Uganda's Museveni Stages a 'Bush on Steroids'

[BreakForNews]

And you think you have problems with George Bush?



Ahead of an upcoming election, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye
has been arrested and has appeared in court to face charges of treason,
as protests sparked by his arrest continue in the capital, Kampala.

"Museveni is a dictator. It is time for Museveni to go," opposition
supporters shouted at the police.

They're right.


Full Report in Audio
Listen to mp3 HERE
http://www.breakfornews.com/audio/InsideTrackNews051116.mp3
"The Next Level"
Internet Radio Show
Dateline: Wed 16th Nov 2005

Uganda's Museveni Stages a 'Bush on Steroids'
http://breakfornews.com/my/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=236

Mr. Besigye and 22 others were arrested Monday, accused of planning to topple the government. He also faces a separate rape charge. Mr. Besigye returned to Uganda last month after four years in exile, and was expected to be the president Museveni's toughest challenger in next year's election.

In court, it was claimed that in 1997, Besigye raped a young woman, Joanita Kyakuwa, and paid for her to have an abortion. She claims that he infected her with the HIV virus, but she did not report the alleged assault to authorities until 2003.

Reporter Barbara Among says Mr. Besigye laughed when he heard the allegations in court. He is reported to be refusing to eat in custody for fear of being poisoned.

Fourteen of those arrested were ordered to be freed on bail on Wednesday, but in unprecedented scenes at a high court the men opted to return to prison fearing re-arrest by commandos waiting for them outside.

Toting assault rifles, the gunmen in black T-shirts, some wearing bandanas, are believed to be Ugandan security forces. They arrived in two civilian minibuses and deployed outside the court.

A group of Western ambassadors -- who were at the court as observers -- left shortly after the gunmen arrived.

Kampala city is a ghost town Wednesday, with human and motorised traffic relatively low. The traffic jams that have become a trademark of the city at various times of the day are no more. Reports say more than one person was shot during the protests.


Besigye leads the Forum for Democratic Change and if found guilty he could face the death penalty.

FDC official, Edward Ssempala, believes that even if they pulled out of the race today, they have already shown the world that President Museveni is a dictator. “It is now up to the country and the rest of the world to join us and fight him,” he says.

FULL STORY:
http://breakfornews.com/my/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=236

[Helga Scow Stern]

1. Recommended. Thanks for reporting. n/t

[Selatius]

2. People have been fighting out there since decolonization

Some have fought for so long to gain power that they will not give it up in an election after fighting sometimes decades for power. People like Museveni are warped because of it.

[BreakForNews]

3. Ugandan Gov. Shuts Down National Newspaper

'The Monitor' in Uganda has been closed down Wednesday.
This is the kind of stuff that got them silenced:

Arresting Besigye can only Delay Museveni's Departure

November 17, 2005

The running gun battles of early this week are a perilous reminder of
the fragility of our political system and the risk in extending
personal rule.

In Uganda we have no Minister of Internal Affairs nor an Attorney
General, we only have a President. The Chief Justice does not have a
say in the administration of justice in the country.

All the three principal law enforcement officials were silent during
the last shameful debacle when the DPP, after denying there were
charges against Besigye, signed a charge sheet under directives from
State House.

FDC failed too in one material respect, in its ill advised attempt to
entice Museveni to play his trump card, the use of intimidating
tactics to achieve his political goals. To threaten using force, you
must have a credible force on the ground.

The oratory plays well on the stump but is an ineffectual way to
mobilise support. Museveni's entire political career has been
assembled creating a reality of pseudo-conflict in order to justify
the use of force to his advantage.

No provocation

Our neighbours; territorial elephants, the DRC and the Sudan have
mastered that lesson, ignoring his threats to invade them without
cause. Sudan avoided that after Garang's death. 33 year old Joseph
Kabila has not blessed Museveni's war mongering with a response.

It is unlikely that either would support rebels on their territory
against a regime that massacred thousands of their citizens in the
quest for diamonds, gold and oil.

The UN MONUC forces vastly outnumber the regular DRC army in Eastern
Congo. But they don't have a mandate to disarm or engage in "peace
enforcement"; they are a monitoring body. Bands of war lords control
territory including former combatants who are now doing trading in
precious minerals.

VIOLENT, BUT FOR HOW MUCH LONGER? President Museveni

Of special interest is the fact that the US and Britain are part of
the intelligence collection apparatus in the Congo. There may also be
a conflict of interest given the implication of UN planes in smuggling
activities out of the Entebbe Airforce base.

We have to get to the point of credibility of evidence if as the
government says, investigations are completed. Most PRA suspects have
alleged torture at the hands of CMI operatives in safe houses.

The timing of the arrest by its nature implicates donors in some form
of double play. They encouraged Besigye to come home; yet were the
first to land with evidence to buttress that from the tortured PRA
suspects in custody.

For the past 20 years, donors have created this opportunistic culture
of permissiveness using Museveni as a pawn in the region. They have
left violations of human rights unanswered, skirted Uganda's
culpability in the DRC massacres and use of violence in domestic
elections.

They continue to pump millions of dollars into the economy ignoring
reports of corruption, cronyism, influence peddling and outright
graft. Ahead of this week's inferno, the World Bank approved a $130
million aid package to Uganda claiming we met performance targets in
several critical areas including governance, in a year the President
used the treasury to bribe members of Parliament to amend the
constitution to allow him to run for office indefinitely; or where the
ruling party cannot explain the source of funds it is using to run its
campaigns over and above the limits of the political parties statute.

The Global Fund jumped at the appointment of the Judicial Commission
a chance to continue a $300 million programme while patients in
hospitals go without drugs. And even with such vast resources, its
programmes only cover 70,000 patients out of 200,000 patients in need
of Anti-Retroviral drugs.

Hyprocrites

Such hypocrisy extends to all of the new breed of leaders. Museveni
is probably reading from Meles Zenawi's book. He has colleagues who
visited terror upon the population in a bid to win the last election,
and also benefitted from an aid bounty because he is an ally in the
war against terrorism.

The President and his wife continue to paint themselves as God
fearing, yet they will not stop at any opportunity to sweeten up the
voters to allow them remain in power.

The president has become a cocksure bravado bragging about his
micromanagement of constitutional offices like that of the DPP.

He has said he would never allow Salim Saleh to be prosecuted even
though a Judicial Commission of Inquiry found him culpable in
chopper-gate. But Kale Kayihura's orders for now are to manage matters
in a way that threatens citizens’peace, including shooting unarmed
citizens; like the fate of the No Lule No Work demonstrators. This
time, Museveni is taking no chances.

It is gonna be bloody!

Contact: [email protected]

[ohio_liberal]

4. Fintan, I've gotta ask you a question....

My apologies for hijacking this thread but I've been dying know how you came to the conclusion that truthout.org and buzzflash are CIA fronts.

http://www.breakfornews.com/TheCIAInternetFakes.htm

[BreakForNews]

5. Slightly off topic, but.....

Well, much of this is covered in the audio's on our CIA Fakes page,
and in the blog at http://WagNews.blogspot.com

If you think that John Kerry is a great guy... you are unlikely to get it.

However if you see that his role was to soak up domestic resistance to
the 9/11 Op, War in Iraq, Patriot Act etc., And then lead that resistance
into a carefully stolen election, while saying nuttin'......

Well, then maybe, just maybe, you WILL get it.

Because the CIA -who manage this domestic political stuff for the US elite-
have various outreach mechanisms to control the flow of information
and thus ensure they retain control of the unfolding Op.

That's where the 'Fakes' come in. (inc Cobb, Olbermann, et al.)

I could warble on, but out of respect to the million Acholi in
Northern Uganda being slowly genocided by the US/UK/U.N....
I think it's best to leave it at that.

[Avalux]

6. Locking.

Copyright infringement. Text contained in this post is sourced at the BBC. A link to the original information should be provided as the BBC does not have a "fair use" statement.