They protested against ongoing efforts to amend the constitution and allow President Yoweri Museveni to stand for re-election next year.
Mr Museveni - who came to power in 1986 - is showing no sign of quitting as those around him drum up support in order to change the constitution.
His supporters staged a demonstration in Kampala earlier this week.
It was the first time in recent years that the police had given permission for such an open display of criticism of government.
Mr Museveni is one of Africa's longest serving rulers.
The participants at Thursday's rally protested against moves to keep one of Africa's longest serving rulers in power.
According to the constitution he is due to step down in a year's time after serving two-terms in office.
But the president's supporters want to amend the constitution to allow him to stand again.
And this looks a real possibility as President Museveni has sufficient numbers in parliament to make the change.
A state house official said the peaceful demonstration was proof of free debate in the country and that the state was not going to use force to amend the constitution.
Party politics has been severely restricted for many years in order to cut down on sectarian violence.
The fact that the demonstrations this week have been peaceful will be welcomed by those calling for democratic change in Uganda.
Urbane Analysis: Note that the BBC (as well as this report from the Voice of America) fail to even mention the name of the opposition organization running this protest, much less provide a basic profile about them, their issues, and platform. Lazy journalism serves no one's interest, save cynics and entrenched power elites relying on that to maintain status quo. I would hope for better than that, particuarly from the VOA.
Meanwhile, Ugandan church leaders - from Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican denominations, remain steadfast in opposition to President Museveni's ambition toward "president for life" status. That is a huge story. The next vociferous "Desmond Tutu" clergymen of Ugandan need to be heard from the pulpits of America and Europe. Why aren't they racking up frequent flyer miles in support of Africa's quest for democracy - as led by them and other patriotic Ugandans? The out-front involvement of spiritual leaders of many faiths, standing together, will go a long way to assuage concern that opposition efforts are not being run from the barracks.
Mainstream media should lose its deafness to the moral message underlining (and uniting) Ugandan political parties in opposition. Restrictive laws keep opposition voices under tight control in Uganda (read more about this here). It is time for the world to hear from these leaders. It is time for the media to profile them and their efforts in struggle for the ballot. Why is it that time after time news editors ignore a story about the ballot - unless bullets are involved? Hey Media: Tag! You're it.
Clearly the opposition in Uganda needs to coalesce to a more refined degree than they have already shown. Demonstrations need to be carefully crafted - and scrupulously managed for a blend of domestic and international consumption and impact. The kind of visual imagery (think Lebanese cedar, Ukrainian orange) that other forces of democracy have used to attract the network video uplink trucks while galvanizing the resolve of its people - is a necessary next step in the progression toward bringing the cause of democracy in Uganda forward.
It would be wise for Ugandan opposition leaders to unify around figures who do not have military ties - such baggage only serves to create anxiety at several key Kampala embassies regarding the specter of coup d'etat. As an American Embassy official told me: "This place is always only twenty hours away from military meltdown. And it is an army with almost no ability to enforce meaningful command structure." In other words, the troops, once let loose in the streets - will loot and steal - and perhaps worse, kill. And in light of the legacy of genocide in Uganda, bring about panic dissolving civil society - and potentially touch off renewed tribal infighting. Fear of that scenario has allowed Museveni to govern without opposition since the 1980's.
The ball is firmly in the court of opposition leaders to demonstrate why that risk can be managed under conditions allowing multi-party elections.
Opposition leaders will really be able to attract international media attention if they can simultaneously demonstrate that they can defeat corruption(for more read here) - and offer a comprehensive strategy to change that paradigm.
By communicating both strategies (why fair play in politics supports transparency in development) in a comprehensive briefing format delivered endlessly to foreign ministry staffers and NGO managers working out of Kampala - then opposition leadership will be able to create the kind of "talk up" which will get journalists in the loop.
If Uganda is not allowed, because of the power of a strongman-leader, to move in to the light of fully-actualized democratic processes - then the case is now out there to be made that the rest of Africa has scant working "role model" countries to follow - given that South Africa's infrastructure makes it an anomaly. It is time to root for democracy in Uganda.
These IDP ("internally displaced persons" to those of us who don't use NGO-speak) children are just a few of the tens of thousands of Ugandan children facing severe malnutrition. Because of the violence which is allowed to persist in the north, these children face horrible dangers every night, including murder, sexual assault, kidnapping and slavery. The situation in northern areas of Uganda (itself a small country - no larger than the state of Oregon) is the worst ongoing humanitarian crisis on the planet right now. And it receives almost no attention from the us in America and Europe. This situation makes Bob Geldof and Bono very angry (read here and here). Once the world hears about it, there will be similar outrage. And demand for action. And not soon enough.
4 comments:
Scott, It's too bad. Museveni is one of the best leaders in Africa. His AIDS policy worked (works? I hear the internationals have pushed it back a bit, since abstinence isn't their idea). And I loved it when Clinton on his stop there appologized for slavery and Museveni told him "You are in the wrong place; that was done in West Africa."
It's time for him to retire and collect his laurels. I hope he will get good advice and change his mind. Absent that, I hope they will focus on one good person and the church leaders will step out.
- Ron Hebron
Please adapt as necessary and send this letter as a matter of urgency to your Senator/Representative.
The Hon. Senator/Member of Congress
Sir/Madame,
I am writing is to seek your support in quelling the wave of political repression and human rights abuses of Ugandan citizens who have overwhelmingly rejected plans of the president of Uganda Lt. Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to remain in the office of President for life. Museveni is bribing and manipulating Uganda’s Members of Parliament to amend the Constitution in order to remove a two- 5-year- term limits so that he can rule Uganda indefinitely. Ugandans know that should his plans succeed the country will return to political unrest and unimaginable human suffering. In fact there is already unrest taking place in Uganda with security operatives targeting activists and politicians opposed to the extension of Museveni’s presidency.
.I would like to briefly mention Uganda’s turbulent history over the 42 years since she got independent from Great Britain:
EVENTS
1. Since October 9th 1962 Ugandans have not witnessed any peaceful change of government.
2. In May 1966, Uganda’s military stormed the Presidential palace under the command of the Idi Amin and President Sir Edward Mutesa was forced into exile in Great Britain. Hundreds of Ugandans lost their lives and Uganda started its pattern of violent government changes.
3. On January 25th 1971 there was a bloody coup led by the same Idi Amin, which ousted President Milton Obote. An estimated 500,000 people were brutally murdered including foreign nationals during the eight years he imposed himself on the people of Uganda as life president.
4. On April 11th 1979, the murderous regime was toppled by combined forces of Tanzanian troops and Ugandans who had been forced into exile by Amin’s tyranny. Thousands of lives were lost in that struggle.
5. In August, 1985 Bazillio Okello and Tito Okello toppled Obote’s second government by military coup and once again many lives where lost in the violence.
6. In February 1981 Yoweri Kaguta Museveni started a guerilla war to fight dictatorship and restore rule of law in Uganda. Many Ugandans supported him in that struggle because they expected him to restore democracy and rule of law in Uganda. His armed rebellion was successful, and on January 26th 1986 he captured power and ousted the military junta of Bazillio Okello and Tito Okello. After becoming President, Museveni proceeded on a constitution making exercise which resulted in Uganda’s 1995 Constitution which he swore to respect and uphold.
The views which went into the Constitution were collected from 1988 to 1995 and in 1995 the constitution was promulgated. One of the most important and least contentious provisions of that constitution was Article 105(2) which spells out term limits for the president. The maximum period that an individual could hold the powerful office of President was two terms of five years each. President’s Museveni’s last term ends on March 11, 2006 by which time he would have been President for 20 years. Ugandans do not include the first ten years that Museveni was President before the Constitution was promulgated in 1995; when counting his two terms limit.
Unfortunately, President Museveni has now revoked his stated promise to leave office in 2006 and is engaged in massive manipulation of the population and Parliament through the use of bribes, intimidation and outright harassment to effect the amendment which will allow him to retain the Presidency beyond the constitutionally provided period. Last year Museveni used government resources to bribe more than 240 members of parliament to support his bid to remove the term limits. He has also used his position as Commander-in-Chief of the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) to unleash military and security forces to intimidate and harass opposition activists, especially those associated with the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the most credible opposition Party. FDC is a broad based party with leadership from Museveni’s Movement Party and Uganda’s older political parties and it could easily win a free and fair election and form the next government in a conducive democratic environment.
As a result of Museveni’s actions Uganda’s Western development partners including the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and more significantly Britain have advised Museveni to stand down and allow constitutionalism and rule of law to prevail. Museveni has rejected their advice and instead turned to authoritarian governments like Iran, North Korea, Kuwait, Syria and Zimbabwe for international support.
We, the members and supporters of the Forum for Democratic Change are lobbying for support from your government and the people of the United States to join Uganda’s donor community and unequivocally reject Museveni’s unconstitutional and cynical plans of removing presidential term limits. Specifically we are calling on the United States Senate/Congress/Administration to condemn the fraudulent and manipulative actions that the President is taking to maintain his grip on power. We also call on the United States Government to abide by its own policies of democracy promotion abroad and reject unconstitutional attempts to jettison the democratic developments that Uganda has achieved thus far. Museveni has had 20 years to steer the country and Ugandans believe that he has brought the country as far as he can take it and it now requires a new leader to take Uganda to the next level of democratic and economic development. President Museveni will always have his place as a great Ugandan leader if and only if he leaves the Presidency in 2006 otherwise history will judge him harshly. We believe that the United States as a world leader engaged in the propagation of democracy and rule of law to all countries of the world has a duty to speak out and act on the developments in Uganda and we look forward to your response and action in this regard. Our prayer is that any future relations between Uganda and the United States will be guided by the need to promote constitutionalism and the rule of law for the mutual benefit of our countries.
For God and my Country.
Anne Mugisha
One Uganda One People
I see you, too, are a Ugandaphile. While we seem to be viewing the country from different sides of the political fence, I am a liberal, I suspect we have many things in common. I just returned from Uganda where the political campaigns are in full swing. Besigye is the favorite. And while I am not sure he is the most ideal candidate, I support him as the best hope to remove Museveni.
Don't get me wrong, I love Museveni. I shook his hand in 1991, when in Uganda as a Peace Corps volunteer. At that time he was still an unelected president, but was very much loved by most of the people of Uganda, and I admired all that he had done, and continue to admire him for what he has done for Uganda. But, another 5 years would mean him overstaying his welcome. Best, like Ron Hebron said, that he leave now, collect his well earned credits and let someone else take over.
Post a Comment