Frank Mugabi
29 April 2008
Kampala — THE war in northern Uganda was not against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) but the Sudanese government, President Yoweri Museveni has said.
"I hear people talking of 20 years of conflict with Kony. I don't want a narrow understanding of this affair. Our fight was not with Kony but with the Arabs of Khartoum who made a big mistake of underestimating us," Museveni said.
When the National Resistance Army took over power, he said, Sudan looked for puppets that could topple the Government and then fight on their behalf against the black people in South Sudan.
"This was an invitation for us to stand by the black people in Sudan," Museveni said.
"They (Sudanese) discovered that we were not the usual Black Africans. If you create problems for us we create more problems for you."
The President was meeting leaders from the West Nile region at Arua Public Primary School on Monday.
In supporting Kony, the President argued, Sudan thought it would also intimidate the NRM and deter it from backing the South Sudanese.
He said both the northern and Sudan conflict had been managed, which had boosted trade and bilateral relations in the Great Lakes region.
At the same meeting, Museveni endorsed the long-running request by West Nile to have a public university.
He said the Government was ready to provide funding for the institution to bridge the academic gap with other regions.
The leaders also appealed to the Government to recognise the area as an autonomous region since development projects meant for the northern region were not reaching there.
Finance state minister Fred Omach appealed to the Government to upgrade Arua airfield since the region borders Sudan and the DR Congo, two of Africa's biggest nations.
He commended the Government for undertaking the costly infrastructural development programmes in the region, like tarmacking the Karuma-Nebbi-Arua road and the on-going construction of Nyagak hydropower dam.
Commenting on the prosperity-for-all programme, which has been the core of his visit, Museveni said about 5.5m of the 6m households in Uganda were still living in poverty.
He challenged leaders to play their role in sensitising the people on how to fight poverty.
"You should be the last peasants in your families. We should not produce more peasants," he urged the leaders.
The objective of prosperity-for-all is to transform the peasants into a middle class, he explained.
He also called for transparency in selecting the six households that will be supported to act as model farmers under the Bonna Baggagawale programme. "The officials should call general parish meetings and let the residents agree which families to start with, otherwise it will brew conflicts." He cautioned against selecting beneficiaries along political lines.
"People should be selected based on how quick they can learn and implement what they are taught."
He said the Government was developing a line of credit through the finance ministry to provide low interest loans to farmers.
He visited a retired soldier, Apollo Ezati, who runs a fish farm in Abenwe village, Kijomoro sub-county, Arua, that earns him sh8m per pond annually.
Museveni yesterday cut short his anti-poverty tour in the West Nile region to return to Kampala for official engagements.
State House sources said the President was scheduled to meet his Tanzanian counterpart, Jakaya Kikwete, today.
Museveni is also expected to preside over the international Labour Day celebrations in Kampala tomorrow.
He is due back in the region on May 13 to finalise his anti-poverty tour. He will attend former Attorney General Francis Ayume's last funeral rites on May 16. Ayume died in an accident on the Gulu-Kampala highway four years ago.
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