{UAH} M7 Uses US Aid To Crack Down On Opposition In Uganda

By Africa Confidential,           26 September 2014, Vol 55 - No 19

Date: 30 September 2014 21:24:16 GMT+03:00

Subject: Putting US aid to other uses - Uganda/United States

Uganda/United States

Putting US aid to other uses

Museveni uses Obama's security assistance for the fight against Al Shabaab to crack down on the opposition as well

United States' military aid and training in surveillance techniques is helping President Yoweri Museveni's government to crack down on the opposition, say political sources in Kampala. It even played a role, we hear, in a confrontation between Museveni and his old ally Amama Mbabazi, whom he sacked as Prime Minister on 21 September. Washington is bolstering the capabilities of the Ugandan People's Defence Forces (UPDF) with the aim of making them – and the United Nations-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom) – more effective in the fight against the jihadist Haraka al Shabaab al Mujahideen.

The US Agency for International Development, which provided nearly US$200 million in aid in 2012, describes Uganda as 'a critical force for regional stability in East Africa and a key partner to the United States in the region'.Yet the UPDF has always been a key pillar of Museveni's political management. That means that US aid is also helping to prop up his government and assisting his intervention in South Sudan on the side of President Salva Kiir Mayardit, the Kampala sources say. When the power struggle with Mbabazi threatened to flare out of control earlier this month, Museveni summoned his former right-hand man to a meeting with top military aides at State House, Entebbe, Africa Confidential hears (AC Vol 55 No 18). He then replayed recordings of telephone conversations between Mbabazi and various government officials and opposition leaders. Although the state has long had the capacity to listen to phone communications, US technology has enabled it to engage in mass surveillance on a scale previously impossible.

Sacking Mbabazi

The President apparently asked Mbabazi to say whether he planned to contest presidency but Mbabazi was non–committal. Museveni sacked him less than a week later but Mbabazi remains Secretary General of the governing National Resistance Movement (NRM), a post from which Museveni cannot remove him unilaterally.Museveni's security officials have also relied on eavesdropping equipment to keep track of opposition leader Colonel (Retired) Kizza Besigye and used it to forestall and frustrate street protests two years ago (AC Vol 52 No 9). Security officials have since frequently intercepted Besigye and other opposition leaders in their homes, where they listen in on conversations about potential protests.The US aid is also used for the purpose for which it was intended, however. Ugandan troops with Amisom were reported to have provided intelligence that pinpointed the location of Al Shabaab leader Ahmed Abdi Godane; a US air strike killed him on 1 September (AC Vol 55 No 18). One week later, US intelligence returned the favour, reportedly directing the Ugandan military to a Shabaab cell in Kampala, where it seized 19 suspects as well as explosives and suicide vests.Under a US government-funded reform programme, President Museveni reorganised the military, forming an elite Special Forces Command headed by his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba (AC Vol 54 No 11). The SFC, which is now in charge of the President's security as well as that of vital installations such as oil fields, has emerged as Museveni's most dependable unit. Police and intelligence take direct orders from this group, which also covertly leads operations against opposition protests, AC understands.Museveni was the first regional leader to deploy troops in Somalia in 2007 and the USA has felt a special obligation to support him. Three years later, Uganda suffered its first and most devastating terrorist attack when Al Shabaab militants carried out two bomb blasts that killed nearly 100 people in Kampala. Shortly after the attacks, the USA helped the Ugandan leader to acquire two armoured limousines. Museveni gave one to Mbabazi but, as their relationship soured, he ordered it back shortly before he sacked his old friend.

Playing the gay card

Museveni doesn't always get his own way. The USA reacted strongly when he signed anti-gay measures into law. Many political commentators believed that the President wanted to use the bill, which had widespread popular support, especially in the Charismatic Christian community, to reignite his waning popularity. Washington, however, obliged him to back down. The Constitutional Court struck down the act since Parliament was inquorate when it passed it in August. Members of parliament promised to retable the bill but Museveni summoned them to State House and persuaded them that the law was not an important 'ingredient' in Uganda's development agenda. This put to rest the debate over the bill – for now.Washington has since augmented its Special Operations forces searching for the Lord's Resistance Army and its leader Joseph Kony, using modern US military aircraft for the first time since it joined the hunt for the elusive warlord and his men. The LRA now moves mainly between Central African Republic and Congo-Kinshasa, taking refuge in Sudan, which the Kampala government accuses of increased direct support to the rebels, including supplying weapons and food. Kampala hosts the opposition Sudan Revolutionary Front and backs the Juba government against the South Sudanese armed opposition, which is backed by Sudan. None of this is likely to change soon.In Kampala, residents say that security troops toting newly-acquired communications gadgets and night-vision equipment have been patrolling the streets of the capital, probably to preempt protests by Mbabazi's supporters. The word is that although Mbabazi is out of a job, his position and influence in the NRM remain strong and it will take more than eavesdropping and flamboyant troop deployments to stop him. 

Africa Confidential 26 September 2014 - Vol 55 - N° 19

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