Carolyne Nakazibwe
20 August 2002
Reform Agenda doesn't plan to take up arms against government, its exiled chairman, Col. Kizza Besigye has said.
Besigye issued a statement that was yesterday read to the press in Kampala by his deputy, Sam Njuba.
Besigye also blacklisted the Internal Security Organisation, Chieftaincy for Military Intelligence and Col. Elly Kayanja's Operation Wembley as the worst violators of human rights in the country.
Njuba said the law that set up the intelligence organisations forbids them to carry out any arrests, but they are not abiding by the law.
Njuba announced telephone numbers 077-593485, 077-703302, 077-402011, 077-441943 and 071-665097 as hotlines for victims to report illegal arrests to Reform Agenda.
Besigye denied that he was linked to the Lord's Resistance Army rebels of Joseph Kony.
"This claim is meant to divert attention from the fact that the UPDF/LRA conflict has been raging on for the past 16 years, yet I went into exile only one year ago," Besigye said.
He, however, warned the government that there would be other 'Konys' if there is no democracy and repression of the opposition continues.
Reform's Deputy Secretary-General, Louis Otika, said oppressed groups might have no option but to fight back.
"It is like chasing a chicken to the wall and its only option is to turn on you with its claws," Otika said.
The Reform officials also denied claims that there is a split in their group, with one side advocating for making it a political party and another staying uninterested.
The secretary for Information and Publicity Beti Kamya said the group rejected the Political Organisations Act, and would only subscribe to it if it were improved.
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