‘Kony history by April’

Dec 23, 2005

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said by April next year, Kony will be totally routed from southern Sudan, and that the people in Acholi IDP camps will be able to go back home.

By Cyprian Musoke

PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has said by April next year, Kony will be totally routed from southern Sudan, and that the people in Acholi IDP camps will be able to go back home.

“We are sending back the people of Lango and Teso to their homes. By April, those in Acholi will also go home because we want those ones to stay until Kony is totally routed from southern Sudan,” he said.

Speaking on Capital FM’s Morning Crew yesterday, hosted by Alex Ndawula and Oulanyah Columbus, Museveni said the war in northern Uganda would have ended had donors not dictated on the defence budget.

He said situations like this needed tough leadership.

“This is what I keep telling people like (DP presidential candidate John) Ssebaana who are moving around the country crying, they don’t really understand or care about African problems.

“The mistake we made was under-spending on the army because they (donors) said, ‘Don’t spend more than 1.9% of GDP on the army’. As a consequence, our people in the north have suffered and we were being attacked in the north and the west, and our friends were telling us not to spend enough on the army,” he said.

He said the Government first listened to the donors for sometime, wanting to see whether it could move with them, until 2002.
He said in 2002, the Government cut 23% from all other ministries to defence and ignored the protests and as a consequence, the war in the north was in its last days.

“You can see that these mistakes were definitely caused by interference in our decision-making because of that little money they give us. I don’t mind getting some little money, but it must not interfere with my decision making,” he said.

He said Uganda went to the Congo to deal with ADF terrorists who were attacking villages in Kabarole, Kasese and Bundibugyo right from 13th November 1996.

He said this was a plan by Sudan and Congo to besiege the Ugandan government from the north and west.

“They thought that if they attack us from the north and west, we would collapse since we would have been over-stretched,” he said.

He said the Government was happy that after the terrorists were crushed, peace returned to the region.

“When Africans are dying, they don’t spend enough time to understand what the issues are, they just take superficial positions that are not serious and thorough, and the Africans just continue dying if they don’t have strong and clear headed leadership,” he said.

He said after former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin invaded Tanzania, several European countries wanted Mwalimu Julius Nyerere not to attack and rout Amin from Uganda.

He said because Nyerere was clear-headed, he defied their opposition, otherwise Uganda would be like Somalia now.

He said the issue of reparations with Congo would be discussed, and that the issue of aid cuts would instead bring Uganda into a better situation, as it will be more independent in its decision-making.

Museveni recently wrote a hard-hitting letter to a British minister protesting what he called arrogance on the part of donors.
He said because they give Uganda money, they are not necessarily entitled to meddle in its internal affairs.

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