillinger, himself from South Africa, warns in this essay that the same folks throughout the Muslim world cheering for Islamo-facists would like nothing more than Africa, with all its numbing poverty and disease - to become the next battleground against Euro-American ideals. It is vastly in the selfish interests of the West to see that democratic institutions (like an independent judiciary, a responsible military, a transparent and accountable civil service) are empowered - and despots like Museveni are outed, investigated, recalled from power by their own people, and prosecuted with fairness - then punished if warranted. In order to head off widening fronts in the war on terror, it is vastly in the selfish interests of the West to deliver on the dream of life without poverty to people in Africa. And in order to deliver on prosperity (or even the hope of prosperity), those who care (donor governments, news media, NGOs and churches) must also deliver on requiring accountability, transparency and democracy by those who govern. They can no longer sit back and see what happens in Africa. The stakes are simply to high. Those who care must risk, sacrifice and be outspoken.

If the socialist Europeans' darling boy Museveni is allowed to take his country down with him, their blame in it will be matched by U.S. State Department intransigence - in the face of overwhelming evidence about his regime - with evidence spanning several decades and going back to even before he seized power.

But quite frankly it is the news media who deserve the most criticism, for caring so little about Africa that they have allowed the western powers to be "At Play in the Fields of the Lord" for so long without even the slightest curiousity. It is time for the media to look at the real situation, at what a growing number of Africans want to do about it, and what complicity the media shares in allowing this to deteriorate without comment or coverage.

Finally, from the U.S. media...

Uganda's crackdown casts doubt on key U.S. ally


PBS

By Shashank Bengali Knight Ridder Newspapers
San Jose Mercury-News

KAMPALA, Uganda - When then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright visited this sunny, serene capital eight years ago, she hailed Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as a "beacon of hope" for democracy in Africa.

Now many advocates of democracy worry that he's become a hindrance.
After 19 years, Museveni remains in office. He's had Uganda's law on term limits lifted so he can run for re-election in February. Last month he threw the man most likely to unseat him into jail on an assortment of charges of treason, terrorism and rape. After the media howled in protest and demonstrations flared in Kampala for two days, Museveni warned journalists not to discuss the case and surrounded the courtroom with a heavily armed paramilitary squad nicknamed the Black Mambas.

"Museveni has, in a few very clumsy moves, absolutely polarized this country and really raised fear in people's hearts about how stable this place is," said a Western diplomat in Kampala, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he hadn't been authorized to talk publicly on the topic.

The situation is part of a larger concern that African leaders whom the West has backed with millions of dollars in aid since the 1990s are proving to be less than the democratic ideal that U.S. and international diplomats had expected. This year, for example, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia has faced massive protests against his re-election, which many think was rigged.

The trouble, some say, is that the West has been so eager to promote African success stories that it's been too quick to fall in love with men who say and do some of the right things, but ultimately prove to be more interested in power than democracy.

"Part of this dilemma we find ourselves in is partly our own fault, our tendency to allow ourselves to be romanced by single figures," said J. Stephen Morrison, a former State Department official in the Clinton administration. "We get carried away with our hopes and aspirations and projections of what these people are supposed to be."

Museveni won Western hearts in the early 1990s with successful anti-AIDS policies and economic reforms that lifted much of Uganda out of extreme poverty. He has supported the U.S.-led war on terrorism, and many in Washington saw him as a check on the spread of Islamic fundamentalism south from Sudan.

Uganda became a favorite recipient of foreign aid, which now makes up half of its annual budget. President Clinton visited in 1998 and President Bush came in 2003, congratulating Museveni for being one of the few leaders of developing countries to reduce the rate of HIV infection.

But the plaudits masked fundamental problems. Like many fledgling African democracies, Uganda outlawed political parties until recently, giving Museveni a monopoly on power and stifling dissent. He hasn't groomed a successor and recently said he'd like to hold office through 2013.

Longevity has begun to breed trouble, including allegations of corruption and torture of political opponents. Donors increasingly are concerned about aid money being diverted to fight a long-running war in northern Uganda against the mysterious Lord's Resistance Army rebel group.

This summer the Global Fund - a worldwide consortium against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria - withdrew $360 million in funding, citing gross mismanagement. The money was reinstated last month. Last week the Netherlands became the first country to penalize Uganda for the recent political turmoil by pulling nearly $8 million in aid.

Museveni's harshest critics say the West didn't raise its eyebrows until too late.
"Donors are part of our problem," said Proscovia Salaamu Musumba, the deputy president of Uganda's leading opposition group, the Forum for Democratic Change. "They have invested in a person, not in institutions."

It's still unclear whether the jailed opposition leader, Kizza Besigye, who finished a strong second in the 2001 presidential election, will be allowed to run in February. The case is widely believed to have been mishandled - the rape charge is 8 years old and "spurious," according to John Nagenda, one of Museveni's top advisers - even as diplomats whisper that there could be some merit in the more serious charges involving links to rebel groups.

Still, many observers predict that Museveni would win a fair election. Uganda is much better off today than it was under Milton Obote, Museveni's authoritarian predecessor, or Idi Amin, who's blamed for hundreds of thousands of deaths in the 1970s.

Nagenda said Museveni had earned the right to seek office again and had done so legally, by getting Parliament's approval to lift term limits.

"Amin wouldn't have done it that way," Nagenda said. "He would have just said, `I'm here,' and gone ahead and done it."

But Uganda still is, for all intents and purposes, a one-party state, and the Parliament and courts can't be said to be entirely independent. Some experts worry about the precedent that Museveni could be setting for other African executives who still have the other branches of government in their pockets.

"What they're doing might be legal and constitutional, but it might not be democratic," said Ted Dagne, an Africa analyst for the Congressional Research Service. "The signal this is going to send is you can use the government machinery to ensure you stay in power indefinitely."

Watching Hotel Darfur

Darfur and Northern Uganda: Shrugging at genocide
Philadelphia Inquirer
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service
photo: United Human Rights Council

At least the United States and others on the United Nations Security Council can lay claim to being world-class dawdlers in the face of two interconnected human catastrophes. They certainly can't take credit for aggressively trying to end worsening crises in northern Uganda and Sudan's Darfur region.

The Bush administration's inadequate response will further tarnish U.S. moral credibility; the Security Council will provide more ammunition to its critics if it cannot agree on strong action.

The greatest victims, as always, will be the civilians caught in conflict.

Killings in Darfur are on the rise. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the Security Council last week that "the looming threat of complete lawlessness and anarchy draws nearer."

U.S. resolve toward Darfur has waned since former Secretary of State Colin Powell in September 2004 said attacks by government-supported Arab militias on non-Arab villages constituted genocide. About 400,000 Darfur residents have been killed since the fighting began in 2003, and two million have been displaced from their homes.

The United States has several envoys, including Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick, shuttling to the region to promote negotiations, including a seventh round of African Union-sponsored talks that began yesterday. But Zoellick will be of no help if he actually believes his recent assessment that this is a "tribal war." That's what was said about the 1994 genocide in Rwanda - and it's an excuse for the international community to again do nothing.

The international community also has largely ignored the 19-year-old war between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA, led by Joseph Kony, has abducted about 30,000 children and forced them into being soldiers and sex slaves. At least 1.4 million people have been left homeless. Thousands have died.

The violence in Sudan and neighboring Uganda are linked: As it now supports the Janjaweed, the Sudanese government also has given aid to the Lord's Resistance Army in northern Uganda. A mischievous Sudan destabilizes its neighborhood.

Instead of using its clout to pressure the governments of Sudan and Uganda to protect civilians, the Bush administration has coddled those nations' leaders. The State Department seems willing to doom the people of Darfur so as not to upset Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's commitment to the peace accord that ended the war between Sudan's north and south. That is a false either-or choice.

The Security Council has a worse record. It has agreed to weak resolutions on Darfur and never passed anything on northern Uganda, where violence has increased since the International Criminal Court last month issued arrest warrants for Kony and top aides. LRA members are now also killing foreign tourists and aid workers, prompting some relief groups to suspend operations.

U.S. and U.N. action can make a difference in these conflicts.

Capitol Hill legislators can pass supplemental legislation restoring $50 million for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Sudan that they cut from the 2006 Foreign Operations Appropriations bill.

President Bush should make northern Uganda part of the diplomatic brief for Darfur. That effort could use some streamlining and clarifying, with one person - not Zoellick - clearly in charge.

The Security Council should expand the peacekeeping mission and give it a broader mandate for protecting civilians. Sanctions against the governments of Sudan and Uganda are an option worth more discussion.

The peacekeeping mission also should be transferred to the U.N. before January 2006. That's when Sudan is slated to take over leadership of the African Union.

Urbane Analysis: This editorial ran last week in the Philadelphis Inquirer. It was then put out on the Knight Ridder/ Tribune News Service wire, and was picked up by Fort Wayne, Indiana daily - and that was it. As far as the news business is concerned, the piece is now stale - you won't be seeing it anywhere.

Notice the slant on the editorial line. The U.S. is bad, with the wrong people working on the problem there. People who really don't care. People like Secretary of State Condi Rice and Ambassador Robert Zoellick - her special envoy to Darfur.

Notice the "call to action" of this piece: the U.N. should empower its peacekeepers to protect people in the Darfur region (currently they operate on the standard rules of engagement whereby they can only provide security to the U.N.'s own personnel - in other words, they can do nothing in the face of atrocities).

Notice that the writer of this piece made no mention of how only three weeks before - that Ambassador Robert Zoellick short-circuited the usual diplomatic run-around and vociferously made this statement to Sudanese officials, effectively doing more to directly advance the cause of human rights in Darfur than anyone ever has. Let us be clear: the U.S. State Department is doing more than any other government, news organization and more than all but a handful of N.G.O.'s - to communicate understanding and resolve on the Darfur issue by peaceful means. It is up to the news media to play a role as well - and begin to systematically cover the stories there. And the U.S. cannot succeed alone on a diplomatic track when their allies do little or nothing by way of support or understanding of the issues. Ditto for the news media.

So it appears that the editorial writers would rather be playing politics and doing the usual get-Bush scapegoating - something they have no business doing in light of the human cost of this crisis. Particularly when there is a dearth of column inches and broadcast minutes devoted to this issue. Gotcha! Mr. Media Machine.

One need only look at the fawning coverage of America's entry into Somalia in 1993 (those who saw it... will not long forget... the triumphal ride of PBS News Hour correspondent, and later NPR Africa Correspondent Charlayne Hunter-Gault into Mogadishu on top of an armored vehicle). When the Democratic Party goes to war, well, that's a good thing. Or so Mr. Media says...

Or the way American media served as cheerleaders to NATO's invasion of the Balkans in 1992 and 1993 - undertaken without UN sanction and over the vociferous objection of China - and with Russia's double-dealing on behalf of their Serb allies. With a ham-handed cruise missile landing on the frig'gin Chinese Embassy for chrissakes. Yet these were the wars of the Clintons, and therefore above reproach by the media - and to the extent that they weren't "good" they were ignored. Like the hundreds of cruise missiles launched on Africa and South Asia during that time - which did nothing to weaken al-Qa'ida, and in fact only bolstered its credibility among the Muslim people those missiles landed on - and sparked the outrage of viewers of the Al Jazeera network. Apparently Mr. Machine doesn't have a problem with cruise missiles.

Did I ever tell you about my liberal friend who, upon getting excited, reverts into the same manner of speech (apparently) as her father, and refers to anyone with brown (or black) skin as...

Wogs?

By the way, how many cruise missiles has George Bush launched on Africa? The answer is zero. Nada. Zip. Nary a one. And while the U.S. must certainly have military special operators in Africa - the Bush administration has landed no troops in Africa as well. The goal is peaceful change - and that requires a media to do its job - not one which will (by turn) stretch or ignore the truth in order to serve its wider goal of undermining the Bush presidency. Can I call you Media?

As for the $50 million in peacekeeping/security funds - that would be paying the fox to guard the hen house, since Sudan will be heading the African Union in only a matter of weeks. It is a clear non-starter. Big-time, as VELCRO might say. No way should we be rewarding Sudan's behavior - one might not have read or heard a thing about the real situation in Darfur (like, if you suscribe to the New York Times), yet one could decipher as much from a careful reading of this very piece from the wannabe Inquirer. So what that newspaper argues for here makes no sense - it contravenes the logic of their own arguments.

I do know something even worse than the media's confusion regarding Darfur: the way they ignore Darfur. That's where cynicism disects outrage. A commentator on the long-ago Balkan conflict summed up that very problem in a way that echoes today as admonition regarding ignored crisis points all over the planet: "The failure to put across this fundamental geometry of the conflict, through willfulness or incompetence, remains the greatest failure of the Western media and the Western political leadership of the time."

The Bag Man for CNN

Museveni son-in-law bags Shs 640 million


by ALEX B. ATUHAIRE
The Monitor KAMPALA

THE government paid $350,000 (approx. 640 million Uganda Shillings) to Terp Group, a local public relations firm, in connection to the project to polish Uganda’s image via the Cable Network News (CNN).

The contract with Terp Group, owned by Mr Odrek Rwabwogo (in photo above, at left), a son-in-law of President Yoweri Museveni, was in contravention of the procurement rules issued by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA).

The PPDA regulates procurement by the government. Dr Sam Nahamya, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Trade and Industry, on September 1 wrote to the PPDA asking the institution to waive the rule that would restrict the ministry to open bidding. He said the decision to procure Terp’s services was made by politicians. According to Regulation 106(4) of PPDA, the contract to Rwabwogo’s company should have been awarded after either open or restricted bidding because the value of the deal was above Shs 100 million.

In his September 1 letter, Nahamya also said the waiver should cover the $1 million (U.S.) to Turner Broadcasting Systems (Europe), which was to implement the CNN project together with Terp.

“The political leadership has selected the two firms to provide specialised and professional services to the ministry in branding Uganda on the CNN as a way of attracting tourists to the country,” Nahamya wrote.“These firms are of international character with no known competitors and provide specialised services,” he added. “The purpose of this communication therefore is to request you to waive the requirement of competitive tendering in preference to the direct sourcing method.”

However, the PPDA, which is headed by the former Auditor General, Mr. James Kahoza, refused to waive the regulations as the ministry had already overlooked the procurement rules. The ministry had already offered the contract to Terp Group by the time they wrote to PPDA.

Nahamya declined to discuss the matter when contacted on Tuesday, saying he was on leave. “Officially and technically, I cannot conduct business on behalf of the government. I am on leave, I can’t speak on behalf of the government,” he told Daily Monitor by telephone.

But the Tourism Ministry PS had said in his letter, “The government values the benefits this project will bring if there is partnership with the private sector through companies like TERP Group.” He added, “The Solicitor General has cleared the two firms and the contracts will soon be signed.”

However, the Solicitor Genera,l Mr Lucien Tibaruha, yesterday distanced himself from the procurement of Terp Group services. “Yes, it’s my job to clear, but I only cleared the terms of the contract,” he said. “The ministry carried out the procurement. I didn’t clear the procurement. So you have to go back to them (Ministry of Tourism) as regards that issue,” Tibaruha told Daily Monitor by telephone.Daily Monitor was told that the PPDA had earlier told the ministry that it had already contravened the law and the procurement body could therefore not clear the procurement.

PPDA Chairman Kahoza could not be reached for comment. The PPDA Executive Director, Mr Edgar Agaba, was also not available for comment.

The Uganda government in September sealed a $1 million (about Shs 1.8 billion) six-month deal to promote the country as a top tourist destination.According to the deal, Uganda will sponsor the Inside Africa show on CNN, which runs every Saturday, for six months. Spots promoting tourism under the tagline, “Uganda: A Gift of Nature” will run in the 30-minute show, which is repeated every Sunday.

The CNN Inside Africa show reports on the continent’s political, economic, social and cultural affairs. The CNN crew has been in Uganda to shoot key tourist attractions in national parks, cultural dances and promotional interviews for clips to use in the adverts.

In the face of highly fluctuating prices of the traditional exports - especially cash crops such as coffee, vanilla and cotton, the government is now looking to non-traditional exports like tourism to boost its foreign exchange earnings. But with the transition politics becoming uncertain, it is now no longer clear how the country would benefit from the CNN project - as the same station has been reporting the recent volatile developments in the country for which the government has deployed a heavy military presence in Kampala following the arrest and trial of opposition Forum for Democratic Change leader Kizza Besigye.

Negative publicity The government has in recent months received considerable negative publicity abroad following the decision by the President to seek another term in office. The CNN effort will mainly concentrate on the tourism sector, but the government has lately engaged other efforts to counter negative publicity and redeem its falling image, especially arising from the endemic rebellion in the north and the feared political turmoil following recent changes in the constitution and the President’s intentions to stay in power beyond 2006.

The government has hired a British public relations firm, Hill and Knowlton, at Shs1.6 billion to improve the country’s image in the international media. Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa brokered the deal.

The government has also engaged services of international lobbyists like the former British Minister, Ms Linda Chalker, and former US secretary for African Affairs during the Bill Clinton government, Ms Rosa Whitaker. The two are mainly for trade promotion.

Other image enhancing efforts include the creation of the Media Centre under the President’s Office to coordinate the flow of information from the government to the media and the general public. Mr Robert Kabushenga, the former New Vision Company Secretary, heads the centre. Rwabogo has not answered his phone for the last two days but officials in TERP confirmed that they were paid the money.

Urbane Analysis: How does a modern tyrant thwart democracy? Pay off the media, of course - using illegal contracts.

The media is on trial here. The People of Uganda against Cable News Network.

Comfortable cronies and relatives of the president receive fat contracts that they funnel along to Atlanta in exchange for splashy ads and vapid travelogues that ignore grinding poverty, malnutrition, disease and suffering all around Uganda. And the news media shows not the slightest curiousity about why the U.S. Agency for International Development and British High Commission channel enough funds into Uganda every year to show staggering results in health, infrastructure, education and nutrition programs - yet the slightest amont of progress is noted by the Ugandan government year after year.

Where does all the money go?

The People of Uganda against Bill O'Reilly - for giving CNN a pass. It ain't incest, but it is gross negligence on the part of The Factor and every other media source on the side of "the folks" - there has been enough blood and tear gas in the streets of Kampala these past weeks to make the charge:

If it had been anywhere but Africa it would have been the lead. But only ABC News passed along a few crumbs of the short-shrift given the story by their kissing cousins at the BBC. And that was it. Only a few watchdog groups like SpinWatch have even commented about it.

This is what I want to see:

CNN's Reliable Sources will be examining the ethics of how their own program, Inside Africa cozies up to dictators this Sunday at 10 a.m.

When you ask why Africa continues to fester, an examination of the western news media is in order. This is not "Oil-for-Food" with a crony-relative of the UN Secretary General. It is "Aid-Money-for-PR-Treatment with a crony-relative of a banana republic dictator openly operating a slush fund to the Cable News Network for "bought" coverage.

Will Governments Stand By and Watch Uganda's Fall?

Leaders queue up to protest at President's abuse of power
By Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor and Tristan McConnell in Kampala
The TimesOnline

Museveni: facing criticism

PRESIDENT MUSEVENI of Uganda faces growing criticism from his fellow Commonwealth leaders because of his regime’s increasingly harsh treatment of the main opposition leader, Kizza Besigye.

As the Commonwealth summit opens in Malta today, with talks supposed to focus on world trade, diplomats there said that the abuse of power by the veteran Ugandan leader was becoming the issue of the summit.

Don McKinnon, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, wants the meeting to examine human rights failures among the 53 member states, and Uganda is fast becoming the most serious issue on the table.

“There is disquiet,” a British official said. “Many are asking whether Uganda is an appropriate host for the next Commonwealth summit in 2007.”
Tony Blair and other Commonwealth leaders, particularly those of Australia and Canada, are expected to raise the matter with Mr Museveni when the heads of government hold talks today.

But the Ugandans show no signs of compromising. As Mr Museveni flew in to Malta, the authorities in Kampala stepped up moves against Dr Besigye, who was arrested this month on charges of treason and rape.

This time Dr Besigye, Mr Museveni’s former ally and physician, was hauled before a military court martial and charged with terrorism and illegal possession of arms. At times the proceedings became almost farcical. General Elly Tumwine, the chairman, charged two of Dr Besigye’s defence lawyers with contempt of court for talking out of turn.

Then Stig Barlyng, the Danish Ambassador and the representative of Western governments, was thrown out of court.Mr Barlyng argued that he was permitted to observe by Ruhakana Rugunda, the Minister of Internal Affairs, but General Tumwine replied that the minister “does not control this court”.

Dr Besigye hopes to oppose Mr Museveni in next year’s elections, as he did in 2001. His supporters in the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) claim that the trial is designed to prevent Dr Besigye from being eligible to stand.

Salaamu Musumba, the FDC vice-president, called on Commonwealth governments to take action against Kampala. “Uganda should be thrown out of the Commonwealth as there are no Commonwealth traditions that we are emulating in this country,” she said.

Liam Fox, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, last night added his voice to calls for Dr Besigye to be released immediately. “Tony Blair and Jack Straw must urgently press the Ugandan Government to respect democracy and the rule of law,” he said. “Nobody should be under any illusions about the seriousness of the situation in Uganda.”

In Kampala, the court- martial proceedings were adjourned until this morning. As Dr Besigye’s wife, Winnie Byanyima, left the court she called out: “Kizza Besigye is going to be condemned to death by a kangaroo court.”

An armed escort then took Dr Besigye to the High Court for his delayed bail hearing. A crowd that had gathered outside the court martial cheered Dr Besigye and waved his party’s two-fingered salute as the prison bus attempted a three-point turn in the narrow road. Central Kampala was cordoned off by police, who had expected another day of mass rioting by opposition supporters. However, people heeded the warning given on Wednesday by Mr Rugunda not to take to the streets. Media outlets have been threatened with closure if they discuss Dr Besigye’s arrest and trial.

At the High Court Judge James Ogoola adjourned the bail hearing until this afternoon to allow the court martial to proceed. He managed to restore some faith in the impartiality of the judiciary when he banned members of the armed forces from his courtroom.

Dr Besigye can face a court martial under a law allowing those accused of taking up arms against the state to be charged in a military court. Dr Besigye, a former Museveni loyalist, is also a retired colonel in the Ugandan army. The return of Dr Besigye from exile last month was seen as a sign of greater democracy in Uganda, which is preparing for its first multiparty elections in March.

MUSEVENI'S TARNISHED IMAGE:

Founding member of Front for National Salvation, which helped to oust Idi Amin.

Praised for bringing relative stability after civil war and for responding to HIV/AIDS.

Took power in 1986 and introduced Movement politics, based on democratic principles.

Became darling of West; described as head of new breed of African leaders by Bill Clinton.

2001 election victory tainted with increase in violence.

Image marred by role in civil war in Democratic Republic of Congo.

Amended constitution this year to allow himself to have a third term, despite vowing that he would not stand again.

Urbane Analysis:

This is a tepid response from the same governments which were "frozen in the headlights" by violence in Rwanda a scant ten years ago. The western powers have been sitting on their hands regarding Uganda's misadventures in the Congo - a situation which only a scant amount of media investigation WILL show has been all about profit for Museveni's family and cronies. One cannot help but notice that Kampala is awash in tropical hardwoods: subsistence level workers in roadside stands build furniture throughout the city. Many Ugandans talk about the source of this wood - since Uganda logged out its own "old growth" hardwoods years ago - it now comes from the Congo. And this plunder is a profitable line of business for Ugandan military commanders while maintaining a zone of influence in the lawless country to Uganda's west.

It is all about pillage and plunder.

So western powers are silent about Uganda's "big stick" policies violating the sovereignty of its neighbors. These are the same governments who say they are all about effecting change in Africa - but were powerless in response to the violence in Rwanda (a tiny country right next door to Uganda) a decade ago. And these same western powers have not exerted one iota of muscle in check of the Ugandan regime's ever-increasing "shake down" of aid organizations working on behalf of the desperately poor. When you talk with non-governmental organizations (NGO) groups operating in Uganda - doing the work of tackling poverty, the tales of frustration and outright crime against them by the government of Uganda - through corruption that has increased and become worse and worse to the point of causing some to shut down in Uganda - has trumpeted loud and clear where the regime is headed. This has been clear long before these latest outrages against democracy itself in Uganda.

Why wouldn't Museveni take these actions, since the western powers have been impotent on a whole range of issues leading up to this?

It is time for the U.S. and E.U. powers to get serious about what is about to happen in Uganda - BEFORE they are caught in the headlights of powerlessness like they were in Rwanda in the 1990's. A senior official at the U.S. Embassy in Kampala told me "(t)his place is alway twelve hours away from meltdown. All it takes is a couple of colonels to go 'off the reservation' and this place is back to total tribal factionalism."

So the question becomes: are we going to just sit and watch that happen?