[UAH] When the diagnosis is wrong, the solution can’t work

To understand the root cause of instability, suffering, poverty and insecurity in the Great Lakes region of Africa, we have to drop the idea that Museveni and Kagame are champions and a new breed of African leaders to make things better for humanity in the region.

It is these two leaders that have brought about insecurity, instability and impoverishment in the region. But this reality has been ignored by those bent on keeping Museveni and Kagame in power.

Information such as about the economy and political stability is being twisted by focusing on economic growth and per capita income rather than equity and absence of street demonstrations to make Rwanda and Uganda appear in major international reports and conferences as doing well economically, socially and democratically simply to make a case to keep the two leaders in power. Uganda has been declared as a failed state in virtually all areas of human endeavor but this finding has been ignored in international debates.

New efforts are underway to rebrand Kagame and Museveni in order to keep them in power. Many people believe that getting Rwanda into the United Nations Security Council, nominating Sam Kutesa – whose unacceptable character as corrupt, sectarian and a poor manager is known – to become the president of the United Nations General Assembly session in 2014/2015 is part of the rebranding effort.

Museveni who has been in power for 27 years has already announced he is contesting presidential elections in 2016 and there are allegations that Kagame has begun the process to eliminate term limits from the Rwanda constitution to stay in power indefinitely like his counterpart in Uganda and there is silence in the international community.     

Before Museveni and Kagame came onto the political scene starting in 1981 when they launched a destructive guerrilla war (700,000 people are believed to have lost their lives in the Luwero Triangle), the Great Lakes region was relatively stable and secure. The majority of the people were not as poor, unemployed, desperate and dispossessed as they are today (increasingly Ugandans believe Amin was a better leader than Museveni).  

The land and properties of those who perished in the Luwero Triangle guerrilla war are believed to have been taken over by Museveni supporters and more land is being grabbed through the so-called notion of willing seller and willing buyer.

If you add the human atrocities and asset destruction in northern and eastern Uganda then you get a better picture of Museveni and Kagame (Kagame served as the powerful intelligence and counterintelligence confidant of Museveni until he embarked on the war to unseat Habyarimana government in Rwanda).

Until 1990 when Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) supported by Uganda invaded Rwanda, the country under Habyarimana was described as a model for the development of Africa.

There is written evidence that RPF soldiers participated in the Rwanda genocide of 1994 and allegations that RPF and Uganda soldiers committed genocide against Hutu people in Eastern DRC.

While attending the Commonwealth Summit in Uganda, Kagame boasted during an interview with Daniel Kalinaki that his troops decimated Hutu genocidaires and Interahamwe in DR Congo without telling us how they were separated from the innocent Hutu since the two groups look alike and lived together.

There are also allegations that Museveni and Kagame plotted from Entebbe the overthrow and murder of President Ndadaye and senior officials of Burundi in 1993.

It is now believed that Kagame and Museveni used a pretext to protect Banyamulenge in Eastern DRC to invade Zaire and topple Mobutu's government in order to occupy DRC and ultimately declare Burundi, DRC, Rwanda and Uganda a Tutsi Empire. Had it not been for the foresight of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe leaders who came in on the side of Desire Kabila, we would be talking of Tutsi Empire.

Many now believe that M23 that has terrorized Eastern DRC is sponsored by Rwanda and Uganda leaders bent on occupying that rich part of DRC.

Given this information, it is baffling that Museveni and Kagame continue to be described as success stories and champions of peace and security that should be sustained in power. The anti-sectarian and anti-terrorism laws in Uganda and anti-divisionism restrictions in Rwanda are being used to suppress exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms by those who disagree with the two leaders' policies.   

As part of civic education, UDU has been writing about the history of the Great Lakes region and the antagonistic relations between Hutu and Tutsi since the 15^th century in which the Tutsi have been the aggressor, not the victim. Sadly, Museveni and Kagame managed to use the 1994 genocide credit in Rwanda to damage the character of Hutu as genocidaires and "bad guys" that should be punished and silenced (In Rwanda any Hutu including those born after 1994 who dissents is described as genocidaire subject to arrest and detention).  

But the world has conveniently ignored the genocide of Hutu people committed by Tutsi in Burundi between 1965 and 1993 in the presence of overwhelming evidence and why Rwanda voted against its own United Nations Security Council resolution that established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

The allegations that Uganda and Rwanda troops have committed genocide against the Hutu in DRC have not received the international attention and action they deserve.

Tutsi under Museveni and Kagame are bent on turning Tropical Africa into a Tutsi Empire and are working closely with outsiders who stand to gain materially. The Great Lakes region is just the beginning.

Museveni made it official in April 1997 when he declared that his mission is to turn the Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes region into a federation of states. He has already started selling the project of fast tracking the East African political federation to President Kenyatta whom we have warned to tread carefully.

Summing up, the root cause of the problem in the Great Lakes region is Museveni and Kagame. Let me add that there are many Tutsi who don't support what Museveni and Kagame are doing.

That said, without getting Kagame and Museveni out of the way, instability and insecurity will continue and likely worsen.

UDU has been championing peace and stability for all in the region. To realize that goal, however, we need as already suggested to retire Museveni and Kagame from politics.

Eric Kashambuzi

Secretary General, UDU