London Daily Telegraph: Regime of tyranny and torture back to haunt Uganda

WARNING: This news story from the London Daily Telegraph online edition contains graphic descriptions of violence, sexual abuse, and human rights violations alleged against the Ugandan security services.

Regime of tyranny and torture back to haunt Uganda
By Adrian Blomfield in Kampala (Filed: 19/03/2005)

Suspected dissidents disappear after midnight visits to their homes; chilling screams can again be heard from Idi Amin's infamous torture chambers, reopened after a quarter of a century of disuse. From the few that escape come tales of punishment beatings and even mass executions.
Welcome to President Yoweri Museveni's Uganda. One of Britain's favourite African states in recent years has, almost unnoticed in the West, become a sinister land where a corrupt regime uses its secret police to rule through fear.


President Yoweri Museveni

The reasons for this transition are not hard to fathom. Mr Museveni has ruled Uganda since 1986, when his rebels marched triumphantly into the capital Kampala. Many of his countrymen believe he now wants to recast himself as that most African of leaders: a president for life.

Signalling his intent to jettison the vestigial trappings of democracy his government still professes, Mr Museveni has set out to remove a constitutional provision that prevents him from standing in elections next year.

Not all Ugandans are keen on the idea, but the government has ways of making them change their mind.

Last year, Yasin, a taxi driver who occasionally chauffeured a senior opposition official around the countryside, was woken by a loud rapping at his door a few hours before dawn. The men who had come to arrest him were not policemen, but members of the widely feared Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI).

Yasin knew that the CMI, a shadowy spy agency directly answerable to the president, had no powers to arrest anybody. But he also knew better than to question his captors.

He was taken to Makindye barracks, where some of the worst atrocities of Amin's infamous State Research Bureau, which used to force inmates to beat each other to death with sledgehammers, took place in the 1970s.

"Every day for a week, they would hang me upside down and beat me with clubs," Yasin said. "They wanted to know names of people working for the opposition. I kept saying I didn't know any, but they wouldn't believe me."

On his third day, Yasin watched as a fellow inmate, an elderly man accused of recruiting for the main opposition alliance, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), was killed using a method known as "Liverpool". The victim's head was placed in a bag that was repeatedly filled with water. To breathe, he had to drink it all, but the more he drank, the more bloated his belly became until his innards ruptured and he died in a pool of his own urine.

The official existence of political parties was only allowed last year, under considerable western pressure. Until then Mr Museveni operated what he called a no-party system, in which every Ugandan belonged to an entity known as The Movement, which was headed by the president.
In theory, the philosophy was supposed to rid Uganda of the ethnic and political divisions that helped cause the civil wars and dictatorships that characterised much of the country's history since independence from Britain in 1962. In practice it has allowed Mr Museveni to exert total control over most of his people.

The leader of the FDC, Kizza Besigye, in exile in South Africa, has instructed his campaigners to dole out copies of Animal Farm during party rallies.

But most people are too frightened to attend. Secret police infiltrate the rallies, noting down those who attend. It is usually supporters and low ranking FDC members who are taken to Makindye.

As a means of spreading fear, it is an extremely effective method.

Philip and his wife Juliet were picked up in January, accused of renting out their hall south of the capital for an opposition meeting.

Like many fellow suspects, they were accused of supporting the People's Redemption Army (PRA), a shadowy rebel outfit the government links to the FDC. The Foreign Office Minister, Chris Mullin, says that it is likely the PRA does not exist.

"Every night I was hung upside down over a pit of snakes while my wife was raped by army officers," said Philip, who was held in Room 21 of Mbale Police Station, another Amin torture chamber. "One time we had to move five dead bodies into a truck. Another time I was made to dig my own grave." Like Yasin, Philip and Juliet were released. Their captors told them to report what had happened to fellow villagers, but threatened them with death if they told anyone else.

Certainly things are not as bad as they were under Amin, who killed half-a-million people in eight years of bloodshed. Mr Museveni remains popular in many quarters for bringing stability to the country.

The president was long seen as an African role model in the West for his willingness to introduce economic reforms demanded by the World Bank.

But many donors are now disgusted both by the repression and by the corruption in Mr Museveni's cabinet, many of whom are relatives of the president. "Museveni hoodwinked many donors for a long time and people wanted to see the glass as half full," a diplomat said. "We are now learning our lesson."

But that lesson may have come too late. A gang of young thugs, known as the Kalangala Action Plan (KAP), is allegedly preparing to disrupt the elections. Styled on the youth wing of President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in Zimbabwe, the KAP was an effective tool of intimidation during flawed 2001 elections won by Mr Museveni.

With an even greater risk of defeat if elections are free and fair, diplomats fear that the KAP could be responsible for serious violence and compound Uganda's human rights reputation still further.

Urbane Analysis: Note to mainstream media - remember "The Year of Living Dangerously"? Why does journalism exist but to cover stories of epic import? Uganda is leaning toward a tipping point. That's right, Uganda: the darling of Britain and the U.S. for twenty years. And here's a clue: it is all about greed, corruption, and the ruling culture's values. Are you going to cover this story, or wait until the bullets fly and machete' do their worst, and then whine about government intransigence? Just one element of Uganda's crisis in governance (the child slave-soldiers of a rebel faction in the north) takes number one (worst) spot on the United Nation's "Ten Stories The World Should Hear More About" - that alone is a clue to the state of human rights in Uganda:

Uganda: Child soldiers at centre of mounting humanitarian crisis



With an armed rebellion threatening to undermine Uganda’s progress to economic development, child soldiers emerge as central figures amid deadly violence and growing humanitarian emergency.

The bustling capital city of Kampala, located in the south, exemplifies Uganda’s transformation from a country plagued by economic decay to prosperity. With a revitalized GDP growth of more than 8% over the past three years, Uganda comes across as a compelling story of hope for other African nations. However, an armed insurgency in northern and eastern Uganda has created one of Africa’s largest displaced populations.

The 18-year old rebellion of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) against the government has forced over 1.6 million Ugandans - half of them children - to flee to squalid and overcrowded camps in order to escape wanton attacks and killings. The number of internally displaced persons has almost tripled since 2002. Attacks on soft civilian targets continue, carried out by child soldiers much younger than their victims.

The most disturbing aspect of this humanitarian crisis is the fact that this is a war fought by children on children - minors make up almost 90% of the LRA’s soldiers.

Some recruits are as young as eight and are inducted through raids on villages. They are brutalized and forced to commit atrocities on fellow abductees and even siblings. Those who attempt to escape are killed. For those living in a state of constant fear, violence becomes a way of life and the psychological trauma is incalculable. Fearing abduction, streams of children, often with mothers in tow, leave their homes every night and walk for hours from surrounding villages to reach the relative safety of major towns, only to trek their way home in the first light. Some 40,000 “night commuters” sleep under verandas, in schools, hospital courtyards or bus parking places to evade the snare of the LRA.

Since the rebellion began in the 1980s, some 30,000 children have been abducted to work as child soldiers and porters, or to serve as “wives” of rebels and bear their children. These numbers have soared, with 10,000 children abducted in the past 18 months alone.

Despite the gravity of the humanitarian situation, less than 10% of the $130 million requested by the humanitarian community for 2004 has been received. In some areas, malnutrition rates as high as 30% have been recorded among children. Fear of rebel attacks badly hit the planting season for 2004, threatening to aggravate the already severe food shortages in the coming months. Health facilities barely function as stocks run out and health workers flee to escape LRA attacks.

Even as a peace process makes significant progress in neighbouring Sudan, the peace in Uganda is made tenuous by these developments. The “success story” that Uganda represents in the minds of the world’s economic policy makers presents a jarring contrast with the tragedy of conflict in the north and east that shows no signs of abating.

For further information:
Mr. Christian Boatswain, Political Affairs Officer, UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) Tel: (1 212) 963-0219; E-mail: mailto:boatswain@un.org
Ms. Stephanie Bunker, Spokesperson (New York), UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Tel: (1 917) 367-5126; E-mail: bunker@un.org ;
Mr Agostinho Zacarias, Chief, Coordination, Advocacy and Programme Development Unit UN Office of the Special Adviser on Africa Tel: (1 212) 963-8435; E-mail: zaccarias@un.org ;
Mr. Henrik Haggstrom, Acting Chief, Outreach Unit Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Tel: (1 212) 963-0879, E-mail: mailto:haggstrom@un.org

Africa: Where Faith Thrives

New York Times OP-ED COLUMNIST
Where Faith Thrives
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

DETE CROSSING, Zimbabwe — So with Easter approaching, here I am in the heart of Christendom.

That's right - Africa. One of the most important trends reshaping the world is the decline of Christianity in Europe and its rise in Africa and other parts of the developing world, including Asia and Latin America.

I stopped at a village last Sunday morning here in Zimbabwe - and found not a single person to interview, for everyone had hiked off to church a dozen miles away. And then I dropped by a grocery store with a grim selection of the cheapest daily necessities - and huge multicolored chocolate Easter eggs.

On Easter, more Anglicans will attend church in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda - each - than Anglicans and Episcopalians together will attend services in Britain, Canada and the U.S. combined.

More Roman Catholics will celebrate Easter Mass in the Philippines than in any European country. The largest church in the world is in South Korea. And more Christians will probably attend Easter services in China than in all of Europe together.

In short, for the first time since it began two millenniums ago, Christianity is no longer "Western" in any very meaningful sense.

"If on a Sunday you want to attend a lively, jammed full, fervent and life-changing service of Christian worship, you want to be in Nairobi, not in Stockholm," notes Mark Noll, a professor at Wheaton College. He adds, "But if you want to walk home safely late at night, you want to be in Stockholm, not Nairobi."

This shift could be just beginning. David Lyle Jeffrey of Baylor University sees some parallels between China today and the early Roman empire. He wonders aloud whether a Chinese Constantine will come along and convert to Christianity.

Chairman Mao largely destroyed traditional Chinese religions, yet Communism has died as a replacement faith and left a vacuum. "Among those disappointed true-believer Marxists, it may well be that Marxism has served as a kind of John the Baptist to the rapid emergence of Christianity among Chinese intellectuals," Professor Jeffrey said. Indeed, it seems possible to me that in a few decades, China could be a largely Christian nation.

Whether in China or Africa, the commitment of new converts is extraordinary. While I was interviewing villagers along the Zambezi River last Sunday, I met a young man who was setting out for his Pentecostal church at 8:30 a.m. "The service begins at 2 p.m.," he explained - but the journey is a five-hour hike each way.

So where faith is easy, it is fading; where it's a challenge, it thrives.

"When people are in difficulties, they want to cling to something," said the Rev. Johnson Makoti, a Pentecostal minister in Zimbabwe who drives a car plastered with Jesus bumper stickers. "The only solution people here can believe in is Jesus Christ."

People in this New Christendom are so zealous about their faith that I worry about the risk of new religious wars. In Africa, Christianity and Islam are competing furiously for converts, and in Nigeria, Ivory Coast and especially Sudan, the competition has sometimes led to violent clashes.

"Islam is a threat that is coming," the Rev. William Dennis McDonald, a Pentecostal minister in Zambia, warned me. He is organizing "operation checkmate" to boost Christianity and contain Islam in eastern Zambia.

The denominations gaining ground tend to be evangelical and especially Pentecostal; it's the churches with the strictest demands, like giving up drinking, that are flourishing.

All this is changing the character of global Christianity, making it more socially conservative. For example, African churches are often more hostile to gays than mainline American churches. The rise of the Christian right in the U.S. is finding some echoes in other parts of the world.

Yet conservative Christians in the U.S. should take heed. Christianity is thriving where it faces obstacles, like repression in China or suspicion of evangelicals in parts of Latin America and Africa. In those countries where religion enjoys privileges - Britain, Italy, Ireland, Spain or Iran - that establishment support seems to have stifled faith.

That's worth remembering in the debates about school prayers or public displays of the Ten Commandments: faith doesn't need any special leg up. Look at where religion is most vibrant today, talk to those who walk five hours to services, and the obvious conclusion is that what nurtures faith is not special privileges but rather adversity.


Update: Ken Masugi, writing on the Claremont Institute's Local Liberty blog sets the proper context on Kristof's well-meaning but oh-so-pc bit of liberal spin on spirituality (best read here at the Local Liberty site, with italics and hyperlinks intact):

The Future of Christianity and the Future of the World
Despite some silly statements--e.g., “The rise of the Christian right in the U.S. is finding some echoes in other parts of the world”—Nicholas Kristoff’s NY Times column presents an informative survey of the world-wide condition of Christianity: down in the West, flourishing everywhere else.

DETE CROSSING, Zimbabwe — So with Easter approaching, here I am in the heart of Christendom.

That's right - Africa. One of the most important trends reshaping the world is the decline of Christianity in Europe and its rise in Africa and other parts of the developing world, including Asia and Latin America….

On Easter, more Anglicans will attend church in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda - each - than Anglicans and Episcopalians together will attend services in Britain, Canada and the U.S. combined.

More Roman Catholics will celebrate Easter Mass in the Philippines than in any European country. The largest church in the world is in South Korea. And more Christians will probably attend Easter services in China than in all of Europe together.

Might China have its Constantine, muses David Lyle Jeffrey of Baylor University.

"Among those disappointed true-believer Marxists, it may well be that Marxism has served as a kind of John the Baptist to the rapid emergence of Christianity among Chinese intellectuals," Professor Jeffrey said. Indeed, it seems possible to me that in a few decades, China could be a largely Christian nation.

Would such a Christian church truly be independent or a tool of the party elite, as the Russian Orthodox Church was? Might the great world schism consist in a Chinese Church of the AntiChrist, headed by an Emperor-Deity, a new Caesar, against the world?

Kristoff’s exasperating conclusion: “the obvious conclusion is that what nurtures faith is not special privileges but rather adversity.” Like other liberals, he clearly does not understand America’s unique religious freedom, based on the natural rights political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence. (Besides Harry Jaffa's essay, read Philip Munoz's reflections.) Note Kristoff's own exclusion of American Christianity from his comparisons above, other than the mention of the Anglicans, who committed a kind of ritual suicide over homosexuality, among other issues. He might have asked what accounts for American churches seeking affiliation with African ones. Consider the case of the former Epsicopal parish of Newport Beach, CA affiliating with the Ugandan Anglican Church. See this transcript of an interview with church representatives on the Jim Lehrer Newshour. This reflects the vibrancy within non-mainstream American churches.

In other words, Kristoff's conclusion that "what nurtures faith is not special privileges but rather adversity" points rather to the opposite of what he intends: The "special privileges" of the establishment churches, which have yielded to the moral and political correctness of the times, have shrunk, while churches embracing traditional Christian teachings are flourishing. It is not coincidental that they overlap with politically conservative notions:

JEFFREY KAYE: St. James Church in affluent, predominantly Republican Newport Beach, California, is a place one wouldn't normally associate with rebellion and radical change…. But St. James is a house of worship in revolt. In August, it severed its ties with the Episcopal Church of the United States. With its 2.3 million members, the Episcopal Church is the American branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion. For 58 years, St. James was a part of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. Now, say its lay leaders, their bishop is 11 time zones away.

Further Update:

Here is a reflection on Ugandan worship by Tim Wakeling - focusing on the differences in spiritual energy between Uganda and the United Kingdom:

"Church is different in Uganda. But not that different. We do after all worship the same God, though Ugandans are more down-to-earth about it. And where the UK is nominally Christian only, Uganda is evidently Christian. In a big way. Most churches have two services: in English at 8am and Rukiga at 10am - the latter is much fuller. In both, Anglican tradition is evident but watch your step when reading well known phrases from the prayer book - the odd word and phrase is subtly changed for no apparent reason! Preaching is direct, simple and practical: "we must pray for protection from AIDS, from overpopulation (and the resulting shrinkage of inherited farmland from generation to generation)..."

Church denominations are less friendly than in the UK. We were advised to stick with Anglican churches since we were with the Diocese project... this doesn't however stop unashamed Christianity (which is big in Uganda) invading every area of life. "Jesus Is Lord" and other proclamations shout from vehicles, shops, signs. Even shop names - "Faith Photo Studio", "Trust In God Enterprises Inc", are designed to share Jesus! Musically, 80s choruses are in, Thees and
Thys are out, tempo is high and you always clap to songs. And we sung "O Lord My God When I In Awesome Wonder" at a tempo the UK can only dream of, to the beat of African drums and the drone of an electronic organ! Surreal."

New York Times Editorial: A Malaria Success

In 1998, the Australia-based mining company BHP Billiton began building a huge aluminum smelter outside Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. The company knew that malaria plagued the region. It gave all its workers mosquito nets and free medicine, and sprayed the construction site and workers' houses with insecticide. Nevertheless, during the first two years of construction there were 6,000 cases of malaria, and at least 13 contractors died.

To deal with the problem, the company did something extraordinary. It joined an effort by South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland to eradicate malaria in a swath of the three countries measuring more than 40,000 square miles. The project is called the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative, after the mountains that define the region. In the three years since house-to-house insecticide spraying, surveillance and state-of-the-art treatment began, malaria incidence dropped in one South African province by 96 percent. In the area around the aluminum smelter, 76 percent fewer children now carry the malaria parasite. The Lubombo initiative is probably the best antimalaria program in the world, an example for other countries that rolling back malaria is possible and cost-effective.

In its first years, financing came from BHP Billiton and the Business Trust, a development organization in South Africa financed by more than 100 companies there. They decided to fight malaria not only to save children and improve health, but also to encourage tourism and foreign investment. Governments should make the same calculation, and should follow the Lubombo example. Malaria kills some two million people a year, nearly all of them children under 5. A commission of the World Health Organization found that malaria shrinks the economy by 20 percent over 15 years in countries where it is most endemic.

The Lubombo initiative hires and trains local workers, who spray houses with insecticide once or twice a year, covering their communities on foot. People who get malaria are cured with a new combination of drugs that costs about $1.40 per cure for adults, abandoning the commonly used medicines that cost only pennies but have lost their effectiveness. While it is still the largest antimalaria project started by business in Africa, there are other successful ones, run by Marathon Oil, Exxon Mobil and the Konkola copper mines in Zambia. Fifty years ago, Africa did use house spraying widely, with good results, but such projects vanished as the money dried up. Today money is available again, from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Lubombo initiative's managers are beginning to get calls from other parts of Africa. Malaria, unlike many other diseases, is entirely preventable and curable. The challenge for health officials is to fight malaria in very poor countries on a large scale, and now they have the Lubombo initiative to show them how.

Uganda Opposition In Public Protest

(BBC) More than 1,000 opposition supporters have staged a rare demonstration in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

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.

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Microsoft to expand operations in Uganda

By Dorothy Nakaweesi
The Monitor
Mar 12, 2005

KAMPALA - Microsoft - a global software developer - has expressed willingness to expand home, corporate and education markets in Uganda.

This is part of its mission to expand operational and business developments activities in the East African region.

“We have a strong and comprehensive operation that focuses purely on Africa,” Mr Kris Kego, a senior Microsoft East Africa executive, said.

He said of the countries Microsoft has visited in Africa, Uganda did represent a key developing market to which they believe they can add value. “Our operations here include a network of in-country nine Microsoft certified partners that are trained in Uganda,” he said on Thursday during a media presentation function held at Faze 2 in Kampala.

Kego also noted the importance of protecting Intellectual Property (IP) rights, which spurs growth and job creation that benefits consumers, industry and the economy at large.

He said protecting IP rights is vital and would save about $6 billion spend on research and development each year around the world thus a call for education of the business users.

The company also revealed its Local Language project of translating Microsoft programmes into local languages to reach masses who may not have knowledge of the English language.

So far, they are working on the Kiswahili version to be launched soon.
They also intend to partner with the government to make ICT part of school curricula. They signed an Partners in Learning memorandum of understanding with the government in December 2004.


LIKE THIS: The Microsoft East Africa’s Marketing Manager, Ms Tonia Mutiso (R), demonstrates how their product operates at a media presentation for journalists at Faze 2 in Kampala. Looking on is the Localisation Manager, Mr Patrick Opiyo
(Photo by Wandera w’Ouma).

© 2005 The Monitor Publications

Irish Wolfhounds and the British Bulldog

Perhaps now the world will finally taking notice: they mean what they say about Africa. Download the Commission for Africa report- released today - here.

Bono, Bob Geldof and Tony Blair - through various means and with major differences in style - are harmoniously setting forth the case for two big changes: real progress on advancing people's lives in Africa, and an end to the era of the strongman.

No doubt recent events, which are triggering democracy "breaking out" all over in the Muslim World, has made imagination of these possibilities more poignant in the last few weeks. And who do they have to thank for "amping up" the cause of freedom - the man who is putting backbone into that steely ambition for a free and just society in every nation? Oh, let's see, 'lemme think here, oh yeah...

George W. Bush!

Geldof in four-letter tirade against West over African poverty

By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
The Independent Online Edition
12 March 2005
The air in the Great Court of the British Museum turned blue yesterday when Bob Geldof launched into a four-letter tirade as he challenged rich countries to dig deeper into their pockets to relieve poverty in Africa. Geldof, a member of the Prime Minister's Commission for Africa, said Tony Blair should tell President George Bush that proposals outlined in the commission's report would cost the United States "fuck all" to free the African continent of the shackles of war, poverty and disease.
Mr Blair and the rock star were on a panel presenting the 460-page report to an audience of diplomats and aid workers. Geldof made an impassioned case for the commission's package to be implemented, arguing that for the rich members of the Group of Eight, the cost per day of doubling aid to assist African recovery was equivalent to "half a stick of chewing gum".
The commission's main recommendations, expected to be the centrepiece of the Gleneagles summit in July, challenge rich countries to double aid to Africa, end trade barriers and stamp out corruption. It urges the international community to immediately double foreign aid to Africa to $50bn (£25bn).
But Mr Blair faced questions about whether he would continue to press the Americans to stump up the necessary finance, after the US rejected a core UK-backed proposal on funding in the report. Referring to Geldof's four-letter outburst, Mr Blair said: "Because I'm a politician in a suit, I wince at the occasional word but actually what he said is really what I think."
Commission sources shrugged off Geldof's language, saying: "He didn't swear any more than he usually does." Earlier, on Radio Four's Today, Geldof said he would "keep on crapping on" about helping relieve African poverty.
Mr Blair, who is calling for a "new partnership" between donor countries and Africa, sees the report as part of a process that will culminate in the Doha Round of global trade talks in Hong Kong this December. But he made it clear he was committed to pursuing the commission's agenda, with or without full G8 backing.
"There can be no excuse, no defence, no justification for the plight of millions of our fellow beings in Africa today," he said. "There should be nothing that stands in our way of changing it. That is the simple message from the report."
Aid agencies have welcomed the report, which has been described as ambitious without being radical because many of its recommendations would hold donor countries and African states to respect existing mechanisms to help the continent break out of poverty.
Richard Dowden, director of the Royal African Society, said that report, for the first time "integrated in a single analysis what Africa has to do, what the rest of the world must do to support Africa and what the rest of the world must stop doing to stop damaging Africa".
But like many others, Mr Dowden was sceptical about the implementation of the recommendations, which have time-frames. British officials say because the commission includes leaders in power, including a majority from Africa, that is an incentive for success.

Britain's Geldof: "Get a grip Museveni. Your time is up, go away"

(New Vision) In an impassioned speech at the launch of Tony Blair’s Commission for Africa report in London yesterday, rock star and developing world campaigner Bob Geldof (above) said President Yoweri Museveni should not stand for a third term. The Commission for Africa was established in February 2004 to examine how best the world can help tackle Africa’s problems. Taking the podium at the British Museum after British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Geldof applauded Museveni’s achievements but advised him against staying on at State House.

“The President of Uganda, who implemented poverty measures and AIDS measures that all worked with debt relief, is now trying to be president for life. Get a grip Museveni. Your time is up, go away,” he told the gathered international media and dignitaries.

“Africa is stagnating in poverty while the rest of the world streaks away from it. Why? Is it the stupidity and brutality of the thugs that still operate governments throughout Africa?” Geldof asked.

He praised President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi. “Here is the President of Malawi. He’s a guy there who tried to clean up the government. Suddenly his party left him. Hullo!” he said.

After criticising Museveni, Geldof said: “Mugabe, that aging creep. Get out! Let Africa breathe. It is stirring.”

“It (Africa) has been a giant asleep in an enforced slumber, but it is stirring. There are free and fairish elections. There are 16 countries with enviable economic growth, from a low basis but getting there,” he concluded. Geldof said the difference between this and previous reports on how to end poverty in Africa was the level of political commitment from those in power in the world’s richest countries. But he said the key to development was ending misrule in Africa.
Geldof also spoke of the time he spent filming in northern Uganda and Blair’s reaction to the footage he saw.

“When the Prime Minister asked me ‘what is that?’ I explained it was (the sight of) 40,000 kids in northern Uganda being sent by their mums and dads from the villages that surround the town of Kitgum every night for 10 years to escape the thugs that will raid their village and take their children to be sex slaves and child soldiers,” he said.

“In our world,” he continued, “last night and tonight, 40,000 children will be walking up five dust roads to sleep on the rocks and rubble of a deserted town like Kitgum.” With anger rising in his voice, Geldof declared, “how dare we let that happen?”

A personality that brushes aside bureaucracy and officialdom, Geldof proclaimed: “I don’t care what it costs. I do not want 40,000 children walking up a road every night to escape being killed.”

Highlighting the injustice between the industrialised and developing world, Geldof continued by saying: “Let me tell you what the cost is, let me tell you how pathetic this is. Let me tell you about all the NGO arguments for Gleneagles (the venue for the G8 meeting later this year).”

“Do you know how much it costs? One half a stick of chewing gum for each citizen of the G7 countries a day; no jobs lost, no taxes raised, no farms closed, no factories closed,” he said. “What are we doing?”

Geldof asked in respect to the rest of the world neglecting the only continent to have grown poorer over the last two decades. The Commission for Africa proposed that wealthy countries increase their aid to Africa, raising it to U$50 billion over the next 10 years. It also highlighted the need for African governments to root out corruption that exists in many quarters.

Blair said Africa was the fundamental challenge for the present generation.
“Africa can change for the better and the report shows how. There can be no excuse, no defence, no justification for the plight of millions of our fellow human beings in Africa today,” he said.

The report’s overall findings and recommendations are to cancel debt, spend more on health, especially on HIV/Aids, provide free primary school education and the creation of fairer international trade rules. It also says the West should fund African peacekeeping activities, return the money stolen by past and present corrupt politicians and officials and end the sale of arms to conflict zones and warlords.

World Bank on Africa: “up to 35 percent of the money the bank spends for aid projects is lost through corruption”

From all the way back in 1999 come this compelling report, in the form of transcript, of a conversation/interview with World Bank officials about understanding the nature of corruption – and how it severely limits the effectiveness of World Bank initiatives around the world.

Particularly so with regard to Uganda – and its failures in dealing with these issues – in particular contrast to neighboring Tanzania, which has engaged on anti-corruption policies from the highest levels of government on down.

The situation in 1988:

“The basic principle we are applying to what I call a learning process is that basically we don't know how to do this work. We don't know how to fight corruption. None of us. We started to realize that up to 35 percent of the money the bank spends for aid projects is lost through corruption. We know in some countries we are part of the problem, not part of the solution, which is very tricky for international civil servants. They are working very hard and they are still part of the problem.”

How to work effectively against corruption in developing countries:

“Principle number one is we only do this work when invited in. We can't come in and do this on our own. We have to be invited in and we said we want to be invited in not only by the president and the government, we want to be invited in by groups in the civil society outside the government. Principle number two is we work with a broad-based segment of society. Principle number three is we do a survey of the social problems before we start work.”

The situation in Uganda:

“At a place called the Kampala Club where all the elite drinks beer, the word there was the parliament is out of control. This is what this is all about. If you ever fight corruption in these countries, you have to increase the uncertainty for the people who are crooked. Uncertainty was certainly up, but if it was up enough we don't know.”

Was Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni unaware of the situation? He is at the center of it, according to the World Bank:

“At present, Museveni has to pull the plug on his brother who was making probably ten million dollars on army procurement. He was also buying a bank from foreigners and he bought a company and sold it within 48 hours. The president's brother was really doing a lot of things that the president probably knew about.”

What is the impact on regular people, like at the village level?

“We did a survey in Uganda last August. It was the biggest corruption survey ever. We queried 100,000 people, around 2,000 service providers and then we had 350 focus groups. If you read those focus groups about the pain at the village level. The kids are dying because they can't pay the bribes to the nurse. They lose the case because the judge is bought off. They have been beaten up by the police. There is a lot of pain among 75 or 80 percent of the people, maybe 90 percent in Africa.”

Is the World Bank able to do this on its own? Not at all, and they make that clear:

“What we're trying to do is redistribute the pain a little bit, get some pain in the small group of people who are milking the system and try to relieve a little of the pain among the people who having very, very hard times. This is where we get the participatory process. In Uganda, we have done four National Integrity workshops. We realize that the national level is a lot of talk.”

What does taking action against corruption look like in practice?

“An important area that we end up working in is public education. The second thing is prevention. The third one is institution building. What we are doing there is very different. In the past we dealt only with the government, but now we also work on building parliaments, judiciaries, private sector civil society and the media. The last thing, which is the stickiest, is the enforcement. This is not our job, although we are getting into the police. We are realizing that if you only do public education without law enforcement, you get cynicism. We have to sit down with leaders and say to them, "Okay, if you want to play ball with public education, we have to do something on this other side. Otherwise, this will create problems for you."

The conditions described here from 1999 were virtually unchanged during my visit to Uganda one year ago. It has taken six years for the Ugandan government to advance to the place where all government officials must declare their wealth and holdings – in order to stand up to audit from independent probes. The limitation on this is that it is only a snapshot from one point in time – it is neither retrospective nor an ongoing requirement in the future. And does not seem to encompass the “spreading out” of wealth among cronies and relatives beyond the reach of this regulation.

The U.S. State Department has indicated that Uganda is moving backwards on human rights, anti-corruption efforts, and development of democracy.

Corruption is as virulent and malevolent a force as Saddam’s sadism.

If the trans-Atlantic alliance has been recently repaired – and Europe is talking again with the Bush Administration – what better focus of renewal could there be than accomplishing tangible results against the pervasive influence of corruption. There can be no better place to start than focusing on Yoweri Museveni.