Dr. Kiiza Besigye says it should have been president Museveni in prison and not him.
Besigye has told journalists during a press conference at his residence in Mbuya that President Museveni’s was convicted by the International Court of Justice for illegally entering and plundering Congo.
He adds that his detention was political intended to stop him from running for presidency.
Besigye and Ssebaana have also hinted on a possibility for the opposition to front a sole candidate to run against president Museveni in the presidential race.
Ssebaana had paid Dr. Besigye a courtesy call while he addressed the press at his residence in Mbuya.
Ssebaana says discussions are going on for the opposition to have a sole presidential candidate.
Meanwhile Dr. Kizza Besigye is headed for Kayunga district where he is going to address his maiden rally since his release from prison yesterday.
Politics - Page 3
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M7 should be in prison - Besigye
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Besigye back on the road
KAMPALA, 2 Jan 2006 (IRIN) - Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, who is charged with treason and rape, was freed on bail on Monday after the High Court in Kampala ruled that his continued detention was illegal.
"The accused should be released forthwith unless he is being held on other charges," John Katutsi, the High Court judge, said.
He said the defence's argument that Besigye faced separate terrorism and possession of weapons charges before a military tribunal could not be used as an excuse to keep him in prison.
Besigye, 49, was released soon after the woman he allegedly raped in 1997 testified against him.
He was driven out of the court compound accompanied by his wife, Winnie, as a crowd of his supporters ululated and sang in his praise. The police had earlier used tear gas to disperse a crowd that tried to gather outside the court house.
Besigye, who heads the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, is widely seen as President Yoweri Museveni's main challenger in presidential elections scheduled for February.
Besigye, Museveni's former doctor, was arrested in mid-November three weeks after returning to Uganda from four years of self-imposed exile in South Africa where he fled after losing the presidential elections to Museveni in 2001. He claimed then that his life was in danger. -
Museveni's conspiracy plan to rule Uganda for 50 years minimum- Dr Kiiza Besigye is prepared to resist it!!
Why is DR Kiiza Besigye resisting Dictator Yoweri's Sectarian plan? Very few, apart from the insiders, can really tell why that fight has reached such a devastating magnitude.
Intimate
The greatest rivals, presently, were once intimate comrades especially during their guerilla struggle in the 1980s against Milton Obote's administration. Besigye was Museveni's personal doctor, which precisely means for most part of the struggle, Museveni's life was in Besigye's hands.The 'medicine-man' worked in different capacities in Museveni's government until in the late 90s. Besigye also wed Winnie Byanyima, a former close ally of Museveni in the 90s.
What is bothering the whole world even the Bush administration is why the two are at each other's necks?
Ethnicity
In 1992, about seventy two (72) prominent Bahima allegedly met at Rwakitura, Nyabushozi, Ankore. The notable component of discussion was to rule the country for a minimum of 50 years. The minutes of the meeting were later published in Entatsi, a Kinyakore newspaper in 2000. Early this year a replicate document of what was published was smuggled to Parliament for tabling. Unfortunately or fortunately, government blocked it. President Museveni's home is at Rwakitura. A very high ranking leader in the country chaired that meeting.
The indigenous people in Ankore are Banyakore, who comprise of Bahima and Bairu. Bahima, who are the royal group in Nkore are historically pastoralists and the Bairu, the subjects are cultivators although the transformation of the economy has intertwined their livelihood.
As the saying goes 'When you follow the path of your father you learn to walk like him'. The 1992 meeting reflected, quite a lot, the traditional conflicts between the two groups. The attendants discussed widely on the strategies they would use to retain state power and in the same vein economically handicap the other groups.
'To agree is to make progress' They (Bahima) agreed to have their children head all security organizations above all intelligence departments. It is over 10 years since that meeting was convened and the cream of all security organizations, now, is comprised of Bahima. To join the Presidential Guard Brigade, the security organ responsible for Museveni, priority is given to Bahima from well known families. The issue of excellence is secondary.
They emphasized equipping their children with the best education skills. In other words they agreed to send their children to the best schools and institutions (at whatever cost). A project, headed by a former member of parliament for Nyabushozi County, was thereafter designed to send Bahima students abroad.
Before Museveni's government, a good number of Bahima detested formal education despite owning several herds of cattle. It is after that meeting that they started selling off part of their herds to educate their children as a Hima policy.
In addition, the controversial state house-sponsored bursary scheme was initiated. The scheme has been criticized to no avail. The critics claimstate house only identifies Bahima for sponsorship at the university. Two secondary schools; Kanyaryeru and Ngabo both in Mbarara district were exclusively established for Bahima students. The state aids those students.
According to the same meeting, Bahima would gradually take over all sectors of the economy. The participants projected that Bahima in the shortest period would infiltrate all levels of the economy. Several other issues were pointed out.
However, during the meeting, someone close to the first family suggested that only the Basiita clan among the Bahima should rule. Museveni's family is allegedly from that clan.
In essence, only Museveni's family had the mandate to govern. That issue led to major disagreements. Actually, some sections claim it is the reason some of the attendants later defected to the opposition hence the birth of Reform Agenda, Besigye's pressure group-and subsequently the Forum for Democratic Change, whose current presidential candidate is Besigye, again.
Before he fell out with Museveni in the late 90s Besigye had criticized the latter's government of nepotism and sectarianism among others. It is possible that Besigye identified the conspiracy at its earliest stage, and that could be the very reason he stands to be liquidated. Museveni could have known Besigye would spill the beans during the presidential campaigns.
Even in his 2006 manifesto, Besigye says: "FDC will re-establish the culture of public service best practices, and ensure that all appointments to public offices are based on merit rather than on sectarian interests and political considerations." So it could be true Besigye knows numerous state secrets so holding him in jail is the paramount alternative to seal his mouth.
At close analysis, the fight between Museveni and Besigye is a smokescreen of the ethnic conflict between the Bahima and Bairu that is yet to explode. Besigye, notable analysts insist, is just a scapegoat. The fact is that this ethnic conflict has not started with Museveni and Besigye. It is as old as mankind.
Land
According to research by Nelson Kasfir in 'Uganda Now' early class stratification in Ankore gave social and political dominance to a tiny minority consisting of cattle herders who were ethnically identified as Bahima and who ruled cultivators, the Bairu.
However, the introduction of the demands of a cash economy undermined these arrangements. By the Second World War, Bairu owned as many cattle as Bahima and by the 1970s owned two-thirds of the cattle in Bushenyi (a district in Ankore).
At independence Bairu leaders had effectively taken political power from the royal Bahima family and its followers though the new notables were themselves fragmented by religious and other factional divisions. The turbulence of post-independence Ugandan politics has resulted in the eclipse of one group of political notables after another.
Before 1975 a relatively small portion of the land in each district could be bought and sold as freehold, which included native and adjudicated freehold. The former consisted of about 270 square miles of land that was given to the Omugabe (king of Ankore) and his chiefs as part of the Ankole Agreement of 1901, and later extended to reward various chiefs during the 1920s.
Though the amount of land alienated in these schemes was relatively small, it reinforced important political and social conflicts between fractions of the rapidly forming dominant class. Each faction was doing what its members could to gain control of Ankole kingdom.
In particular, conflicts over the schemes deepened the sense of identification and cleavage between Bahima chiefs who had been the recipients of the Mailo estates and their main opponents, the protestant Bairu political notables.
Furthermore, the firm party control that the UPC imposed over the chiefs after 1980 ensured that patronage for notables would play an important role in determining who acquired control over the land. These chiefs were drawn from the small fraction of the Protestant Bairu who threw their lot in with Obote (deceased president) on his return to power.
The competitive use of ethnic characters to gain advantage in control over land led to dominance by Bahima notables in the protectorate period, which then gave way to control by one and then another predominantly Bairu-defined fraction after independence.
To lend credibility to this argument, Museveni recently warned the judiciary against 'biased' rulings over land cases. Of course one would wonder why Museveni should particularly be interested in land issues even though a whole Ministry of Lands in addition to district Land Boards and Land Commissions exist.
'Suffering teaches the wisdom of the ancestors' is another saying Museveni must have taken heed of. In his "The Mustard Seed" he clarifies, in circumlocutory, that he waged a guerrilla war not because the elections of 1980 in which he contested as a presidential candidate were rigged but rather to liberate his 'people'. Bahima, as pastoralists, no longer had sufficient land for grazing. This was as a result of the interference of the Obote politics. During Obote's administration, Protestant Bairu were awarded large junks of land at the cost of Bahima because the former in return overwhelmingly supported the UPC government.
Cooperatives
As I have earlier stated that Bairu were cultivators, in December 1957, a cooperative union in Ankore was started to boost coffee production and marketing.
Banyankore Kweterana, made up of over 40 cooperative societies in Ankore, was formed with the help of colonialists. It was the economic bull that the Bairu used to milk.
Coffee farmers would harvest their produce and sell it to the cooperative. At times the farmers, even before the harvesting period, would seek financial assistance from the cooperative management in difficult situations like paying school fees for their children. The union would bail them out with promissory notes which were presented to school administrations. It is against this background that the Bairu, who were the cultivators of coffee, are the most educated in Ankole.
Banyankore Kweterana was-even to date-associated with Obote's UPC party. Undeniably, Obote had overwhelming support in Ankole.
In fact when he returned from exile in Tanzania (1980) to lead the country the second time, he came through western Uganda and first stopped at Bushenyi where he knelt down and said, "I will die here".
Bahima, as pastoralists, therefore benefited little from Banyankore Kwetarana. Majority of them, because of their Catholic attachment, supported the Democratic Party (DP).
When Museveni came to power in 1986 it was obvious he would fight Banyakore Kweterana, anonymous staff of the union have persistently noted. After all, they claim, the union had developed the other fraction of Banyankore at the expense of Bahima to which he belongs.
Either by design or default, Museveni's liberalization policy he introduced soon after he became president dismantled Banyankore Kweterana immediately. The Coffee Marketing Board, the apex purchasing body, started buying coffee direct from the farmers rendering the union useless.
During the guerilla war, Museveni's National Resistance Army fighters, according to Banyankore Kweterana chairman, Kesi Kabakyenga, looted coffee stocks and destroyed factories and other property worth three billions (Uganda shillings). Museveni's failure to compensate the union led to its collapse in the late 90s. Later on Museveni's brother Salim Saleh bought off some of its assets at a give-away price.
Justification
At a general perspective, Africans have adopted capitalistic consumption skills other than productive ones. Therefore, the fight for state power is juxtaposed with theft of resources that can sustain them in leadership. In that respect, which ever tribe or clan rules Uganda may be no exception to that sin.
Museveni once said, "the problem with Africa is that not only has its society not metamorphosed, it has actually regressed."
He went on to say that in Uganda, both the feudal and artisan classes after being wiped out by colonialism effectively regressed into an almost exclusively peasant society.
One reputable Ugandan historian, Dr. Joshua Muvumba, has pointed out why classes in society have been created to amass wealth.
"Nevertheless in a rapidly changing world, Africa's classlessness is not static; on the contrary, the overriding desire of Africans today especially among the elites, is to change as quickly as possible from being classless to a class society through accumulating, amassing and stockpiling wealth as instantaneous as possible; by any means," says Muvumba.
Like the other saying goes 'Do not insult a crocodile before crossing the river. Probably Besigye has insulted the crocodile but a Mauritanian chips in with a different saying 'Dust on your feet is better than dust on your bottom'. So let the medicine man pursue the struggle, the end will justify the means. Otherwise the 50 year-rule by one group of people is unjust.
Furuma’s brother narrates ordeal while in Uganda
He stayed in the same safe houses with dissident Major Alphonse Furuma in Kampala, Uganda; and heard proposals of coups against Kigali by top Ugandan military officers...
Egide Mupenzi, 30, a young brother to Maj. Furuma, returned to Rwanda early December from Uganda, where he says, he was held hostage in several discreet military houses better known as safe houses, for over two years. During his stay in the safe houses, he was not mistreated but was denied freedom and eventually succumbed to pressure, a sickness he had never had before, says the professional lawyer, who was a member of Rwanda Police Force at the time.
His story
Mupenzi, who left Kigali for Kampala in January, 2001, through Gatuna Border Post to visit Furuma over what he calls ‘family matters’, told The New Times on Wednesday, that on arrival, he was instead led to a safe house by Ugandan military intelligence agents against his wish.
“I left in January, 2003, to meet my brother (Furuma), who had asked me to find him in Kampala. We had just lost a brother (Captain Theoneste Rutangwa alias Tallman) and thus we needed to sort out some issues.
“While still in Kigali, I had called asking him to come but he told me that he had no plans of returning and instead convinced me to find him in Kampala. I went and when I called him on arrival someone told me to find him at a restaurant called Fang Fang. But when i reached, I didn’t find him there as I had expected, instead someone who seemed to be a military agent received me and drove me to a safe house in Ntinda (a posh suburb in Kampala),” Mupenzi said.
He says the man who received him at the restaurant left him at the safe house with another soldier who apparently, was the housekeeper. “I started suspecting something then. I had not seen my brother yet, and it appeared that these people were expecting me.” Mupenzi said, adding that the next day he told the housekeeper that he wanted to see Furuma or be left to go on his own.
“He responded that Furuma was around, but when I pressurized him, he made a call and the other man who had received me at the restaurant, came and drove me to another nearby safe house, also in Ntinda, where I found him (Furuma),” Mupenzi adds.
But, he says, he met a brother who had completely changed heart on his motherland. “He had a new line of thinking; I did not share his politics.” He says the house was heavily guarded by soldiers from both Ugandan military police and the Presidential Guard Brigade (PGB). The environment was more militaristic, he recalls.
“I asked him about the soldiers, and he told me that he disagreed with the establishment in Kigali and informed me that he wouldn’t return. He told me that he wanted me to join him, arguing that I would not be safe in Rwanda.
“I disagreed with him and asked him to let me go back but he said he had no powers to release me. Apparently, he also had no control over himself,” Mupenzi said. He said his brother told him no precise reason for his decision.
He said besides Furuma, he also met a Rwandan girl, one Fidelite Uwimana, then a student at the National University of Rwanda (UNR), who sources say, was Furuma’s girlfriend. He had already started a long journey in the hands of Ugandan elite military, which held him since January, 2001 until March, 2003, when Maj. Furuma was relocated to the US.
“That is when my nightmares started. I spent countless sleepless nights; nobody was concerned and Furuma was a brother with whom we were at loggerheads. He knew I was opposed to his line of thinking and I would frequently tell him that I want to return home, to no avail,” recollected Mupenzi.
However, some sources in Kigali dispelled Mupenzi’s assertions, saying he had deserted the Police to join his brother, who had expressed intentions to wage war against the Rwandan government. The sources added that Mupenzi’s decision to come back was known after by the collapse of his brother’s plot.High-profile visits
He said while there, several people visited Furuma. Most were senior Ugandan military officers including Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire (Minister for Lands and Environment), the then Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Brig. Noble Mayombo, Maj. Muhozi Kainerugaba (son to President Yoweri Museveni), one Maj. Nuwe, among others.
He recalls that they made frequent visits and discussed with Maj. Furuma. Asked about the kind of talk between his brother and the Ugandan officials, Mupenzi said, he did not participate in the discussions but agreed he had overheard Mayombo asking his brother about a possibility of a coup in Kigali and establishing Ugandan spy machinery in Kigali.
“He asked him whether a coup against the current administration in Kigali was possible, and Furuma responded that it was impossible because there was no internal dissent of a nature that could lead to a coup,” he recounted. He said all the Ugandan visiting officials discussed politics, but most of the time, wanted to listen to Furuma.
He said Furuma instead suggested a political battle against the Kigali leadership elections, ‘but he did not have a practical roadmap to that’. “He used to say the government could only be challenged through elections. However, he had no concrete plans for that as well,” said Mupenzi, who is a lawyer by profession.
While at Ntinda, he says, a friend called Steven Mbabazi, who was also a policeman in Rwanda at the time, joined him without knowledge of the situation.
The quartet stayed in Ntinda until April the same year before they were shifted to another safe house in Bweyogerere, another Kampala suburb. After persistent pleas for freedom, Mbabazi one day jumped the fence. The soldiers ran after him, arrested and imprisoned him. But he was later released and he too, returned to Rwanda a couple of weeks ago. “Security there was tighter,” he added.
Besides the Ugandans, Mupenzi said Furuma was also visited by a group of Western diplomats, who he said were brought by Mayombo.
“I heard the diplomats, who I believe were British and other western diplomats, proposing to relocate him to a third country, and him trying to convince them that he was safe in Uganda. He sort of tried to make a case against Rwanda to them,” he said.
Some Rwandan dissidents, who were in other safe houses, joined them. He mentioned Maj. Frank Tega, Maj. Frank Bizimungu, one Sasita and a pilot, a Second Lieutenant whose names he could not recall. He said the Ugandan military took away Bizimungu several months later.
Later in October, 2001, they were again transferred from Bweyogerere to Makindye, where they stayed until March, 2003. While there, he said he developed several sicknesses including pressure. The Ugandan military, however, provided some medications to him. He says two doctors, a Cuban and a Ugandan lieutenant colonel, treated him.
Furuma’s relocation to a third country was a result of a series of the UK-brokered talks between Kigali and Kampala. Similar relocations were held for Ugandan dissidents who had fled to Rwanda at the time.
Asked about what he felt when his brother, Maj. Furuma bid him farewell, Mupenzi said, “There was nothing like emotion. We were no longer one. All I needed was to get out of the nightmare I had experienced for years.” He said he and Uwimana, who had then been abandoned by Furuma, took to different directions after they were released.
After his release, he said he sought assistance from a relative in Kampala, who helped him rent a house in Ntinda and started arranging for him to return home through the Rwandan Embassy in Kampala.
“It was a challenge to associate myself with Rwandans even in Kampala. They looked at me as a dissident, as someone who had joined Furuma’s line of politics,” he said. “However, I kept explaining my ordeal to them.”
He says even after his eventual return to Kigali early December, 2005, he was greeted with suspicion by his friends. “It is still a daunting task to integrate in the community. But I am glad that I have reunited with my family. I am now at peace and secure,” says the man, who is the last born in a family where Maj. Furuma is the first born.
Mupenzi said many Rwandans are still holed up in Uganda’s safe houses, the largest being in Bweyogerere in Kampala which houses about 200 Rwandans including dissidents Colonel (rtd) John Gashugi, Maj. Tega, Sasita and one Captain Banga.
Source; Rwa times -
uganda Elections 2006
Museveni a coward – Byanyima
David Mafabi
PALLISA
Ms Winnie Byanyima, wife of detained FDC leader Kizza Besigye, has described President Yoweri Museveni as a coward who even fears his own shadow.
She has also accused the NRM leaders of being perennial liars and thieves. Byanyima was speaking at an FDC campaign here on Friday.
She said: “The ongoing intimidation, harassment and imprisonment of opposition members shows that Museveni is a coward who fears even his own shadow. How do you fear fighting a person whose hands are tied up? This shows that Museveni, on a politically level ground can’t compete favourably and take the day.”
Byanyima added: “This is a government of liars and thieves. For sure, how do you steal Global Fund money meant for fighting Malaria, TB and HIV/Aids at the expense of the patients for your own selfish interests? How do you go to Congo to protect Ugandans and plunder and loot?”
The cheering crowd kept shouting agende, agende (Let him – Museveni – go).
Byanyima said she was not shaken by Besigye’s imprisonment. “I have not shed a tear about it, because Besigye’s imprisonment has opened the eyes of most Ugandans that we are all prisoners.” She said Ugandans had been imprisoned in abject poverty, IDP camps, poor education, the LRA war and poor health.
Bugweri MP Abdu Katuntu said whereas Museveni described him as poisonous mushroom, he (Katuntu), had discovered that “Museveni is like a jigger that is eating up Ugandans.” Katuntu urged Ugandans to get rid of him. He dismissed claims that Museveni is the only one who had a vision, adding that many Ugandans, including him [Katuntu] were more educated than Museveni - and better placed to lead thecountry.
The FDC chairman, Dr Sulaiman Kigundu, amused the crowd by remarking:
“It is finished, the man has gone Besigye like Kwame Nkrumah, Nelson Mandela and the late Jomo Kenyatta will come from jail and walk to state house.” -
Africa's Top War Criminal still at large!
Yoweri Museveni is responsible for the death of 5.5 million africans- from Uganda, Rwanda,Sudan and Congo DRC. The people of Uganda and the world believe very strongly that Yoweri Museveni should be arrested as soon as possible. We also call upon the international community to impose a travel burn on Yoweri Museveni and his squard of killers."Justice in northern Uganda requires that the ICC thoroughly examine UPDF abuses of the civilian population as well as abuses by the LRA. The willful killings, torture and mistreatment, rape and arbitrary arrests and detention of civilians by UPDF soldiers highlighted in this report are serious crimes that may fall within the ICC’s jurisdiction.The ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes particularly when committed as part of a policy or plan or on a large scale.
The government remains responsible for many of the hardships and abuses endured by the displaced population. Since 1996 the government has used the army to undertake a massive forced displacement of the population in the north and imposed severe restrictions on freedom of movement. While justifying the displacements on grounds of security, the government has forcibly displaced people without a lawful basis under international law and then has failed to provide the promised security. Many of those displaced, including almost the entire population of the three Acholi districts live in squalid conditions in displaced persons camps that are susceptible to LRA attacks. The Ugandan army has failed to protect these camps, compounding the harm inflicted by the original forced displacement."
Museveni's criminal army has continued to abuse ugandans with impunity see report
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Uganda top war criminal still at large
Yoweri Museveni is responsible for the death of 5.5 million africans- from Uganda, Rwanda,Sudan and Congo DRC. The people of Uganda and the world believe very strongly that Yoweri Museveni should be arrested as soon as possible. We also call upon the international community to impose a travel burn on Yoweri Museveni and his squard of killers."Justice in northern Uganda requires that the ICC thoroughly examine UPDF abuses of the civilian population as well as abuses by the LRA. The willful killings, torture and mistreatment, rape and arbitrary arrests and detention of civilians by UPDF soldiers highlighted in this report are serious crimes that may fall within the ICC’s jurisdiction.The ICC has jurisdiction over war crimes particularly when committed as part of a policy or plan or on a large scale.
The government remains responsible for many of the hardships and abuses endured by the displaced population. Since 1996 the government has used the army to undertake a massive forced displacement of the population in the north and imposed severe restrictions on freedom of movement. While justifying the displacements on grounds of security, the government has forcibly displaced people without a lawful basis under international law and then has failed to provide the promised security. Many of those displaced, including almost the entire population of the three Acholi districts live in squalid conditions in displaced persons camps that are susceptible to LRA attacks. The Ugandan army has failed to protect these camps, compounding the harm inflicted by the original forced displacement."
Museveni's criminal army has continued to abuse ugandans with no impunity see report
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Broke" Rwanda Bankrolls FDC; Does It Make Sense?
By Ignatius Kabagambe
Uganda opposition politician Maj. Gen. Mugisha Muntu threw a spanner in the wheels of the Uganda - Rwanda mutual relations engine by claiming that Rwanda supports his Forum for Democratic change (FDC). He made the casual remarks while addressing a convention of Ugandans living in North America.
There is nothing new to Ugandans or Rwandans in what Muntu said because many other people in Uganda had time and again expressed outrightly or insinuated the notion that Kigali is in bed with the Ugandan opposition. The only new element in this school of thought is that this time it has come from a high profile member of the very opposition.
Yet even this should not be seen as a revealing twist. Keen followers of how some media sections in Uganda have been covering the issue of the two countries' bilateral relations ought to have seen it coming.
Talk about the alleged support has sometimes passed as no news to some people for the mere fact it has been endlessly harped on by those using it to achieve different results. But to many others reading or listening to it is still exciting. The media as well as the opposition know this and thus the reason we should not have been surprised by Muntu's statement. He intended to stir the audience.
But does Rwanda really support FDC, or would it matter if they did? For me the second part of this question is what is important.
Given the close historical links between some members of the Rwandan government and Ugandans, including opposition politicians, it would be naïve to expect zero ties between Kigali and the Ugandan opposition.
A Rwandan government worth its name should never envisage trashing a Ugandan opposition leader unless that leader was of the same breed with Lord's Resistance Army's Joseph Kony. What Kigali should, and I am sure it does, is avoid involvement in efforts aimed at toppling an elected government.
The problem with our kind of politics is that opposition members, no matter what they stand for, are demonized as anti-people by the powers that be as a way of denying them electoral favour. We are so selfish and undemocratic by nature to the extent that when we attain power, we want to retain it even if it means sacrificing fundamental principles and common sense. Otherwise why would it be queer for Muntu and company to have individual friends in the Rwandan government?
In civilised political atmospheres, opposition groups that wish to access power because they think they can provide a better alternative to the existing policies are not branded enemies of the people. They are seen, at least with a hind sight, as well intentioned, the reason they are fought using appropriate language and methods generally acceptable.
Rwanda may be sympathetic to FDC, the way Uganda might have been sympathetic to Faustine Twagiramungu during the 2003 Rwandan Presidential Elections. But it is more respectable controlling ourselves when we learn about such developments than declaring each other as enemies, the way Uganda did in 2001, even when the said sympathy is not going to affect the final poll results.
In the wake of Muntu's statement and in line with his diplomatic duties of narrowing mutual conflicting gaps, the Ambassador of Rwanda to Uganda said that his country has no agreed working relationship with the Ugandan opposition that can be termed as support. This could be very accurate. Because Rwanda does not have to be intimidated into disowning people who, one, could be having individual friends among its government officials, and two, whose only "crime" is expressing opposing views to the Kampala establishment.
However, the Ambassador's reaction was in stack contrast with that of the Movement spokesman, Mr. Ofwono Opondo. He yelled that all along it was known Rwanda was behind FDC. He boasted that Uganda was able to defeat mega-rich colonizing Britain and therefore there was no way "broke" Rwanda could stand a chance of ruling its northern neighbour.
Now, broke in which sense that Uganda is free from? In June this year, a Ugandan government official said Rwandans had acted like infants by not allowing President Yoweri Museveni to enter their country with un-declared fire-arms. Still earlier this decade the Rwandan regime had been called politically bankrupt by someone from Uganda's highest political office.
Question: Is all some Ugandan politicians can do when faced with mild fire from Rwanda, is call it all sorts of comical names? Is that frustration really called for?
May be the next time the Movement contemplates appointing an assistant to Opondo, it should look for someone with a rich background, who will at least sound credible when referring to Rwanda as broke. As it stands now, not many people would understand a situation where Rwanda is bankrolling FDC yet it is supposed to be broke. But most strikingly, it is strange for the spokesman of a government supposedly heavy-laden with cash to be a "proud" shoplifter of a Bic pen and underpants. Does it add up?
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Uganda women to be traded by UK & Uganda governments
One very ill and weak woman was taken on a 12-hour journey to Dungavel Detention Centre in Scotland, where she remains on hunger strike. Other women, including spokeswoman Harriet Anyangokolo, have been released having at
last secured legal representation and the opportunity to get their case reconsidered as a result of their protest. But at least two women have been deported, one of whom was stopped by corrupt immigration officials in Uganda demanding she give them all her money or they would hand her over to the police. She is now in hiding. There has been no contact
with the other woman. The Home Office refuses to take any
responsibility for monitoring the safety of those it returns.
Ms Anyangokolo comments: 'There are 250 of us, cooped up in terrible conditions. Some of us have children with us, some have left them behind, and others are mothers as a result of rape. We are innocent women and children whose rights are being violated. Many of us are ill as a result of torture, some are HIV+ and some are so depressed they have tried to commit suicide. After all we have suffered the British government still wants to deport us back to war zones and the dictators we opposed, denying us protection and safety. They dump us in detention centres where we suffer again from poor medical attention, bad food, harassment and sexual intimidation by male staff, false accusations and racism causing us more trauma. We have been denied the opportunity to make our claims properly through cuts in legal aid, negligent or even corrupt lawyers, and racism and sexism in decisions refusing our claims.
Some of us have been forced onto planes with the most appalling brutality and regardless of the justice of our claim. Women are continuing to fight for our rights and against deportation – we deserve safe accommodation not imprisonment, because we are not criminals, we
are simply asylum seekers who deserve protection under international law. It would be better to die in a British rather than a Ugandan detention centre.'
The government is determined to deport those it labels 'failed asylum seekers' no matter how unjustly. There is widespread recognition that the legal representation available to asylum seekers is deficient and in some cases corrupt. The cases below illustrate how these deficiencies are life threatening for women asylum seekers who are routinely imprisoned - against UNHCR and the government's own guidelines - and
threatened with deportation. As a result of their public protest, most of the women have now secured legal representation. The threat of removal should be lifted and all the women should be released immediately whilst their cases are reconsidered.
For more information contact: Legal Action for Women
Crossroads Women’s Centre PO Box 287 London NW6 5QU
Tel: 020 7482 2496 minicom/voice Fax: 020 7209 4761; Mob: 079291 38554
E-mail: law@crossroadswomen.net
Ms Gloria Chalimpa (HO Ref: C1117339/3 Port Ref: SEV/02/5277) has been in detention since 24 June 2005 and is due to be deported on 22 September. She suffered years of repeated rape from the age of six, when the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) killed her parents and abducted her. She was trained as a child soldier how to fight and use guns. She was sold to a 'sponsor', who also raped her and later arranged for her
to study in the UK. On a visit back to Uganda she was arrested and imprisoned for kissing another woman in a nightclub. She managed to escape and returned to the UK. But when she claimed asylum she was put on the 'fast-track' procedure and detained in Yarl's Wood. The fast-track system, which is claimed to be only used for 'straight
forward' cases, drastically reduces the time to prepare an asylum claim, denying women like Ms Chalimpa’s access to independent legal representation and other expert support upon which their lives depend.
Ms Chalimpa's case was refused and she had to appeal without legal representation. Her lawyer said that there was insufficient likelihood of her winning her case to justify applying for legal aid. Her appeal was refused and she is now too ill to ask for reconsideration of her case, which is her right, and as a result her case was closed. Ms Chalimpa has a one year old daughter born in the UK whom she has not seen since being detained, compounding her depression and she has
attempted suicide several times, including on Monday of this week when she was found trying to hang herself in the laundry room in Yarl’s Wood. She has no memory of what happened and is now on constant suicide watch. We are urgently trying to find her legal representation.
Ms Madina Irimeri (HO Ref: G 1121198/2 Port ref: AFC/561670) has been detained for three months in the UK and is due to be deported on 20 September. She was detained in military barracks in Uganda where she suffered rape and other torture. The Home Office refused to believe her account when she claimed asylum. Ms Irimeri's lawyer failed to keep her
informed of what was being done on her case, and she never saw what was submitted to the authorities. No expert report was commissioned by her lawyer for her appeal hearing to document Ms Irimeri's account of her experiences and investigate their impact on her. An affidavit she had got from Uganda confirming her account was dismissed by the adjudicator because it was a fax. She has obtained an original of this document but it is not clear whether her lawyers have even submitted this. She nowhas a new lawyer who is pursuing her claim.
Ms Charity Mutebwa (HO Ref: M1210512 Port Ref: CEU570884) has been detained for three months and is on the 32nd day of her hunger strike. She was taken to Uganda after her Rwandan parents were slaughtered in the genocide of 1994. As supporters of an opposition party her husband
and brother were killed and she was detained, where she was repeatedly gang raped by government soldiers. She escaped and fled to the UK but her her account of her experiences was dismissed by the Home Office and the courts. Her case was badly handled by her legal representatives – she later discovered the person representing her was a translator not a
solicitor. The firm then claimed to have no knowledge of her case and that they did not have her documents, so she could not get another solicitor to pursue her claim. Her deportation should have been stopped when a new solicitor issued legal proceedings the day before she was due to go. But she was still taken to Heathrow airport. It was only when she insisted on calling her lawyer that the Home Office who confirmed
she should not be deported. Ms Mutebwa was extremely weak and sick from her hunger strike but instead of returning to Yarl’s Wood, she was taken on a gruelling 12-hour journey to Dungavel Detention Centre in Scotland, locked in a small cell within the prison van. Ms Mutebwa’s new lawyer is pursuing her asylum claim.
Ms Grace Namanda (HO ref: N1075891 Port ref: MEU/03/3636) has been held in Yarl’s Wood for the past three months. She was diagnosed as being HIV+ and fell ill while in the UK. She claimed asylum as the treatment upon which her life depends is not available in Uganda. Although she
won her case on human rights grounds, the Home Office appealed the decision claiming the treatment she needed was available and free in Uganda. Ms Namanda's husband, father and siblings have all died because they did not get the treatment they needed. Her sister is her only remaining adult relative and is raising ten children, of whom five are orphans, but has no income. They have been depending on whatever Ms Namanda managed to send from her meager NASS support which has been stopped, so she is now extremely worried about them.
Recent press coverage has exposed how aid money meant to be funding HIV/AIDs treatment has 'disappeared'. Experts have also challenged the authenticity of the government statistics on the availability and effectiveness of its treatment programmes, which the UK authorities have been citing. Having very recently secured legal representation, Ms
Namanda has started taking a little fruit and vegetables as she was becoming too ill to pursue her case.
Ms Sophie Odogo (HO Ref: O1086410/2) was detained on 17 May 2005 and has been in Bedford Hospital since Sunday, where we have not been able to speak with her because she is too weak. She fled to the UK after a relative helped her escape detention in Uganda, where she suffered repeated rape and other torture. She was detained the day after her asylum interview. The Home Office said they did not believe her
account, citing her lack of knowledge about her husband's political activities. No expert evidence investigating and assessing the traumatic impact of her experiences was commissioned by her lawyer. Her account of rape was dismissed by the adjudicator at her appeal and her application for Judicial Review was refused. She has a new lawyer who
is pursuing her case.
Ms Enid Ruhango (HO ref: R1095499 Port ref: LBE/393901) was detained on 17 May and has also been in Bedford Hospital after she collapsed in Yarl’s Wood on Sunday. She was raped by Ugandan soldiers looking for her husband who was in the LRA, and again when she was taken into
detention. She was raped again by the man who brought her to the UK. She is HIV positive. Again no expert evidence was commissioned by her lawyer to document her experiences and needs. The Home Office and the adjudicator at her appeal dismissed her account claiming the availability of free HIV/AIDs treatment in Uganda. She too has found a new lawyer through the help of Alistair Birt MP, who has been intervening in the women’s cases.
Ms Salima Sekindi (HO ref: S1060767 Port ref: EDD/00/9612) is on the 32nd day of hunger strike. She was detained on 30 May 2005 and is due to be deported on 13/14 September. Ms Sekindi fled from Uganda after being raped by members of the security forces who came to her home looking for her husband, who was involved in the opposition. After she made her initial asylum application she never heard again from her
lawyer despite her numerous phone calls and faxes. It was only when she was picked up and taken into detention that she found out that the Home Office had refused her case. She found out that her appeal hearing had gone ahead without her knowledge and without her lawyer present. She has now found a new lawyer to pursue her case.
Since Legal Action for Women issued an asylum rights Self-Help Guide* in June, Black Women’s Rape Action Project and Women Against Rape have been inundated with calls from women in detention. Vulnerable and traumatized women are being forced onto planes with the most appalling brutality and regardless of the validity of their claim.
There is no doubt that these women will be even more vulnerable in Uganda having spoken out about the torture they suffered. Please help save the hunger strikers. Your calls/letters could be decisive. Send us a copy of anything you write to the Home Office. -
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