{UAH} NUP, FDC not ready for talks with Museveni

Uganda's biggest Opposition parties, the National Unity Platform (NUP) and the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), have put a caveat for any dialogue with the Museveni administration.
The parties say they are outrightly opposed to the dialogue talks being held on terms set by Uganda's President since 1986. 

However, the stand has elicited an angry response from Mr Emmanuel Dombo, the director for communication at the secretariat of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

Mr Dombo accused the two parties of politicking and operating in a way that is aimed at embarrassing Mr Museveni and the NRM. He argued that the duo should borrow a leaf from Ukraine and Russia, which continue to hold talks behind the scenes as artillery pieces continue to fly.
"If people who are exchanging bullets are talking, what is difficult for [Mr Patrick] Amuriat or [Mr Robert] Kyagulanyi to look up President Museveni and raise any issues instead of inflaming society in order to turn the issue of a dialogue into a political war?" Mr Dombo wondered.

NUP position
Mr David Lewis Rubongoya, NUP's secretary general, told Monitor that—whereas they are suspicious of the NRM—they just might be able to engage it in a dialogue if government ceases harassment of its supporters. He also said the dialogue "should be among equals", adding that "you don't put your boot on my neck and then you say: 'let us talk.'"

NUP has over the last couple of years accused the government of killing and abducting its supporters. At least 54 people, most of them believed to have been NUP supporters, were killed and others sustained serious injuries as security forces worked to end two days of protests that followed Mr Kyagulanyi's November 18, 2020, arrest in Luuka District.
In March 2021, NUP released a list of 458 missing people believed to be its supporters. The 2020 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, which was published by the United States' State Department's website, accused security forces of involvement in abductions of Opposition supporters and politically motivated killings.

FDC position
In early 2017, efforts by the government of Sweden to take President Museveni and former FDC president Col Dr Kizza Besigye to the negotiating table failed. In February 2018, the Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies (GLISS), the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU) and the Elders Forum (TEFU) attempted to organise a national dialogue. The parties involved hoped this would be a way through which the citizenry would chart out ways of solving the most contentious, political, social and economic issues of the time, but that initiative also failed.

Whereas the reasons for the failure of the planned talks remain scanty, Mr Dombo, speaking in a previous interview, laid the blame on Dr Besigye, who he accused of setting impossible conditions. Mr Oboi, the FDC president, was, however, quick to blame the poor outcome on the NRMs' failure to meet "a few very simple conditions."
"For us to dialogue, we needed a clear agenda for the dialogue, a neutral convener. We wanted to know who the participants in the dialogue would be and we needed a guarantor to guarantee the outcome of any dialogue. Those are very simple conditions and fairly standard when it comes to meaningful dialogue, but the NRM did not agree," Mr Amuriat revealed.

Mr Rubongoya told this publication that NUP "can only have a dialogue if …they … stop abducting our people, release all those who were arrested for supporting us, and release our MPs who have been in prison for over a year now." It was partly because of the NRM's failure to fulfill the aforesaid conditions that the leading Opposition party declined to join the Inter Political Organisations Dialogue (Ipod).
"We do not want a dialogue that is a way of sanitising a criminal regime," Mr Rubongoya said.

https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/news/national/nup-fdc-not-ready-for-talks-with-museveni-4102082?fbclid=IwAR2ThEOF-WQL8InHxD0hwtWupA0VzuPEclZe7mxf9R0iGtyiKmSbQ6NBFkc
--

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)

--
Disclaimer:Everyone posting to this Forum bears the sole responsibility for any legal consequences of his or her postings, and hence statements and facts must be presented responsibly. Your continued membership signifies that you agree to this disclaimer and pledge to abide by our Rules and Guidelines.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ugandans-at-heart/CAJqBGGcAEWGjr%2B_NmdL61EY4m9KFkOx7fWi2x1B_cN%3Di2OmWrw%40mail.gmail.com.