Mao must tell us more about the UPF

Jul 02, 2009

EDITOR—For a long time I have believed that Norbert Mao is presidential material and have often regarded him as a patriot. However, I am no longer sure.

EDITOR—For a long time I have believed that Norbert Mao is presidential material and have often regarded him as a patriot. However, I am no longer sure. Mao’s recent revelation of prior knowledge of a new rebel group in northern Uganda without relaying such vital information to the authorities speaks volumes.

It demonstrates that the man has no feelings of the pain his own people have gone through in the past 21 years under other rebel groups. The people have just gone back to their villages and now with Mao’s story they might flock back to the camps. Politicians must desist from playing negative politics. I think this time round he has a case to answer. Jako David Walukuka walulukadavid@yahoo.co.uk EDITOR—On Tuesday, the Gulu LC5 chairman, Norbert Mao wrote an article entitled, “My flash disk must have been taken by security operatives”. The article is an indication that our aspiring president has completely lost the political plot. Mao admits that he was aware of a rebel outfit called the Uganda People’s Front (UPF) started by Acholi in the diaspora last year.

He tells us that the source of his information is a student in the UK who he says attended a seminar on peace-building in Juba about the UPF and its planned struggle to remove president Museveni from power.

He says he saved this information about the UPF on a flash disk. He then says that he lost the flash disk at the Kampala Sheraton hotel business centre. If the above is true, Mao must be arrested and charged with misprision of treason (concealment of treasonable acts or information deemed a threat to national security). Why didn’t he expose the UPF when he first learned of their existence and their plans?

It is only now that a flash disk is lost that we are learning of this group! Is Mao part of this group? If he is not, why would he travel around the country and internet cafes with a flash disc containing such sensitive information?

No rebel outfit, however incompetent and stupid, will freely circulate such a document to public. Mao must have been set up and in his fit of panic to exonerate himself, he is sadly implicating the Acholi in the diaspora as the people behind the UPF.

For a man who wants to be the leader of DP and an aspiring commander-in-chief of Uganda, Mao needs to tell Ugandans more about the UPF and who is behind it.
Simply lumping the Acholi in the diaspora together is a cowardly act. War is bad, it is costly and affects generations. The people of Acholi know the ramifications of war for they live it everyday. It is, therefore, inconceivable that anyone would want to peddle tales of another war in Acholi and hope to go unchallenged. Michael Ocen Gulu

EDITOR—Norbert mao’s ‘Letter from Gulu’ on Tuesday was very interesting. In his article entitled, “My flash disk must have been taken by security operatives”, Mao, a lawyer, tells the world that he has been privy to information that is dangerous to the Government of Uganda since April 2008!
I have a few questions for him. Had he not lost his flash disk, when did he intend to disclose this information? Secondly, when he got the information, why didn’t he disclose it to the security authorities in Uganda?
He says he got the information from a student who had attended a seminar on peace-building in Juba. Why was it necessary for him to store this information on a flash disk and keep quiet about it? Why did he come out with the story only when he had read the story from a newspaper?
Unless Mao, answers these questions satisfactorily, I am afraid he might be a security risk! Haven’t we in Acholi had enough misery in the last 20 years? Surely, I think enough is enough!

Beatrice Akello Kampala

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