By Barbara Among
The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) has formed a civic new group, the National Social Movement, after officially declaring it has pulled out of the Inter Party Corporation (IPC).

The group is aimed at bringing together political parties, the civil society, religious organisations, the business community, professional groups, pressure groups, and youth and women organisations.

UPC president Olara Otunnu made the announcement at a press conference at Christ the King Hall in Kampala yesterday.

He said the parties in the IPC had failed to reconcile.
“It is, therefore, with a heavy heart and much sadness that after very careful review, I have to say that UPC is unable to continue working with the IPC.”

The IPC is a loose grouping of five opposition parties, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), the Conservative Party, Justice Forum and the Social Democratic Party, formed to field one presidential candidate for the 2011 elections.

Otunnu said the IPC members had failed to agree on how to move forward with the fight against the Electoral Commission.

UPC wants the killing of 33 demonstrators on the streets of Kampala last September, atrocities during the war in Luwero, the massacre of Muslims in Mbarara in 1979, the Ombachi massacre in West Nile in 1981 and the war in northern Uganda investigated, he added.

The party also wants non-recognition, non-participation and non-cooperation with the EC.
“We are deeply concerned that our partners in the IPC have retreated from this position,” said Otunnu.

Otunnu said the UPC would concentrate on building a national social movement that will insist on free and fair elections, and truth-telling and accountability. “What unites us is a common hunger for freedom, dignity, reconciliation and democracy in our land. This will be a citizens’ struggle,” Otunnu said.

The first signs of a fall out between UPC and IPC manifested two weeks ago when the party failed to turn up for the nomination of IPC flag-bearer at Kololo grounds.

The IPC, in a bid to salvage the coalition, held five meetings last week but continued to disagree on several issues.