Peter Okema Otika
"Unfortunately, the United States and Britain have been the major donors and supporters of Yoweri Museveni since he came to power in 1986. The two countries have bankrolled Museveni’s annual budgets and armed him to the teeth. Museveni has used these weapons to terrorize the Acholi population and scare away political opposition to his government.

It is time that the leaders of the United States and Britain rethink their support for Museveni, a leader who has failed to provide for the needs and safety of the citizens of his country. It is time they stopped financing his economic and military budgets, and call for him to be made accountable to his people. Museveni has failed to bring peace not only in Acholiland but also around the Great Lakes of Africa. American and British arms and funds have allowed Museveni to spread war and terror in Uganda, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo."

Wayne Madsen is an Investigative Journalist On: 'Suffering and Despair: Humanitarian Crisis in the Congo'. Below is prepared testimony and statement presented before the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights and Committee on International Relations (United States House of Representatives, Washington, DC on May 17, 2001.

My name is Wayne Madsen. I am the author of Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa 1993-1999, a work that involved some three years worth of research and countless interviews in Rwanda, Uganda, France, the United Kingdom, United States, Belgium, Canada, and the Netherlands. I am an investigative journalist who specializes on intelligence and privacy issues.

I am grateful to appear before the Committee today (May 17, 2001). I am also appreciative of the Committee's interest in holding this hearing on the present situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. I wish to discuss the record of American policy in the DRC over most of the past decade, particularly involving the eastern Congo region.

It is a policy that has rested, in my opinion, on the twin pillars of military aid and questionable trade. The military aid programs of the United States, largely planned and administered by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), have been both overt and covert.

Prior to the first Rwandan invasion of Zaire/DRC in 1996, a phalanx of U.S. intelligence operatives converged on Zaire. Their actions suggested a strong interest in Zaire's eastern defenses. The number-two person at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali travelled from Kigali to eastern Zaire to initiate intelligence contacts with the Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire (AFDL-CZ) rebels under the command of the late President Laurent Kabila. The Rwandan embassy official met with rebel leaders at least twelve times.

A former U.S. ambassador to Uganda - acting on behalf of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) -- gathered intelligence on the movement of Hutu refugees through eastern Zaire. The DIA's second ranking Africa hand, who also served as the U.S. military attaché in Kigali, reconnoitred the Rwandan border towns of Cyangugu and Gisenyi, gathering intelligence on the cross border movements of anti-Mobutu Rwandan Tutsis from Rwanda.

The Defense Intelligence Agency's African bureau chief established a close personal relationship with Bizima (alias Bizimana) Karaha, an ethnic Rwandan who would later become the Foreign Minister in the Laurent Kabila government. Moreover, the DIA's Africa division had close ties with Military Professional Resources, Inc. (MPRI), an Alexandria, Virginia private military company (PMC), whose Vice President for Operations is a former Director of DIA.

The political officer of the U.S. Embassy in Kinshasa, accompanied by a CIA operative, traveled with AFDL-CZ rebels through the eastern Zaire jungles for weeks after the 1996 Rwandan invasion of Zaire. In addition, it was reported that the Kinshasa embassy official and three U.S. intelligence agents regularly briefed Bill Richardson, Clinton's special African envoy, during the rebels' steady advance towards Kinshasa.

The U.S. embassy official conceded that he was in Goma to do more than meet rebel leaders for lunch. Explaining his presence, he said "What I am here to do is to acknowledge them [the rebels] as a very significant military and political power on the scene, and, of course, to represent American interests."

In addition, MPRI was reportedly providing covert training assistance to Kagame's troops in preparation for combat in Zaire.

Some believe that MPRI had actually been involved in training the RPF from the time it took power in Rwanda.

The Ba-N'Daw Report
The covert programs involving the use of private military training firms and logistics support contractors that are immune to Freedom of Information Act requests is particularly troubling for researchers and journalists who have tried, over the past several years, to get at the root causes for the deaths and mayhem in the DRC and other countries in the region. These U.S. contractor support programs have reportedly involved covert assistance to the Rwandan and Ugandan militaries - the major backers of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la démocratie (RCD factions and - as reported by the UN's "Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources an Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC" -- are responsible for the systematic pillaging of Congo's most valuable natural resources.

The UN panel - chaired by Safiatou Ba-N'Daw of Cote d'Ivoire -- concluded tha "Top military commanders from various countries needed and continue to need this conflict for its lucrative nature and for temporarily solving some internal problems in those countries as well as allowing access to wealth."

There is more than ample evidence that the elements of the U.S. military and intelli- gence community may have - on varying occasions - aided and abetted this systematic pillaging by the Ugandan and Rwandan militaries. The UN Report named the United States, Germany, Belgium, and Kazakhstan as leading buyers of the illegally exploited resources from the DRC.

Sources in the Great Lakes region consistently report the presence of a U.S.-built military base near Cyangugu, Rwanda, near the Congolese border. The base, reported to have been partly constructed by the U.S. firm Brown & Root, a subsidiary o Halli- burton, is said to be involved with training RPF forces and providing logistics support to their troops in the DRC. Additionally, the presence in the region of black U.S. soldiers supporting the RPF and Ugandans has been something consistently reported since the first invasion of Zaire-Congo in 1996.

On January 21, 1997, France claimed it actually recovered the remains of two American combatants killed near the Oso River in Kivu province during combat and returned them to American officials. The U.S. denied these claims.

Covert american support for the combatants
As U.S. troops and intelligence agents were pouring into Africa to help the RPF and AFDL-CZ forces in their 1996 campaign against Mobutu, Vincent Kern, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs, told the House International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee on December 4, 1996 that U.S. military training for the RPF was being conducted under a program called Enhanced Inter- national Military Education and Training (E-IMET). Kathi Austin, a Human Rights Watch specialist on arms transfers in Africa, told the Subcommittee on May 5, 1998 that one senior U.S. embassy official in Kigali described the U.S. Special Forces training program for the RPF as "killers . . . training killers."

In November 1996, U.S. spy satellites and a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion were attemp- ting to ascertain how many Rwandan Hutu refugees were in eastern Zaire. The P-3 was one of four stationed at old Entebbe Airport on the shores of Lake Victoria. Oddly, while other planes flying over eastern Zaire attracted anti-aircraft fire from Kabila's forces, the P-3s, which patrolled the skies above Goma and Sake, were left alone.

Relying on the overhead intelligence, U.S. military and aid officials confidently announced that 600,000 Hutu refugees returned home to Rwand from Zaire. But that left an estimated 300,000 unaccounted for. Many Hutus seemed to be disappearing from camps around Bukavu.

By December 1996, U.S. military forces were also operating in Bukavu amid throngs of Hutus, less numerous Twa refugees, Mai Mai guerrillas, advancing Rwandan troops, and AFDL-CZ rebels. A French military intelligence officer said he detected some 100 armed U.S. troops in the eastern Zaire conflict zone.

Moreover, the DGSE reported the Americans had knowledge of the extermination of Hutu refugees by Tutsis in both Rwanda and eastern Zaire and were doing nothing about it. More ominously, there was reason to believe that some U.S. forces, either Special Forces or mercenaries, may have actually participated in the extermination of Hutu refugees. The killings reportedly took place at a camp on the banks of the Oso River near Goma.

Roman Catholic reports claim that the executed included a number of Hutu Catholic priests. At least for those who were executed, death was far quicker than it was for those who escaped deep into the jungle. There, many died from tropical diseases or were attacked and eaten by wild animals.

Jacques Isnard, the Paris based defense correspondent for Le Monde supported the contention of U.S. military knowledge of the Oso River massacre but went further. He quoted French intelligence sources that believed that between thirty and sixty American mercenary "advisers" participated with the RPF in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Hutu refugees around Goma. Although his number of dead Hutu was more conservative than the French estimates, the U.N.'s Chilean investigator, Roberto Garreton, reported the Kagame and Museveni forces had committed "crimes against humanity" in killing thousands [emphasis added] of Hutu refugees.

It was known that the planes the U.S. military deployed in eastern Zaire included heavily armed and armored helicopter gunships typically use by the Special Forces. These were fitted with 105 mm cannons, rockets, machine guns, land mine ejectors, and, more importantly, infra red sensors used in night operations. U.S. military comma- nders unabashedly stated the purpose of these gunships was to locat refugees to determine the best means of providing them with humanitarian assistance.

According to the French magazine Valeurs Actuelles, a French DC-8 Sarigue electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft circled over eastern Zaire at the time of the Oso River massacre. The Sarigue's mission was to intercept and fix the radio transmission of Rwandan military units engaged in the military operations. This aircraft, in addition to French special ground units, witnessed U.S. military ethnic cleansing in Zaire's Kivu Province.

In September 1997, the prestigious Jane's Foreign Report reported that German intelligence sources were aware that the DIA trained young men and teens from Rwanda, Uganda, and eastern Zaire for periods of up to two years and longer for the RPF/AFDL-CZ campaign against Mobutu. The recruits were offered pay of between $450 and $1000 upon their successful capture of Kinshasa. [17] Toward the end of 1996, U.S. spy satellites were attempting to ascertain how many refugees escaped into the jungle by locating fires at night and canvas tarpaulins during the day. Strangely, every time an encampment was discovered by the space - based imagery, Rwandan and Zaire rebel forces attacked the sites. This was the case in late February 1997, when 160,000, mainly Hutu refugees, were spotted and then attacked in a swampy area known as Tingi Tingi.

There was never an adequate accounting by the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies of the scope of intelligence provided to the RPF/AFDL-CZ.

An ominous report on the fate of refugees was made by Nicholas Stockton, the Emergencies Director of Oxfam U.K. & Ireland. He said that on November 20, 1996, he was shown U.S. aerial intelligence photographs which "confirmed, in considerable detail, the existence of 500,000 people distributed in three major and numerous minor agglomerations." He said that three days later the U.S. military claimed it could only locate one significant mass of people, which they claimed were identified as former members of the Rwandan armed forces and the Interhamwe militia. Since they were the number one targets for the RPF forces, their identification and location by the Americans was undoubtedly passed to the Rwandan forces. They would have surely been executed. [19] Moreover, some U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in central Africa said that any deaths among the Hutu refugees merely constituted "collateral damage."

When the AFDL-CZ and their Rwandan allies reached Kinshasa in 1996, it was largely due to the help of the United States. One reason why Kabila's men advanced into the city so quickly was the technical assistance provided by the DIA and other intelligence agencies. According to informed sources in Paris, U.S. Special Forces actually accompanied ADFL-CZ forces into Kinshasa. The Americans also reportedly provided Kabila's rebels and Rwandan troops with high definition spy satellite photographs that permitted them to order their troops to plot courses into Kinshasa that avoided encounters with Mobutu's forces.

During the rebel advance toward Kinshasa, Bechtel provided Kabila, at no cost, high technology intelligence, including National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite data.

American military support for the second invasion of Congo
By 1998, the Kabila regime had become an irritant to the United States, North American mining interests, and Kabila's Ugandan and Rwandan patrons. As a result, Rwanda and Uganda launched a second invasion of the DRC to get rid of Kabila and replace him with someone more servile. The Pentagon was forced to admit on August 6, 1998 that a twenty man U.S. Army Rwanda Interagency Assessment Team (RIAT) was in the Rwanda at the time of the second RPF invasion of Congo. The camouflaged unit was deployed from the U.S. European Command in Germany.

It was later revealed that the team in question was a JCET unit that was sent to Rwanda to help the Rwandans "defeat ex FAR (Rwandan Armed Forces) and Inter- hamwe" units. U.S. Special Forces JCET team began training Rwandan units on July 15, 1998. It was the second such training exercise held that year. The RIAT team was sent to Rwanda in the weeks just leading up to the outbreak of hostilities in Congo.

The RIAT, specializing in counter insurgency operations, traveled to Gisenyi on the Congolese border just prior to the Rwandan invasion.

One of the assessments of the team recommended that the United States establish a new and broader military relationship with Rwanda. National Security Council spokesman P. J. Crowley, said of the RIAT's presence in Rwanda: "I think it's a coincidence that they were there at the same time the fighting began."

Soon, however, as other African nations came to the assistance of Laurent Kabila, the United States found itself in the position of providing military aid under both the E-IMET and the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) programs. U.S. Special Operations personnel were involved in training troops on both sides of the war in the DRC - Rwandans, Ugandans, and Burundians (supporting the RCD factions) and Zimbabweans and Namibians (supporting the central government in Kinshasa).

As with the first invasion, there were also a number of reports that the RPF and their RCD allies carried out a number of massacres throughout the DRC. The Vatican reported a sizable killing of civilians in August 1998 in Kasika, a small village in South Kivu that hosted a Catholic mission station. Over eight hundred people, including priests and nuns, were killed by Rwandan troops. The RCD response was to charge the Vatican with aiding Kabila. The Rwandans, choosing to put into practice what the DIA's PSYOPS personnel had taught them about mounting perception management campaigns, shepherded the foreign press to carefully selected killing fields. The dead civilians were identified as exiled Burundian Hutu militiamen. Unfortunately, many in the international community, still suffering a type of collective guilt over the genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda, gave the Rwandan assertions more credence than was warranted.

The increasing reliance by the Department of Defense on so-called Private Military Contractors (PMCs) is of special concern. Many of these PMCs -- once labeled as "mercenaries" by previous administrations when they were used as foreign policy instruments by the colonial powers of France, Belgium, Portugal, and South Africa -- have close links with some of the largest mining and oil companies involved in Africa today. PMCs, because of their proprietary status, have a great deal of leeway to engage in covert activities far from the reach of congressional investigators. They can simply claim that their business in various nations is a protected trade secret and the law now seems to be on their side.

Profiting from the destabilization of Central Africa
America's policy toward Africa during the past decade, rather than seeking to stabilize situations where civil war and ethnic turmoil reign supreme, has seemingly promoted destabilization. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was fond of calling pro-U.S. military leaders in Africa who assumed power by force and then cloaked themselves in civilian attire, "beacons of hope."

In reality, these leaders, who include the current presidents of Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Angola, Eritrea, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo preside over countries where ethnic and civil turmoil permit unscrupulous international mining companies to take advantage of the strife to fill their own coffers with conflict diamonds, gold, copper, platinum, and other precious minerals - including one - columbite -tantalite or "coltan" -- which is a primary component of computer microchips and printed circuit boards.

Some of the companies involved in this new "scramble for Africa" have close links with PMCs and America's top political leadership. For example, America Minerals Fields, Inc., a company that was heavily involved in promoting the1996 accession to power of Kabila, was, at the time of its involvement in the Congo's civil war, headquartered in Hope, Arkansas. Its major stockholders include long time associates of former President Clinton going back to his days as Governor of Arkansas. America Mineral Fields also reportedly enjoys a close relationship with Lazare Kaplan International, Inc., a major international diamond brokerage whose president remains a close confidant of past and current administrations on Africa matters.

The United States has a long history of supporting all sides in the DRC's civil wars in order to gain access to the country's natural resources. The Ba-N'Daw Report presents a cogent example of how one U.S. firm was involved in the DRC's grand thievery before the 1998 break between Laurent Kabila and his Rwandan and Ugandan backers. It links the Banque de commerce, du developpement et d'industrie (BCDI) of Kigali, Citibank in New York, the diamond business and armed rebellion. The report states: "In a letter signed by J.P. Moritz, general manager of Societe miniere de Bakwanga (MIBA), a Congolese diamond company, and Ngandu Kamenda, the general manager of MIBA ordered a payment of US$3.5 million to la Generale de commerce d'import/export du Congo (COMIEX), a company owned by late President Kabila and some of his close allies, such as Minister Victor Mpoyo, from an account in BCDI through a Citibank account. This amount of money was paid as a contribution from MIBA to the AFDL war effort."

Also troubling are the ties that some mining companies in Africa have with military privateers. UN Special Rapporteur Enrique Ballesteros of Peru concluded in a his March 2001 report for the UN Commission on Human Rights, that mercenaries were inexorably linked to the illegal diamond and arms trade in Africa. He stated "Mercenaries participate in both types of traffic, acting as pilots of aircraft and helicopters, training makeshift troops in the use of weapons and transferring freight from place to place. Ballesteros added, "Military security companies and air cargo companies registered in Nevada (the United States), in the Channel Islands and especially in South Africa , are engaged in the transport of troops, arms, munitions, and diamonds."

In 1998, America Minerals Fields purchased diamond concessions in the Cuango Valley along the Angolan-Congolese border from International Defense and Security (IDAS Belgium SA), a mercenary firm based in Curacao and headquartered in Belgium. According to an American Mineral Fields press release, "In May 1996, America Mineral Fields entered into an agreement with IDAS Resources N.V. ("IDAS") and IDAS shareholders, under which the Company may acquire 75.5% of the common shares of IDAS. In turn, IDAS has entered into a 50-50 joint venture agreement with Endiama, the Angola state mining company. The joint venture asset is a 3,700 km mining lease in the Cuango Valley, Luremo and a 36,000 km2 prospecting lease called the Cuango International, which borders the mining lease to the north. The total area is approximately the size of Switzerland."

America Mineral Fields directly benefited from America's initial covert military and intelligence support for Kabila. It is my observation that America's early support for Kabila, which was aided and abetted by U.S. allies Rwanda and Uganda, had less to do with getting rid of the Mobutu regime than it had to do with opening up Congo's vast mineral riches to North American-based and influenced mining companies. Presently, some of America Mineral Fields' principals now benefit from the destabilization of Sierra Leone and the availability of its cut-rate "blood diamonds" on the international market. Also, according to the findings of a commission headed up by Canadian United Nations Ambassador, Robert Fowler, Rwanda has violated the international embargo against Angola's UNITA rebels in allowing the "to operate more or less freely" in selling conflict zone diamonds and making deals with weapons dealers in Kigali.

One of the major goals of the Rwandan-backed RCD-Goma faction, a group fighting the Kabila government in Congo, is restoration of mining concessions for Barrick Gold, Inc. of Canada. In fact, the rebel RCD government's "mining minister" signed a separate mining deal with Barrick in early 1999.[29] Among the members of Barrick's International Advisory Board are former President Bush and former President Clinton's close confidant Vernon Jordan.

Currently, Barrick and tens of other mining companies are helping to stoke the flames of the civil war in the DRC. Each benefits by the de facto partition of the country into some four separate zones of political control. First the mineral exploiters from Rwanda and Uganda concentrated on pillaging gold and diamonds from the eastern Congo. Now, they have increasingly turned their attention to coltan.

It is my hope that the Bush administration will take pro-active measures to stem the conflict in the DRC by applying increased pressure on Uganda and Rwanda to withdraw their troops from the country. However, the fact that President Bush has selected Walter Kansteiner to be Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, portends, in my opinion, more trouble for the Great Lakes region.

A brief look at Mr. Kansteiner's curriculum vitae and statements calls into question his commitment to seeking a durable peace in the region.

In an October 15, 1996 paper written by Mr. Kansteiner for the Forum for International Policy on the then-eastern Zaire, he called for the division of territory in the Great Lakes region "between the primary ethnic groups, creating homogenous ethnic lands that would probably necessitate redrawing international boundaries and would require massive 'voluntary' relocation efforts." Kansteiner foresaw creating separate Tutsi and Hutu states after such a drastic population shift. It should be recalled that the creation of a Tutsi state in eastern Congo was exactly what Rwanda, Uganda and their American military advisers had in mind when Rwanda invaded then-Zaire in 1996, the same year Kansteiner penned his plans for the region. Four years later, Kansteiner was still convinced that the future of the DRC was "balkanization" into separate states.

In an August 23, 2000 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article, Kansteiner stated that the "breakup of the Congo is more likely now than it has been in 20 or 30 years." Of course, the de facto break up of Congo into various fiefdoms has been a boon for U.S. and other western mineral companies. And I believe Kansteiner's previous work at the Department of Defense where he served on a Task Force on Strategic Minerals - and one must certainly consider col-tan as falling into that category -- may influence his past and current thinking on the territorial integrity of the DRC. After all, 80 per cent of the world's known reserves of col-tan are found in the eastern DRC. It is potentially as important to the U.S. military as the Persian Gulf region.

However, the U.S. military and intelligence agencies, which have supported Uganda and Rwanda in their cross-border adventures in the DRC , have resisted peace initiatives and have failed to produce evidence of war crimes by the Ugandans and Rwandans and their allies in Congo. The CIA, NSA, and DIA should turn over to international and congressional investigators intelligence generated evidence in their possession, as well as overhead thermal imagery indicating the presence of mass graves and when they were dug. In particular, the NSA maintained a communications intercept station in Fort Portal, Uganda, which intercepted military and government communications in Zaire during the first Rwandan invasion. These intercepts may contain details of Rwandan and AFDL-CZ massacres of innocent Hutu refugees and other Congolese civilians during the 1996 invasion. There must be a full accounting before the Congress by the staff of the U.S. Defense Attache's Office in Kigali and certain U.S. Embassy staff members in Kinshasa who served from early 1994 to the present time.

As for the number of war casualties in the DRC since the first invasion from Rwanda in 1996, I would estimate, from my own research, the total to be around 1.7 to 2 million - a horrendous number by any calculation. And I also believe that although disease and famine were contributing factors, the majority of these deaths were the result of actual war crimes committed by Rwandan, Ugandan, Burundian, AFDL-CZ, RCD, and military and paramilitary forces of other countries.

Summary
It is beyond time for the Congress to seriously examine the role of the United States in the genocide and civil wars of central Africa, as well as the role that PMCs currently play in other African trouble spots like Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Ethiopia, Sudan, and Cabinda. Other nations, some with less than stellar records in Africa - France and Belgium, for example - have had no problem examining their own roles in Africa's last decade of turmoil. The British Foreign Office is in the process of publishing a green paper on regulation of mercenary activity.

At the very least, the United States, as the world's leading democracy, owes Africa at least the example of a critical self-inspection.

I appreciate the concern shown by the Chair and members of this committee in holding these hearings.

Thank you.

Since 1986 Yoweri Museveni has pursued a geopolitical orientation that deliberately destabilized Africa. He has been implicated in war crimes, in economic crimes (looting the DRC of gold and diamonds), and in human rights violations by the several independent international commissions, as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. In 1993 the US Justice Department named Museveni as an Unindicted Co-conspirator in an international arms smuggling ring that was illegally procuring US TOW missiles. During the Yugoslav war, Museveni used a Boeing 737 plane belonging to the state air carrier, Uganda Airlines, for sanction busting by delivering illegal weapons to Sarajevo and other parts of the war torn region.

Museveni has become the substantive source of instability in the African Union, joining a select list predatory persons that includes Muamar Ghadaffi, who bypass established legal mechanisms of due process by arming invasions and "disappearing" political dissenters.

Since 1986 Ugandan troops have been constantly engaged in offensive military actions that include invasions of neighbouring states and war crimes. Uganda has been involved in aggressive military and political manipulation of ALL of the states that share frontiers with Uganda.

The policies of Museveni have precipitated the worst violence in Africa's history and jeopardised the lives of several dozen millions of Africans who face hunger, disease and violent deaths as a consequence.

A United States government report released in 2001, described Uganda as one of the major illicit arms-trafficking centres for eastern, central and western Africa. The report on African arms transfers and trafficking was presented on 9 July, at the UN conference in New York on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.

Museveni's Uganda is the central component of European and American foreign policy in the region. The international community has persisted in bypassing the structures set up by the Organization of African Unity in addressing the problems of Africa and instead rely on Museveni to determine how their interests are to be served. Powerful foreign financial and military interests continue to rationalise Museveni's dictatorship.

Yoweri Museveni's conduct towards the residents of Uganda has been just as bad as his predatory geopolitical orientation. Key officials in the UN have finally acknowledged the massive extent of the deliberate extermination of North Uganda's people. According to a recent study nearly 90% of the males aged above 35 years old, from the Acholi community (largest ethnic group in North Uganda) have died or gone missing since Museveni took power. The rate of injury due to military ballistics is 700% higher in North Uganda.

THE UN International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued the first arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and four of his top Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commanders accused of crimes against humanity.

This is an American sponsored project. JOseph Kony has for the last ten years been away...very away from the killing fields of Northern uganda but Museveni has often been present in the killing fields of Northern Uganda. For real justic to prevail, Museveni must be arrested immediately, as the failure to do so will result into more killings and desperate people's justice against NRM and their western backers.

Museveni has been killing ugandans since 1980 to date!
Arresting Joseph Kony will serve no purpose when the master killer Museveni is still at large. Ugandans want justice not injustice.

All sane ugandans know that LRA was fighting to protect Ugandans from being butchered by UPDF, Americans and SPLA.

The failure to do so should result into a new people's resistance against all interest of americans etc. on the continent of africa.

Yoweri Museveni is the House-Nigga of the European and American foreign policy in Uganda, Sudan, Congo DRC, Burundi, Chad, Central Africa and Kenya. The international community has persisted in bypassing the structures set up by Africans in addressing their problems and instead rely on a war criminal to determine how their interests can be served.

Powerful foreign financial and military interests continue to rationalise Museveni's dictatorship.
In 1993 the thug was named as a “co-conspirator” in an illegal arms deal by a US court. Sane countries called for Sanctions that included arms embargoes and bans on diamond and timber exports on account of Museveni’s support for insurgents in neighbouring countries, and for gross human rights violations, but the Slave traders(Americans) said to him “don’t worry brother, you’re doing the lords work”.

The crimes of Museveni are widely known by Africans. The war methods used by Museveni, have unleashed passions and cruelty, the depth and extent of which is unprecedented in African history. UPDF (Museveni’s Army), has used the most horrifying torture and gross acts of indecency and State terrorism to achieve political control.

In all these cases UPDF have hacked off peoples limbs, gang-raped women and girls, and forcibly recruited traumatized child soldiers, and armed opposing military factions. There have been acts of genocide and reports of public acts of cannibalism and sophisticated mutilation torture that kept victims alive as they were dismembered over the course of several days.

In the last 10 years and of course there has been the wholesale plunder of Congo & Sudan’s resources, for personal gain. Museveni, his family and thieving friends have become extremely wealthy from the proceeds of goods obtained illegally in war and inter-community violence.

Since 1986 this thug has been pursuing a geopolitical orientation that has deliberately destabilised Africa in the interest of Slave traders. He has been implicated in war crimes, in economic crimes (looting the DRC of gold and diamonds), and in human rights violations by the several independent international organisations, as well as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. In 1993 the US Justice Department named Museveni as an indicted Co-conspirator in an international arms smuggling ring that was illegally procuring US TOW missiles. During the Yugoslav war, the war criminal used a Boeing 737 plane belonging to the state air carrier, Uganda Airlines, for delivering illegal weapons to Sarajevo and other parts of the war torn Yugoslavia.

The house-Nigga (Museveni) has become the substantive source of instability in Africa that bypasses established legal mechanisms of due process by arming invasions, preaching how to “kill”, donating people’s resources to brief-case thieves, supervising gang rapes, stealing, thieving, manipulating…

Joseph Kony Has always called for peace talks, which the thug Yoweri Museveni rejected as that would upset his Slave masters in America.

Interview of Kony:

http://alluta.org/blog/index.php

Rights: Historic ICC Arrest Warrants Evoke Praise, Concern

By Jim Lobe
Washington

Friday's confirmation by the two-year-old International Criminal Court (ICC) that it has issued its first arrest warrants, for Joseph Kony and four other commanders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, has provoked both praise and concern from western human rights and peace groups.

Both Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International hailed the warrants against the LRA commanders, who are accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as an important step in bringing to justice individuals who have terrorised much of northern Uganda for the last 19 years. They also called for all governments to cooperate in apprehending the accused for trial at ICC headquarters in The Hague.

"With today's arrest warrants, the ICC has opened the door for justice to be done," said Richard Dicker, HRW's director for International Justice. "The people of northern Uganda have long suffered terrible abuses without any chance of redress."

Both groups, however, expressed disappointment that the ICC has not moved as aggressively against Ugandan government officials and military officers who they say have committed similar abuses but who are beneficiaries of an amnesty law passed by the Parliament.

"The failure of the (ICC) Prosecutor to seek arrest warrants against Ugandan government forces and their civilian superior is a matter of deep concern because the Ugandan prosecutors have failed to investigate and prosecute such crimes during the 19-year conflict," Amnesty said in a statement issued from London Friday.

Other analysts have also expressed concerns that the warrants have effectively ended peace efforts led by a former Ugandan minister, Betty Bigombe, and backed by the United States, Britain, the Netherlands and Norway. Once officially charged by the ICC with crimes against humanity, the LRA commanders cannot receive amnesty as part of any political settlement of the conflict.

Bigombe herself complained last week that the court had "rushed too much", as a result of which, "There is now no hope of getting (the LRA commanders) to surrender." The Roman Catholic Church, which had also helped facilitate the mediation effort, also expressed fears that a political settlement has now been made more difficult.

In a column published Friday by the International Herald Tribune, Katherine Southwick, who has authored several reports on Uganda for the Washington-based Refugee Law Project, charged that the ICC's action, which will make it impossible for LRA commanders to receive any form of amnesty, may actually expose innocent civilians and international aid workers in northern Uganda to greater danger.

"Now international aid organisations are scaling back their operations in the north for fear that the LRA will associate ICC arrest warrants with the international community," she wrote.

But Amnesty said the issuance of the warrants had to be considered an important step forward. "The decision by the Prosecutor to proceed with issuing arrest warrants and, in doing so, resisting calls to suspend the investigation in favour of further political negotiations sends a clear message that without justice, there can be no prospect of a lasting peace for the region," it said.

The LRA, a messianic movement that launched its first attacks in the mid-1980s, is blamed for the killings of tens of thousands of northern Ugandans but became particularly notorious for the abduction of some 30,000 children to serve as soldiers, porters and sex slaves over the past 20 years.

Indeed, each night, according to a recent HRW report, as many as 40,000 children -- known as "night commuters" -- flee their own homes in the northern Uganda countryside to seek the relative safety of the towns in order to hide from LRA raids.

Sheltered for many years in southern Sudan, the group is also held responsible for the displacement of some 1.6 million people, most of whom still live in camps where they have been at the mercy of the Ugandan military. Despite its nominal role as protector, the military has also been accused by HRW and Amnesty, among others, of committing serious abuses, including murder, rape, and beatings, against their charges.

In one of his first formal acts as ICC prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo opened a formal investigation of the LRA and the situation in northern Uganda at the request of the government of President Yoweri Museveni last year. Under the Rome Statute that forms the legal basis for the ICC, the new court can only prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity committed after July 2002, when the statute took effect.

In addition to Kony, who was charged with 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes, his chief deputy, Vincent Otti, and three other commanders were ordered arrested.

"Kony is exactly the type of person for whom the ICC was created -- an amoral warlord whose crimes include murder, rape, kidnapping, slavery and amputation," noted Citizens for Global Solutions (CGS), formerly known as the World Federalist Society and a major backer of the ICC in the United States.

But, like other groups, CGS called for all parties to "work in partnership with the Court to not only ensure Kony's swift capture, but protect his victims, their families and witnesses from reprisals".

Analysts have said that the LRA has become weaker over the past several months, in major part due to the loss of support from Sudan. Kony is still believed to be hiding in Sudan, and Ugandan officials last week called publicly on Khartoum to seize the rebel leader.

But significant elements of the LRA have reportedly slipped across the border into the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In the face of threats by Museveni, whose troops have intervened in the DRC several times over the past decade, the Kinshasa government reportedly sent two army battalions into the area last week. The U.N. peacekeeping operation in the DRC also sent forces into the area.

"Congolese forces, with U.N. peacekeepers' support, will have to shoot through a shield of traumatised child captives to reach the leaders," noted Southwick. "Apprehending them may not even be possible; the Ugandan Army has been unable to do so for 19 years, even with Sudanese cooperation."

Action...Action....Action...Action...Action!!!!!!!!!!!!


http://alluta.org/blog/index.php?p=111&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

its not suprising, but rather sad that another african leader wants to eat the chair for more years.

its so amazing but thats our country not only in uganda but across africa, may the lord be upon our continent, wishing uganda success in the next coming presidential elections cheers

Comrades,
http://www.alluta.org/blog is up running

As I said before, http://alluta.org/blog is part of the main media platform (http://www.alluta.org) that is coming soon!

Some comrades keep asking me about the radio? Yes the radio station will be up soon; we just finished clearing all the bugs.

I also want to clear this one-up. Q. Are we going to support any political party in 2006 elections? Answer: NO

All political groups in Uganda are still clinging on the past and have no radical programmes. By participating in elections that are run by a war criminal is very insulting and this shows how selfish the political elite in Uganda is.

We will use the 2006 Uganda joker’s elections as a scouting exercise for our future activities.

Joran well said, uganda's problem is caused by the selfish political elite. Museveni's dictatorship has survived for long because of the so called "opposition" that has no vision but oppotunistic tendencies. Uganda needs a proper revolution that will empower the young generation not the old/expired people!

Uganda has one clean politician called Dr Okullo Epak

Ahimbisimbwe wrote: "Uganda needs a proper revolution that will empower the young generation not the old/expired people!"

Dr Okullo Epak was the person behind An Anti-Corruption debating league that was to be introduced in schools. But as usual, his hands got tied-up by opportunistic politicians.

This is the same man who though enough was enough! Citizens from northern Uganda had died many and led fellow MPs out of parliament.

Dr. Okullo Epak was the first person to realise that Uganda had a big problem with internal debts, many of which were contracted without legal basis. The debts had impacted badly on the people's welfare, like when pensions were being delayed or not paid altogether. In many cases too, many businesses had been ruined because of delays or non-payment of such debts.

As chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Dr Okullo Epak, realised that the law was vague, and made it specific on auditing and reporting classified expenditure.
He demanded that all public expenditures be audited and monitored and all public information is accessible. That negation constituted a violation of the constitution.

Dr. Okullo Epak was also the architecture for the common mans dwellings in Nagulu, Nakawa, etc. He also led the rehabilitation of Masaka/Mbarara towns after being badly damaged by 1978/1979 liberation war. He also helped Ghana's housing problems while working as a delegate for UNDP.

This is the only politician that I know of in Uganda that plants trees as a hobby

National heroes like him don’t need opportunistic clubs (political parties) to deliver for the common man!

Let us not forget the crimes of Britain!!!
They have been supporting and breeding criminals in Uganda.

Never again call Mr. Museveni a war criminal. The fact is that Museveni is an indepenent man clearly opposed to white supremacy over the black people.The whites have gone crazy and they can nolonger rule the world for long.The blackman's time has come,Museveni is the clear road to Africa's supremacy and independence.Therefore, never subotage our success ......

Hard Hitting report or should I say journalism. Shockingly revealing.
It is so hard to believe in the context of the ordinary Ugandan. Museveni commands alot or support and respect in Uganda and many locals would find it difficult to come to terms with the details of this article.

Lol- how does it feel being kicked out of the station?
We now know all ISO IP addresses!!

Republic of Cabinda to File Allegations with International Criminal Court against Angola: Genocide, War Crimes
London, 2 March 2006 For Immediate Release
Republic of Cabinda Press Agency (RCPA)
The Republic of Cabinda will soon be filing a referral and request for investigation of Angolan war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity with The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo. This situation involves crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court committed anywhere on the territory of the Angola including the illegally occupied enclave of Cabinda since 1 July 2002, the date of entry into force of the Rome Statute.
In accordance with the Rome Statute and the Rules of Procedure and Evidence, the Prosecutor will be asked to carry out an analysis in order to determine whether to initiate an investigation. For this purpose, he will seek additional information in relation to the criteria set out in the Statute, including the gravity of alleged crimes, any relevant national proceedings, and the interests of justice. All victims and witnesses are asked to provide information to the Republic of Cabinda’s attorney – Jonathan Levy - through the contact information below.
Angolan troops invaded Cabinda on 11 November 1975. Cabinda was a Portuguese Protectorate since the signing of the Treaty of Simulambuco in 1885, and became known as the Portuguese Congo. Troops from Angola are still occupying Cabinda and committing organized atrocities against Cabindans including rape, summary execution, and genocide. The government of Cabinda and the defense forces of FAC exercises control over the majority of the enclave. An Angolan military offensive begun in 2002 has included organized torture, rape, murder, and looting but has not broken the spirit of the Cabindan people.
The Office of the Prosecutor is also currently conducting investigations in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

For further information, please contact :
Mangovo Ngoyo
The Cabinda High Commission, United Kingdom
Phone: 44 + 7909 653 984
E-mail: cabinda@gmail.com

u guys are big liers.