Government of Uganda and the Media

So the Daily Monitor in Uganda is now claiming that the government was jamming their radio broadcasts and website (I can concur that the website was “unavailable” during the time claimed, as I could not access it, but had no problem getting to the government-run New Vision). It is now available, though.
Here is the article: Government Jams Radio, Website, from the Daily Monitor

But the government would never, ever dream of shutting down the media in Uganda just because they were reporting something inconvenient, now would they?
Nothing like this here?
Or how about this?
And then there was this from 2002…

Museveni Wins Ugandan Election

Well, to the surprise and shock of everybody, Museveni will remain in power for a “third” term.
Uganda’s Museveni Wins Election from the BBC

And of course by third term, I mean his 20th year, since if you go by the third term argument, he really was not in power from 1986 until the mid-1990s. But such is life, I suppose. It is really quite unfortunate, however. So here is my take on the whole situation.

This is not good for Uganda. While in a lot of ways Museveni has been pretty good for the country (especially if you are from the southwest, and most certainly if you are NOT for the north), there are other things at stake here. Democracy, no matter how much our elected officials currently would like us to think otherwise, is not the process of having elections. While that is certainly part of it, the other part, and potentially more significant, is the peaceful transfer of power. Without a culture for the peaceful transfer of power, nothing else really matters, as no matter how well things go while some individual is in power, if the end result is massive violence, all the gains will be lost overnight.

So what is going to happen from this? Well, obviously Museveni is going nowhere in the near future. So Uganda is right back where it has always been, a country that is trying to recover from the violent conflicts of the 1970s and 80s. And a country that has never had a peaceful transfer of power. So the opposition at this point has to assume that the only way to actual contest the leadership is through violence, which pretty much means going to the bush and fighting the government. There is also the potential that for the change to take place there will just be a military coup, though the likelihood of predicting that very much eludes me. The final potential is Museveni having a heart attack or something and dying, which would also lead to mass chaos and violence, as there are no structures in place to replace the current government, which is entirely based on him.

So for the future, what happened today could be the beginnings of disaster. Hopefully I am totally wrong, but I don’t think so. It is hard to predict when everything will fall apart, but I am close to absolutely certain that it will, to my own great sadness. Museveni had the chance to go down in African history as a great statesman, but instead chose to keep his grip on power. So he now seems to be well on his path to joining the ranks of other African leaders that the world once thought showed promise and wisdom, Moi from Kenya and Mugabe in Zimbabwe.

And what great company that is to join the ranks of.

Uganda Elections on 23 February 2006

The election in Uganda is to be held in three days, on 23 February. While I have not been doing all that good a job of keeping up with it (there have been other things taking precedence, like making sure I pull this degree), here are some of the recent articles that I have come across.
Tear gas fired at Besigye rally from the BBC
UPDF Trucks Ram Into Besigye Crowd from The Monitor via AllAfrica.com
Besigye protests as his guards are changed from The Monitor

So a quick comment on the election… I can conceive of no way that Besigye will win, or maybe I should say that I can conceive of no way Museveni will allow himself to lose. But we shall see. No matter what, I have a feeling that the next year or so in Uganda will be filled with interesting happenings.

At Long Last, I Return

Hey there everybody. If anybody still comes by these parts… So it seems that I have not posted in more or less forever. So what has happened in the last 3 months? Well, I live through finals and got everything in. Classes ended up well more or less, though I yet again just got killed in my international law class. Ugh. There is a reason I am not in law school. Mainly because I am not very good at it.

So Molly and I went down to Phoenix to see Pat and Jenn, as well as mom and dad. It was very nice to see everybody, and to be someplace nice and warm. Everybody is doing very well and we had a lot of fun.

We then came back to beautiful Boston and started up the final semester. It has been a long first month. I am in the midst of trying to crank out my thesis, and I will be very happy when that goes away. The most difficult part of the whole thing was the realization that I was on the wrong track for about 2 months, and had wasted a lot of time and energy. But there is nothing to be done for it. I went to see Peter Uvin, my advisor, about changing my topic when the frustration got to the final boiling point and I just wanted to smash things. He more or less told me “No.” But we talked about it and I realized where I had gone wrong, and am diligently working away at it. The hope now is that the final product is not something that I cringe when I turn it in. And the sooner it is turned in the better. Having this hanging over me is not making school a whole lot of fun (though I am sure I will look back at this semester and laugh some day).

I spent this last weekend in Washington, DC for job stuff. It went well, all in all. The goal of the trip was to meet people and make some contacts for the future, and that seemed good. Now the real process of finding a job is upon me. At times it seems almost hopeless. But it is a lot like the thesis. The thesis will get written, for better or for worse, and a job will be found, hopefully for the better and hopefully one that will allow me to pay for this fancy education. But we shall see.

I certainly will try and update this thing a little bit more regularly in the future. But one never can tell….

So cheers all. And if any of you know any international non-governmental organizations that are looking for somebody like me, be sure to send them my way.

So here is Pat on Christmas. Is that not a sweet shirt, or what?














Here we all are for the family picture.














And the dancing queen at Fiesta Latina at school.

Militarisation of Uganda

I thought that this article was interesting from the BBC:
Uganda’s Fallen Angel

Some Pictures from the Last Few Months

Hi there everybody. I just thought that I would post some pictures of the semester quickly.



We went hiking a few weeks ago up in New Hampshire, and here we are more or less at the top of the small mountain we climbed. It was only about 4 miles round trip, but it was also straight up and down for that entire length.








Hmmm... Beer.... So when Pat and Jenn came out we went to the Sam Adam's brewery and then had some samples.








And here I am at Thanksgiving preparing kugula for the festivities. It was really good and quite a hit with everybody who came.











And on Thanksgiving after the chaos had died down.








And then there is of course Molly with her Turkey and plate of food.





I hope you had a good weekend. I know that I did though I accomplished very little school stuff. Now it is off to class.

Happy Thanksgiving

So it is Thanksgiving morning here in beautiful Boston. I am staying at Molly’s aunt and uncle’s house for the week puppy-sitting poor little Ruben (the growing-very-fast puppy who is just sweet as can be. It is a real hardship to have to play with him for a week), who went to Italy for the week to visit their daughter who is going to university there. Yesterday we spent the day cooking. Molly made a 23 pound turkey and I made a batch of kugula (I just googled kugula, and I am shocked to find so little coming up on it. I mean really, for something that is as fundamentally fabulous as kugula, there should be a site devoted to it somewhere) . They both smell really, really good and I cannot wait to eat them (I voiced a plan to Molly to not bring the 8x8 dish I made of it, only the 9x13, so that I could have it to myself. She promised she would kick my ass if I did that). We are having a big party with about 2 dozen classmates at a friend’s house. It should be very nice. There will be people from all over the world there (since the ones that are coming are the ones who do not have family in the area, and thus nowhere else to go), and each is supposed to bring a dish from their home country, and the Americans are supposed to bring something that we traditionally eat in our families.

Not much else going on. School is still school. It has been very busy. I have a very large project coming due on agriculture and deforestation in Cameroon, but I am comfortable with where we are (it is being done with another woman). Other than that there are finals approaching, which should be less than fun, but they will get done and it will be ok.

There are no picture of late because they are all sitting on my camera, and my cord to download them is sitting at home. But I will certainly try and post some from the dinner in the near future.

Hopefully you have taken a little time to browse the links to article on Uganda. It is really sad to watch this whole thing happen there, though not surprising at all. The groundwork was being put in place when I was there from 2002-04, and all my neighbors voiced their belief that Museveni is going nowhere by choice. Dawn came home last night, so I am looking forward to chatting with her in the near future about what Kampala was like. So it is time to head off. I have a puppy licking my socks and a dinner to start getting ready for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Dr Besigye's Lawyers Put in Jail for Not Agreeing with Government

From the BBC:
Museveni rival in military court

So Museveni has decreed that Dr Besigye can be tried in military court and when the lawyers argue against it, they are arrested. Nice.
Again, is the international community going to allow this farce to continue? Or is Museveni too valuable a partner in the “War on Terror” to criticize? And by allow, I mean are we going to continue funding the government as it does this and give our tacit approval to his methods?

Thus far, here is the extent of the US Embassy in Uganda’s response: United States urges Uganda to examine basis of charges against Besigye

Police Raid Monitor in Middle of Night

And some updates on Ugandan politics from the Monitor
Judge Withdraws from Besigye Case
Ugandans to Demonstrate Worldwide
Fear is the Key to Election in Uganda
Police raid Monitor over FDC advert
So I was just wondering two days ago whether the Monitor would be shut down… and then the police raid the paper in the middle of the night. The paper was shut down over a corruption story a few years ago, and the international community had a fit. And Museveni did shut down a radio station this summer for talking about stuff Museveni did not want talked about (if I recall it had to do with the death of Garang on his way back to Sudan, but I could be wrong).

And from the state-run New Vision
Police check Daily Monitor office
“Every Police action is justifiable provided it is done under the law. They must have had a reason as to why they went there. It’s part of their normal work.”—Minister of State information, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo
Besigye bail case set for Thursday
Judge pulls out of PRA case
Besigye Charge Sheets

And from the BBC
Ugandan judge's fury at military
"The High Court witnessed the most naked and grotesque violation of the twin doctrines of the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary," said Head of the High Court Judge James Ogoola

Museveni Reluctantly Succumbs to Pressure

From the Monitor today:
Op-ed: Country on fire as Museveni finally succumbs to ‘pressure’
Besigye: Chief Justice condemns court siege
NRM endorses Gen Museveni
First Lady to stand for Parliament

So… Will Museveni have the guts to shut down the Monitor again before the elections?

Nothing new from the state-run New Vision

From the BBC today:
US wants fast Uganda critic trial
Museveni's longevity takes its toll

From CNN today:
U.S. cites concern about Uganda treason trial

Military Tribunal for Accused

PRA suspects for Court Martial

From KFM/Monitor Online

14 of the PRA suspects who are jointly charged with Rtd. Col. Besigye are to face the Army Court Martial.

The 14 are the same suspects who declined to sign bail papers yesterday after an invasion of the High Court premises by a militia tagged the "Men In Black".

The army now wants them court-martialed because, as army spokesman Major Kulayigye told KFM, some are former soldiers who were also found in possession of arms illegally.

Kulayigye further added that the army was waiting for the civil courts to deal with the suspects' case before swinging into action.


Wow, this kind of looks familiar in a way…

Will Besigye's Arrest Help the Opposition?

And some more commentary from the Monitor about the implications of Besigye’s arrest and what it means for the coming elections in the country.

The Men in Black

And now from the Monitor, a bit more detailed account of the incident with the Men In Black

It's Official: Museveni Not Going Anywhere

Wow, so they finally convinced Museveni to run for president again. Never would have guessed that announcement was coming. It is nice to see him willing to make the sacrifice for the good of the nation. I am quite sure the long-term results will be in the best interests for Uganda.

And those guys in black shirts that surrounded the courthouse as people were being granted bail? It was the Black Mamba’s Urban Hit Squad/Joint Anti-Terrorism (JAT) Unit!!!! (Both links from the New Vision in Uganda, the state-run paper)

Commentary from Uganda

Commentary from the Monitor: Arresting Besigye Can Only Delay Museveni’s Departure

CNN's Coverage of Uganda

CNN’s reporting on the current situation in Uganda here
And from earlier here

In-depth reporting and insight it is not.

So CNN is repeating the government of Uganda's line that Besigye is part of the LRA without even a minimal attempt to find out if that claim could possibly have any merit. My feeling is that anybody with even a minimal understanding of the LRA and the conflict in northern Uganda would tend to assume the claim is false.

But I guess if there is a rebel group active in the country they MUST be involved, especially if the government says so. PRA, LRA, they are both rebels (is the PRA real?) so they must therefore have links and of course it is logical that Besigye is involved with both.

Museveni: Africa's Next Tyrant?

Another article from Uganda, Museveni Warns Diplomats (from the Monitor via Allafrica.com) that is interesting and demands some comment, I think. It goes back to the over 50% of the budget being provided by outsiders.

This is from the independent newspaper in Uganda. If you compare this reporting to that on the BBC (link is from a previous post), there is something missing from this one… Why were the bail proceedings interrupted? Well, mainly because there were lots of armed thugs outside the courthouse waiting for Besigye to emerge. This brings back memories of when I was there and discussions were just starting on whether Museveni would change the constitution to stay in power. Thugs just happened to start busting into meetings with opposition leaders and beat the hell out of them. Now those thugs have been given guns by the government (and guns are supposed to be very illegal in Uganda unless you are a guard, so minivans full of youths in black shirts with assault rifles pretty much have to have the support of the government. Oh. And the guns the guards have tend not to be the highest of quality, often missing stocks and from about the 1940s).

So the apolitical political approach. I am not all that interested in going through the whole history. If you are interested, Peter Uvin has a great book called Aiding Violence: the Development Enterprise in Rwanda that goes into a lot of detail (not that I am entirely unbiased. Professor Uvin is my thesis advisor). The basic claim is that by claiming to not get involved in local politics by pulling funding when shady stuff started happening (there were quite a lot of “small-scale killings” of only 10-20,000 in the years before the genocide), the international community was complicit in creating the environment that allowed it to happen. Is that the path that is going to be followed in Uganda?

How can the international community even claim to be apolitical and uninvolved in local politics if they are dumping loads of money into a government? Doesn’t that imply tacit agreement with what is being done?

Then there is the question about what the results would be if funding were withdrawn. Museveni would be gone very quickly, and I would think it would be followed by yet another bloody succession fight in Uganda.

But isn’t that where Museveni is leading the country anyway? By demonstrating that the only way he is leaving power is if he is forced, Uganda will yet again avoid the potential for a peaceful transfer of power. Even if fighting is avoided in the short term, it will be the end result.

It is sad. Museveni has done a lot of good things for Uganda (assuming you are not Acholi) and had the potential to become a great African statesman, something that is seriously lacking and needed. Instead, it would seem that he would prefer to be the next Mugabe (president of Zimbabwe, who at one time was quite respected internationally, and is now not so much).

Note from Kampala

Another email from Dawn about the situation there:


Holy crap, who the hell knows!  This place is falling apart.  I hadn’t heard about this yet, but I’m sure we will see the story in the paper tomorrow.  Where did you see it? 
 
Did you tell Ian about Kampala yesterday?  Ian, I have never seen Kampala like this before.  A Tuesday evening at 5pm and it was a ghost town!  It was really eerie.  I went walking down towards Kampala road looking for an MTN store and to just check out the city.  There was no one and nothing open.  I swear in my walk from Speke down past Standard Charter to Kla road, towards Nando’s and back up to Speke I saw maybe 5 taxi’s total and 15 people.  It was freaky, and then I saw trucks and trucks of military and that is when I decided to go back to the hotel. 
 
Today is better, it is calmer downtown.  I guess there are still a lot of people around the courthouse and police station, but people have mellowed since the large numbers of military has shown up.  And we all know how disciplined the military here is.  It is still tense.  Lots of people bent over papers, whispering and discussing. 
 
Besigye is in jail now.  Refusing to eat for fear of being poisoned, so he’ll just die of starvation instead.  Then people will really be pissed.   Museveni has threatened the other leaders of FDC.  People are convinced this can only get worse.  I was talking to a few people about it today and they all believe there will be another coup soon. 
 
I had dinner with Richard and Dora this evening.  That was so nice!  It was great to see them.  I got all the new gossip on the new PC (ed: Peace Corps) groups.  I guess the 2 new groups, especially the latest ones, like to ET (ed: early termination, i.e. quitting and going home).  I think Richard said a 30% ET rate.  What the hell?  But he did confirm that no other group has ever been like ours!  We of course were the best! 
 
Well…I will keep you updated on the happenings!
 
Dawn

Another Article on Uganda

Armed Men disrupt Ugandan Court from the BBC

Yikes... is this really where this is going to go? A question: What will the international aid community's response to the current situation be? We provide over 50% of Uganda's budget. Are we going to revisit the very political "apolitical" approach that was so very succesful in making sure the genocide in Rwanda did not happen?

The Banana Republic of Uganda

I just got the following email from a good friend that was sent to Uganda on very short notice, so has been there for the recent excitement. I will include some links on the recent events from the news after the email.


Greetings from Uganda!
 
I’ve only been here a couple days, but I thought I should update you all on what’s going on here.  I don’t know if any of you have seen Uganda in the news these past couple of days, but the tensions are high here.  I think you all know that Museveni changed the constitution so that he could run for a third term (elections in March), this has pissed a few people off.  Besigye, who was Museveni’s friend  and doctor at one point in time, then was his opposition in the 2001 election (came in 2nd) returned from exile last month to run against Museveni again, stating “It was time to return and take on the dictatorship”.  Yesterday as he was returning from a rally in Mbarara he was arrested and brought to Kampala under charges of treason and rape.  This did not turn out good for Kampala.  Riots broke out in the center of the city surrounding the Police Station and the State House.  I am staying at the Speke Hotel, somehow in the middle of all this, and managed to sleep through all the shooting, car burning, looting, tear gassing, etc.  Jet lag is a killer!  I awoke this morning to the debris in the streets and the pictures and stories on the papers. 
 
So today is another day and more riots are occurring in the city center.  The Peace Corps office is closed for security reasons.  I am stuck in an office in Nakasero and when the driver takes me back to the hotel I have to stay inside.  So much for going shopping and exploring, good thing I’ve already experienced Kampala! 
 
On the bright side, Museveni is trying to make some people happy and cover up his wrong doings by announcing today that he is going to make Secondary School free.  Yay!  Although when you read into the story...the program will start with students entering S1 and the Govt will only cover 15,621 UGX per student per term (what secondary school costs only $8???).  Oh well, it’s a start I guess.  
 
So anyways, it is great to be back, aside from the rioting and politics.  It feels so normal yet I keep noticing small details of things that I had forgotten over the past year and half.  I have easily remembered though how much I suck at Luganda, oh well, it’s appreciated even if I can just greet, right?! 
 
Nsubira muli bulungi!  Ogamba ki?
Dawna

Here are the promised links to articles on what Dawn was talking about:
Besigye Riots Continue from The Monitor via AllAfrica.com
Museveni Assures He Can Contain Riots from The Monitor via AllAfrica.com
Museveni Backtracks on Succession from the BBC
Police Kill Rioter from the BBC