{UAH} Remembering The Sayings of Yoweri Museveni

The Sayings of Yoweri Museveni

30. The Sayings included herein are not exhaustive and were not uttered once but several times and continue to be Museveni's stock-in-trade.  It defeats the imagination that whoever is not incorrigibly biased or simply indifferent, be they Ugandans or not, would disregard the meanings of these Sayings.  The Sayings are given without comment.  It makes no sense for Museveni's well-wishers abroad to project him as an educated man, which he is, who knows what he says and wants to do and at the same time to hold that when Museveni speaks of "massacres" he does not mean it or means well.

The groans of Museveni's target victims directed to the world at large is this: - It may be in your interest that we be massacred; but how can it be in our interest that we be massacred.

31. (   i) "The rebels attacked us (NRA soldiers) at a place called Corner Kilak 20 miles South of Kitgum (Town).  They came in while singing and shouting; our people (NRA) massacred those chaps.  They approached our troops frontally.  This gave us a very good chance because they exposed themselves; so on Sunday (January 24,  1987) we surrounded them and massacred them.  We massacred them very badly.  (Standard - Nairobi -January 21, 1987)

(  ii) "Our role is to wipe out insecurity ... if we have to eliminate those chaps by force, we will do it".  (Daily Nation - Nairobi  January 26, 1987)

( iii) "I don't know about torture.  I have educated myself on many things but on torture I have not known the boundary between what is torture and what isn't torture.  I know the NRA tie these people (rebels, etc.) when they catch them.  They tie their hands backwards.  I am now being told that is torture.  It is the traditional method.  (Daily Nation - Nairobi - January 26, 1987)

(iv) "I don't think we are destroying people's crops.  We are destroying rebel crops and stores."  (Daily Nation - Nairobi - January 26,1987)

(v) "The soldiers feel that the Police are not serious with the criminal elements and that they are corrupt.  The army had to come in and insist that criminals must be punished.  It happens in all countries, there is a time when the army assumes the duty of internal security".  (Daily Nation - Nairobi - January 26, 1987)

(  vi) "What is the Geneva Convention on wars!  I have never read it". (TV Panorama Programme of the BBC, March 1986)

( vii) "In the areas which have been disturbed people are living cordially with the Security Forces.  In areas like Gulu people are living peacefully.  There is scrupulous respect of human rights".  (Daily Nation - Nairobi - January 26, 1987)

(viii) "You see when you give them (civil population in the North and East) a good beating then those who are using them will no longer use them.  Since the month of January (1987), we have given them much beating especially in Lira and Kitgum Districts.  And in fact the week I left (for Yugoslavia) we had given them a good blow in Gulu District.  So it is going to settle down".  (New Vision - Official Daily of Museveni regime  January 19, 1987)

(  ix) QUESTION:

People have criticized what they called, "the scorched-earth policy", that is, civilians were moved from areas of rebel sanctuaries to population centers, and then the burning of houses and granaries, etc. to deny rebels food. Is this policy still in force?

ANSWER:

That is a misnomer.  There was no policy of scorched earth.  There was a policy of destroying foodstuff being used by the rebels.  The population was warned in advance through the dropping of leaflets by helicopters written in vernacular.  I repeat this:  There was no policy of scorched earth.  There has never been such a policy.  What there was was a policy to destroy food stocks that were assisting the rebels to continue disturbing the peace of the ordinary people.  This was done after due notice was given to the population through dropping of leaflets in the disturbed areas of Gulu District well in advance, by the helicopters.  These leaflets in vernacular were telling people to evacuate the fire areas where the security forces would clash with rebels, to safe zones.  It was only food found in such areas that were destroyed.  But not food belonging to wananchi.

Now, whether that policy is still continuing or not is no longer a major issue because we have already - even in some of the Counties in Gulu District, the rebels have been cleared and the population have gone back like Omoro County and Atiak, areas like Pabo and Amuro.  We hear the population have already gone back, the operation was over.  It is only in Nwoya County, that is Anaka, Olwio and the Park - that where they are still operational.

And in those areas, there isn't any food anymore.  So there is nothing more to destroy.  That is one of the reasons why the rebels are desperate.  And that is why they are waylaying people on the road because they have nothing to eat and that is why they are surrendering in big numbers now because they have nothing to eat really.

(   x) QUESTION:

Allegations of violation of human rights by the NRA appears to have made the civilians quite emotional.  The last time we met, you said the human rights record of the NRA must be assessed in light of whether the mechanism for detecting these violations are in place, effective punishment of culprits and their code of conduct.  The civilians there are not satisfied that these are being very effective in the sense that the culprits who could have been involved in violations in the war areas have not really been brought to book.  Cases of indiscipline have been shown to have been from the more peaceful areas.  There have been cases of murder, rape, followed up.  There have been executions but not really in operational areas.  As far as cases of atrocities are concerned, it has not been easy to identify the culprits in the war areas.

Whereas it has been much easier probably for the undisciplined ones in other areas to be identified.  There is dissatisfaction and discontentment that these people have not been brought to book and the mechanism of identification has not been very effective.

ANSWER:

Well...but my sister, that is the whole point.  That is why we are saying and that is why we insisted that civilians should be evacuated from combat zones so that they are not mixed up in the fire between the rebels and the government forces.  It is because we were aware of the difficulty of identifying who has done what in combat zone that we were insisting on this.

It is, of course, not easy.  When people are fighting, it is not easy to know who has done what.  Therefore, civilians were moved from these zones.

Maybe crime committed in places that were peaceful were easier to unearth than those committed in combat zones.  It is precisely because of that we insisted on this separation of law abiding citizens from those who happened to be bandits.

Therefore, people who were opposing us on this issue were actually murderers of civilians.  Because they wanted civilians to be killed.

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