Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
28 August 2002
document
President Museveni rResponse to Army's victory against Kony not in the gun by Fr. Carlos Rodriguez in The Monitor of Monday, 26th August 2002.
I have read Fr. Carlos Rodriguz's letter. His arguments, like most arguments of pacifists, are misleading and erroneous.
What is the genesis of Kony terrorism?
The whole problem started before independence when the opportunists divided the people along wrong sectarian lines: religious or tribal. That is how DP (Catholic), UPC (Protestant) and KY (Baganda) came about. An account of the wrong attitudes generated and the nature of the opportunistic politics (accordingly without principles), Obote, feeling threatened by the shifting political quick sand, staged a coup de tat against the Constitution of Uganda using the army (tribally unbalanced deliberately) in 1966. By so doing, he destroyed the basis of constitutional legality.
Since it has become a fashion to overthrow constitutions and legal dispensations, Amin, taking a cue from his mentor Obote, takes over the government in 1971. I hope you know the rest of the story. This is the origin of this mayhem. It is not accidental that somebody uses incredibly, not only illegal, but, barbaric means to try and overthrow a people's based constitutional order and he is not condemned but is, instead, cheered on, or covered up, by certain elements in society and the world.
The medicine for Uganda is not to appease all these criminals but to go back to either 1966 or, even, earlier and do two things: clean our politics of opportunism and stick to constitutionality and legality. This is precisely what the NRM did in 1993 when we caused the election of the CA by all Ugandans. That CA, eventually, promulgated the 1995 Constitution, which must be obeyed by all irrespective of whether there are aspects that you do not personally agree with. There are many aspects of the 1995 Constitution, for example, that I do not personally agree with. I, however, obey them as a leader and as an individual.
One such article (237) is the one that does not allow government to take over private land to be used for big investors because it is not thought that investors serve "a public interest." I do not agree with this. Big scale investors serve "a public interest" by providing employment to the multitude of Ugandans and paying taxes that educate our children, build roads, pay wages to government servants and support health units. I believe this was a great over-sight on the part of the writers of the 1995 Constitution. Nevertheless, I obey the Constitution as it is and will seek to amend it through the constitutionally laid down provisions.
Therefore, that culture of flouting or undermining the Constitution must stop; otherwise, we shall never develop.
Where would Uganda be if Obote had not been unwise by overthrowing the Constitution in 1966? Countries that were either less endowed (e.g Singapore) or had more troubled history (e.g Malaysia) are now far ahead because they stuck to their constitutions.
Fr. Carlos knows that the NRM government has distributed more than "Major Segawa's shoes" to the people of Acholi. The other night in my broadcast in Gulu, using Lt. Col. Ochora's figures, I pointed out that we inherited only 300 classrooms built in permanent materials in Gulu district. The figure now is about 1,200 classrooms, an addition of nearly 900 new classrooms.
This is in spite of the terrorism of Kony.
Although the problem of Kony has been periodic and, therefore, endemic, the reasons for that are known. One factor has been the Sudan. The other one has been the need to strengthen the state by modernising the army. Why does Fr. Carlos not argue for dealing with those factors rather than argue for condoning crime? How about the Rwenzururu movement in the Rwenzori mountains? They started in 1962 as a legitimate group struggling for group rights. Even after their legitimate grievances were dealt with through the creation of Kasese district, certain numbers of them that had grown accustomed to living off crime (smuggling, etc,) persisted killing people, looting, etc. What solution did Fr. Carlos have for such criminality?
Certain elements of the Rwenzururu linked up with ADF - another foreign sponsored terrorist group. What were we supposed to do with such cocktail? We, finally, defeated this cocktail after nearly 40 years. I am not saying that the Kony problem will last another 24 years in order to be equal in longevity to the Rwenzururu movement. What I am trying to put to Fr. Carlos is that the example of Rwenzururu proves that only a capable, legal and legitimate state apparatus can, eventually, bring discipline in a country; not unprincipled appeasement peddled by people like him.
How about the Karimojong rustlers problem? How many times did I try to appease them? At one time, I even proposed that the rustlers could remain with their guns as long as they did not cross into the neighbouring districts with those guns. Did they heed that advice? It's only when I took decisive action to disarm all illegally armed warriors that some peace has descended on Karamoja and the neighbouring districts. If it was not for the distractions caused by the likes of Kony, the Karamoja problem was going to be solved once and for good. Even with the Kony distractions, we shall solve the Karamoja problem. It will simply mean more exertion, in terms of manpower and resources.
A number of people keep peddling the lie that NRM Government has failed to defeat Kony for 16 years. This is a falsehood. In fact we have defeated Kony repeatedly! Every time he was defeated, he would flee to the Sudan. There would be peace for a year or two. Then he would come back and there would be a paroxysm of mayhem until he was defeated again and fled. This last time the Acholi area has been peaceful for almost one-and-half years. Therefore, the accurate description is periodic invasions by Kony. In the last one-and-half years only Kwoyelo's group remained rotating in the Wichelli area.
There was no good reason why the army did not eliminate that group. Our mobile forces are presently rummaging throughout that area looking for the injured Vincent Otti. The 5th Division will permanently occupy those areas. There will be no more Kwoyelos disturbing the Karuma road and the park. It needs more means (manpower and materials), those means will be mobilised. At one time we had no pilots, tank crews, artillery crews, etc. We now have them. This is what capacity building means. That is what Fr. Carlos should have been urging people to do instead of covering up crime as he seems to do.
What Africa needs is democracy, constitutionalism and capable state apparatuses; not pandering to the criminality of hoodlums such as Kony. Since the CA and even earlier through the RCs, Uganda has been on this path.
I was persuaded to support amnesty by those who say that appeasing crime works. The Amnesty Law that exonerated all the criminals did not end the suffering of the people of Acholi, however. When we sent our Expeditionary Force into Sudan to flush Kony out and pursued the criminals relentlessly, they were forced to abandon the women and the children who could not keep up with the walking. We are now being told that the rebels had "freed" hostages. Why had they not "freed" them before? I am willing to try out the peace efforts of some of the religious and cultural leaders. That is why I appointed a peace team. That is why I made my broadcast on Gulu FM Radio (Please read every bit of that speech). Each piece of it has got a meaning. At the same time I am devoting more time to the readying of UPDF to deal decisively with all those who choose an unconstitutional, terrorist or criminal road. The people of Uganda deserve peace and development. They will get both as a result of strengthening their defence institutions that will guard their democratic institutions and their constitutions. They will not get either or both by pandering to the whims of criminal hoodlums like Kony; nor by listening to the exhortations of their apologists like Fr Carlos. If we do not strengthen our security and defence capacity what guarantee do we have that a new Kony will not emerge even if we grovel in the dust begging this Kony who has "only" killed 20,000 people to "please" not kill more? That it is not how we should build a country or future. Investments cannot flow to such a country. Our team will talk with the Konys, since they have already been forgiven by Amnesty Law, to find out what assurances and assistance they need for themselves. Period.
I only agree with Fr Carlos on one point. It is a great tragedy that the so-called "enemies" we are killing are actually children who were abducted by force. I agree that our attacks should be more directed at the ring-leaders: Kony and Otti Vincent. The other ring-leader, Otti Lagony, died at the hands of Kony after UPDF had crippled him. That is precisely what we did the other week when we targeted Otti Vincent, the butcher of Atiak. Fortunately, we got him. A little earlier we had targeted Kony in Tibika valley in the Sudan. He escaped narrowly that time. If he does (not- editor) come out of his terrorism, we shall definitely get him since he has persistently invited us to do so by his crimes. In the meantime, we liberate those children by relentlessly pursuing the terrorist. More importantly, the state of Uganda is building capacity to end this terrorism because it has no basis.
Those who apologise for Kony's crimes, sometimes, express concern about UPDF soldiers that have lost their lives in defending their country. While I appreciate this concern, I must point out that without such sacrifices Uganda, or indeed Africa, would not be where they are today. The development you see in the peaceful parts of Uganda, the political empowerment of the masses, the LCs, the Parliament, etc. were all due to the sacrifice of some. I, myself, survived narrowly many times. The whole of southern Africa (Zimbabwe, Mozambique, S. Africa, Angola, Namibia, etc) are now free because of freedom fighters sacrificing themselves. I do not like people trying to lull us into sleep so that we accept slavery in order to get "peace". That is what people used to tell me during Amin's time. These people like Museveni, they would say, provoke Amin by opposing his wrong actions. This will cause Amin to kill their families. I never accepted such blackmail; nor did I shrink from my own personal sacrifices. It was through such painful but principled and patriotic actions that Uganda, indeed the whole of Africa, is where we are today. I do not know where Fr. Carlos was while all this was happening. It would be interesting to know his own previous exposure.
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