ONAPITO EKOMOLOIT <em>to the point</em>

May 02, 2003

UGANDA undeniably still has some teething problems — largely on account of history and geography. But I say, why violence as the solution?<br>

UGANDA undeniably still has some teething problems — largely on account of history and geography. But I say, why violence as the solution?
In the north, Joseph Kony’s blasphemously named, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) continues with its aimless slow genocide against innocent Ugandans.
To the far west in Congo’s Ituri Forest, a bunch of young Ugandans have recently escaped the jaws of death. They were recklessly led to that wild by Kizza Besigye’s so-called Peoples’ Redemption Army (PRA).
Elsewhere, the people of West Nile are still breathing a deep sigh of relief. Their son of the soil, Brig. (now Maj.Gen.) Ali Bamuze, with his band of the Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF) II, abandoned the path of violence recently.
Yet in Kampala some, ostensibly nationalistic and enlightened,
politicians are still beating the drums of war, should they — once more — fail to unseat the Movement come 2006.
Needless to say, Uganda like many a nation in the world has had justified recourse to war in the past as the only option to save its future. This was the case when Ugandans, assisted by Tanzanians, took arms in 1979 to remove the megalomaniac Idi Amin from power.
After this, Ugandans should have had no reason for another armed change of government. But then the post-Amin freedom was stolen by Milton Obote & Co. In the words of President Yoweri Museveni, the peoples’ key, which they had grabbed from Amin, was snatched again.
This was what made the “second liberation” inevitable via the protracted armed struggle by the National Resistance Army (NRA) 1981-86. The triumph of the NRA in 1986 should have marked the end of the war to end all wars.
Everything the NRM has done since then has been deliberate to give all well- meaning Ugandans no excuse to resort to war again. The highlight of it all was the making of a new Constitution by the people themselves, which ended in 1995.
This Constitution guarantees the will of the people to change their government, through regular elections or referenda. This is what has been going on repeatedly, with Ugandans electing their leaders from LC1 executives to the President.
Above all, any Ugandan, 18 years and above, has been free to run for office.
We need no reminders that this people power never prevailed in independent Uganda before 1986. There was reason for violence as the last resort to change government. Today, some Ugandans may still opt to use violence to try and capture power. But they should be honest enough to say it is out of sheer greed.
What is insulting to Ugandans is for people like Besigye or Kony to purport that they are also engaged in liberation. Besigye, in his radio talks, often tries to evoke the constitution as encouraging Ugandans to resort to arms to defend it.
Of course, it is a nonsensical argument because all actions of President Museveni and the Movement have been constitutional. Before sending young — some well educated — Ugandans into harm’s way in the Congo jungles, Besigye sought to gain power via the Constitution. The story of how he contested the 2001 election, lost; went to court, lost and fled the country in shame has been told and retold.
Throughout the Movement respected Besigye’s constitutional rights — including the right to lose. It is therefore utmost selfishness for Besigye and his like to turn around and claim they are fighting to defend the Constitution, when it is not danger.
Besigye and his conspirators could be trying to rationalize their actions by reasoning that if Museveni could do it, why not others? What cheap imitation! No wonder it is not working.
Even those who were not in the NRA bush war — Besigye was and should know better — can tell there is a hell of a difference. To start with, Ugandans among whom the NRA based itself were bitter enough to appreciate and support its cause. Their democratic right to choose in the election of 1980 had been robbed in broad daylight.
Can Besigye explain why his PRA opted to operate from Rwanda and DR Congo and not inside Uganda? The point is Ugandans, whatever the shortcomings of the 2001 elections, do not feel they were robbed of the right to choose. They still have faith in the electoral system and cannot give Besigye’s PRA a chance.
Similarly, Kony has for over a decade proved that people in northern Uganda do not support him. The loudest statement from the charlatan in this regard is the endless abduction and conscription of children to sustain this brigand.
Clearly, Ugandans are free to disagree with their government. But fake imitations of the NRA struggle will not work because circumstances are very different. The massive graveyard of failed rebellions over the past 17 years is testimony enough. Ends

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