{UAH} EDWARD POJIM NOW YOU HAVE MAIL

Edward Pojim

You make strong points and I kind of agree with you. Our Constitution is slowly being snipped to shreds by laws and amendments that take away our rights and our freedoms. If the government attempts to usurp powers over the People, which are not granted it by the Constitution. And if that usurpation threatens our life, liberty or pursuit of happiness, I would consider an extreme response not unreasonable.  However, I don’t think there will be a full scale war in Uganda as was the case after the 1980 elections. The population is quite comfortable with the amount of control that now exists. I am not saying that some do not spout off about it; they are just not anywhere near willing to trade their lives for more freedom. Apart from a few incidents in Kasese and Kapchora, we aren’t likely to see barracks being attacked or anything like that.

That said, what’s happening in Kasese makes you wonder what UPDF soldiers are up against. The video I first saw showed a soldier shooting dead a civilian who was armed with a stone. Regardless of the justifications for such a response, I think there is a very serious moral issue here. When is it moral to begin taking the lives of others that are throwing stones at you? Was it moral in Nazi Germany to shoot members of the Gestapo? Many people would say that it was.

Please correct me if i'm wrong but I remember reading something in the UPDF Act that says that a soldier could not be ordered to fire on unarmed civilians. A soldier does not have to obey an order contrary to the Constitution (i.e, if a president declared himself a dictator and other organs of the govt went along with it, he may find he has no military .. in fact, they could, under their leaders, attack and remove him and the parliament that supported him), military laws, or the Geneva Convention. In case of the president’s removal by force, leadership then drops to the VP, who, if he follows his boss will lose it to the Speaker of the House (just follow the list of advancements for replacing the President in required), etc.

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

                 Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
                    Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"

 

On Thu, Mar 31, 2016 at 11:10 PM, 'Edward Pojim' via Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community <ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Gook;

 

Museveni has given Ugandans plenty of legally-valid reasons to fight him, and even overthrow his government. 

 

Whatever evidence one would need to occasion such a move, the president himself has offered in abundance.

 

From chest-thumping speeches to self-serving books, Mr. Museveni has incriminated him numerously, and with abandon. 

 

In Sowing the Mustard Seed, the president cites incidents where he killed Ugandans without any provocations. Not to mention robberies committed in the name of liberation.

 

In a particularly scary interview in the 1987/8 time period, the president gloated about how "we massacred those people." He was talking about the mass murder of unarmed members of the Acholi community at a primary school, where they had been lured, on the pretext of a peace rally.

 

Even the 1995 Constitution has several provisions that one could use to justify taking up arms against his government.

 

If you wonder why he's fixated at detaining Besgye, it's because Museveni knows that law is on Besigye's side, not his.

 

Pojim