{UAH} Ugandan group declares armed struggle against Yoweri Museveni’s 31-year government

http://www.thelondoneveningpost.com/ugandan-group-declares-armed-struggle-against-yoweri-musevenis-31-year-government/

By Richard A Luce

A group of Ugandans have vowed to wage an armed struggle against the government of President Yoweri Museveni, saying they've tried in vain all peaceful means to remove the National Resistance Movement from power and now say, enough is enough.

In a six-page statement emailed to our office here in London, the group, calling itself 'the Super Coalition Of the Fearless (SCOF), said they had come together so as to 'wage war against the despotic, corrupt and repressive military dictatorship in Uganda'. Made up of The Alliance Of Democrats (TAD), the National Equality and Democracy (NED), the Uganda National Democratic Alliance (UNDA) and the Uganda Democratic Federal Organisation (UDFO), the group met recently in The Hague, Netherlands and said they had been forced to take the fight to oust Museveni through an armed struggle after coming to the conclusion that the Museveni regime has abrogated all agreements previously entered into with other fighting groups, political parties, religious institutions and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs).

The SCOF statement accused the Museveni regime, which has been in power since January 1986, of committing 'heinous crimes' against Ugandans based allegedly on 'pervasive corruption, despoliation, discrimination and tribalism'. It accused the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government of having 'misappropriated' and 'swindled' the country's national wealth, leaving Ugandans 'wallowing in abject poverty' and unable to harness their physical, material and resource potentials. Accusing Museveni of using the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) arbitrarily as ''a sectional tribal militia group that owes its allegiance to 'one dictator, one political party and one ethnic group', has made the SCOF realise there was an urgent need for liberating the country from 'a corrupt military dictatorship' in pursuance of 'a true democratic state of the people, for the people and by the people'.

In an exclusive interview with The London Evening Post, the group's spokesperson Joel Wakayima said their decision to mount an armed insurrection against the Museveni regime was an accumulation of events that have taken place for the last 30 years during which freedom fighters like the late Dr Andrew Kayiira was gunned down in Kampala and followed by several political assassinations including that of two former speakers of the Ugandan National parliament, James Wapakhabulo and Francis Ayume died in mysterious circumstances. Mr Wakayima said since the NRM came to power, at least half a million Ugandans have died in unexplained and questionable circumstances.

Asked to name other people of repute he knows that have been killed since the deaths of the above three gentlemen, Mr Wakayima said there are so many Ugandans of great repute that have perished in questionable circumstances since Museveni took power. "Among these are Sheikh Mukwaya, lawyer Kagezi, lawyer Robinah Kiyingi wife of Dr Kiyingi, Sheikh Kirya, MP Nebanda, among many others whose deaths remain unexplained." He revealed that of recent, his organisation had discovered the presence of mass graves in Mityana that held the bodies of 300 bodies, all without their heads. He added that two other mass graves were found, one in Makindye with 70 bodies and another at Lugazi containing more than150 bodies "These are mass graves of people not killed during independence, nor during the Idi Amin regime, and neither were they killed during the Obote regime but killed during Mr Museveni's regime," Wakayima alleged.

He called for the establishment of an international investigation into what has happened to the people whose murders have remained unexplained since the NRM shot its way to power on January 25, 1986. "If the Museveni government thinks we are lying, then let them establish an independent investigatory body to find out when these people died and how they met their death," he said. "We have been provoked so many times in our country and it's time we got up and fought back," he added. He went on to say "The regime in Kampala is diabolic, devilish, not for people and self-seeking. That's why we believe we can get enough support for a national insurrection."

We put it to Mr Wakayima that in countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Somalia, leaders have been elected recently in free and fair election and asked why his organisation thought this was not possible in Uganda. He replied: "That's another very good question. It is not possible in Uganda to have a free and fair election because, one, we have explored every avenue that all those countries you have mentioned and many more have pursued and we have not got the right answers." He explained that when the NRM regime had first come to power in 1986m Museveni requested 10 years to get the country back to its right footing after many years of wars. "During that period, every person in Uganda was a member of the NRM by law. Nobody was allowed to politically organise for anything and we accepted that."

Mr Wakayima explained that at the end of 10 years, there was a constitutional review committee headed by Justice Benjamin Odoki that clearly indicated that the country wanted to take a different route. "Mr Museveni refused, resisted and rebelled against the [thinking in the] country and told Ugandans; 'Over my dead body. You cannot have that.' Museveni denied Ugandan a system that 55 per cent of Ugandans believed would have helped devolve some powers to the regions. He refused. He has since been refusing everything the country wants."

He explained that before last year's general election, Ugandan opposition political parties had come together and suggested that the Uganda Electoral Committee should be disbanded. He said a document prepared by retired Bishop David Zac Niringiye then and distributed to all Ugandan political parties had laid a proper groundwork for a stable political future for Uganda and had been accepted by most Ugandan political parties, bar the NRM. "Museveni refers to anybody who challenges his leadership as either an idiot, a fool or both. That means he is an arrogant man and there is no way we can deal with such a person other than to do the needful."

Speaking about democratic changes of governments that have taken place in countries like Ghana, Nigeria and Somalia, Mr Wakayima said while the SCOF applauds the achievements of those countries, it could be argued that those countries would not have become democratic had they not received help from Western countries. He mentioned Egypt, Tunisia and Libya whose peoples revolted against established leadership and were largely supported by the West. "In Uganda, we have been fighting for more than 20 years against the hegemony of Mr Museveni but with no help from the outside world. We have been impoverished and pushed to the margins of impoverishment by the Museveni regime and this must stop. There is no reason for us to continue in the same way when we know that international law provides for social liberties that allow people to [democratically] choose the leaders they want and not through political trickery," Wakayima said. He argued that if the international community can assist the people of Syria to fight the regime of President Assad, he saw no reason why they shouldn't support Ugandans in their efforts to remove a leader who the SCOF believes has overstayed in power.

In the document sent to us, the SCOF declares war against anyone supporting the NRM regime in Uganda, including agents, informants and the army, vowing to go out and forcibly eliminate such people wherever you could find them. Asked how they would avoid being termed a terrorist organisation as has become the norm these days, the SCOF spokesperson said: "In this era when we are trying to wrestle power from a terrorist government like that of Mr Museveni, we cannot avoid any repercussions of people labelling us 'terrorists' because that one is very near their tongues." But he went on to argue that the international community will understand that they are not a terrorist organisation. "We have pursued all avenues. We have engaged people who matter, the President of the United States, individual countries of the European Union, embassies of countries from the African Union like Ghana, Botswana, South Africa and many others, to tell them than we are not blood thirsty, we are not violent."

Mr Wakayima argued further that what his organisation says about the leadership of President Museveni has been echoed by international organisations like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that have written documents pinpointing the atrocities committed by the Museveni regime against Ugandans. Any liberation movement has got to have a base. The NRM fought against the Obote and Okello regimes based mainly in what came to be known as 'the Luwero Triangle' in Central Buganda. Find out  The London Evening Post where the SCOF plans to base itself and how it answers questions about funding for its activities when we continue this interview next weekend only here at The London Evening Post .

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Allaah gives the best to those who leave the choice to Him."And if Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it but He, and if He touches you with good, then He is Able to do all things." (6:17)

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