Tyranny returns to Uganda
by Peter Tatchell
Dr. Kizza Besigye, President of Uganda’s main opposition movement, the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), is mourning the death of his brother, Joseph Musasizi Kifefe. Jailed for three years on charges of treason against the regime of President Yoweri Museveni, Kifefe entered prison fit and healthy. His FDC colleagues suspect that he was poisoned, alleging that government authorities refused to allow independent doctors to examine and treat the prisoner during his incarceration.
Such abuses are increasingly common in Uganda. At the start of this year, FDC election workers in Busia were arrested on trumped-up charges designed to hobble the party’s campaign. Simultaneously, in Fort Portal, two radio stations critical of the governing party have had their presenters arrested, programmes taken off the air and their buildings and transmitters attacked.
These are just the latest repressions: President Museveni’s critics say his régime has become a constitutional dictatorship, with a rubber-stamp parliament, powerless judiciary, censored media and heavily-militarised civil institutions.
During the 2006 general election, Human Rights Watch reported on the intimidation of voters and anti-government politicians, and the often biased media coverage of candidates opposed to Museveni. Opposition parties were denied representation on the Electoral Commission overseeing the conduct of the vote, while presidential term limits have been abolished, allowing for Museveni to remain President for life.
Shortly before the 2006 ballot, Dr. Besigye was framed on charges of terrorism, rape and treason. This derailed the FDC campaign in the run-up to the election, with its leader being released on bail only a month before the poll date.
Twenty-two opposition activists were charged alongside Besigye for engaging in acts of terrorism. Although granted bail by the High Court of Uganda, they continue to be held in Luzira maximum security prison, where reports suggest they have been tortured. As well as facing charges in a civilian court, the defendants were also summoned to a military hearing, despite a High Court ruling that it is unconstitutional to appear before two courts on similar charges. In response to these judgments, army commandos intimidated the judges and raided the High Court, determined to crush the independence of the judiciary.
Uganda’s parliament is stacked, neutered or ignored. A parliamentary select committee twice summonsed the commissioner of prisons to explain why he is still holding the 22 opposition activists who had been granted bail by the High Court. He failed to attend, insisting that he will only release the men if he is ordered to do so by the military. This has led many Ugandans to conclude that the military – acting in concert with Museveni – is the real power in Uganda. The democratic constitution is, in effect, null and void.
Amnesty International have similarly documented the harassment of Museveni’s political opponents, detention without trial, torture, extra-judicial killings and suppression of protests. Last year, the East African Court of Justice found Uganda guilty of violating the rule of law and the rights of its citizens.
Museveni’s army is also implicated in massacres in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In 2005, the International Court of Justice ruled that Uganda must pay the DRC up to £5.6 billion in compensation for its war of aggression, plundering of resources and killing of civilians.
Similar abuses occurred during the civil war in northern Uganda. Over 1.5 million people were herded into camps by the Ugandan army. Some were beaten, raped and killed; many more fell ill and died from unsanitary conditions. At one point, fatalities reached 1,000 a week, with infant mortality in the camps three times the national average and typical life expectancy a mere 27 years.
Soon after receiving international debt relief, Museveni went on a spending spree, building a new £50 million State House at Entebbe and purchasing a £16 million presidential jet. Meanwhile, millions of Ugandans suffer from malnutrition, slum housing, illiteracy, preventable diseases and a lack of clean drinking water.
Even the country’s once lauded anti-HIV campaigns are failing. HIV prevalence is rising as the government, under the influence of right-wing evangelical churches, has switched to pro-abstinence, anti-condom campaigns, including the deliberate creation of a condom shortage to discourage their use.
Museveni was once hailed as Uganda’s great democratic hope. Not any more: his name is now a by-word for authoritarianism, social injustice and the descent into despotism.
With special thanks to Michael Senyonjo for his help in researching this article.
Peter Tatchell is a leading human rights campaigner.
For more information about his work, visit www.petertatchell.net.
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