Kampala — Opposition parties have dismissed President Museveni's latest position on the Libyan crisis as hypocritical and contradictory.
"He (Museveni) does the exact opposite of what he says - and that is the danger of him," said Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) spokesperson Wafula Oguttu.
President Museveni has had a long association with Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and similarities have been drawn between the two men's decade-long rules. On Monday, he penned a missive on the Libyan crisis in which he attacked Western powers for backing a no-fly zone instituted by the United Nations (UN) Security Council, reasoning that this was an act of "double standards".
Libyan government forces have continued to battle rebel forces, in defiance of the UN Security Council resolution in 1973. The resolution prevented the African Union (AU) High Level Ad-hoc Committee - which includes President Museveni - from arriving in Libya over the weekend as planned.
Mr Museveni also criticised Col. Gaddafi for his links to terrorism and "tendency to interfere in the internal affairs of many African countries" among others but at the same time, lauded him for being a secular and economically driven leader who has stood up to the West in the past.
Mr Mathias Nsubuga, the Secretary General of the Democratic Party (DP), said the attack against the West is a pre-emptive measure by Mr Museveni to try and safeguard against this type of action being taken against him in the future. "I think he is worried, that's the only word I can use," he said. "He knows the winds of change have come. "Mr Nsubuga said the claims in the statement were a desperate attempt by Mr Museveni to distance himself from Col Gaddafi, while trying to maintain their known friendship. "He is contradicting himself," Mr Nsubuga said.
Robert Kanusu, press secretary for Uganda People's Congress (UPC) called the President's condemnation of firing on peaceful demonstrators "a complete mockery."
Last month, protests in Kampala and Jinja against the claimed rigged results of Uganda's presidential and parliamentary elections led to clashes between civilians and state security forces. Mr Kanusu says Mr Museveni was behind the attacks on peaceful demonstrators, and charged him as "the very man who doesn't believe in democracy."
Chief of Protocol for foreign affairs, Ms Vasta Rwankote, said Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa returned to Uganda today and is preparing for the next meeting on the crisis. The AU has said the meeting will take place in Addis Ababa on March 25 - alongside the UN, Arab League, Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and European Union (EU).
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MY BROTHERS YOU LIVE IN UGANDA BUT THERE IS NO P LACE IN AFRICA FOR A REBIRTH OF COLONIANISM THIS LIBYAN CAMPAIGN IS WESTERN TRIGERRED AND THE REBELS ARE FINANCED AND SUPPORTED BY THE FRENCH AND BRITISH . THESE TWO LEADERS ARE YWO RIGHT WING POLTICIANS WHO FEEL THEY ARE SUPERIOR TO AFRICANS AND HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN AT THE HELM POF AFRICAN POLITICS ;MY VIEWS MIGHT SEEM A BIT FAR TO YOU BUT KEEP IN MIND WHERE IN NORTH AFRICA EAST SOUTH OR WEST IS THERE A CALL FOR FOREIGN DTERMINATION,NO WHERE IN AFRICA OR THE ENTIR REGION. ASKING FOR WESTERN DOMINATION IN THESE TIMES IS EQUIVALENMT TO PALESTINE ASKING ISRAEL TOHAVE UNCONDITIONAL RIGHTS TO THERE LANDS. WHO IN THERE RIGHT MIND SIGNS ON SO BOLDLY FOR WESTERN INTERVENTION WHILE AT THE SAME TIME THERE SO CALLED REVOLUTIONARY BROTHERS ARE BEING BIUTCHERED AND KILLED BY GUNS AND NERVE GAS SUPPLIED TO THEM BY THESE VERY GOVERNMENTS. THIS ALSO ADDS TO THE CREDIBILITY OF THE ARAB LEAGUE THESE MEN WHO ARE NOT ALEGAL OR VOTED INFRASTRUCTURE ARE MAKING DECISIONS IN AFRICAN LANDS THIS WAS BECAUSE THE EGHYPTIAN ARAB LEAGUE PRESIDENT IS MISGUIDE ABOUT THE AIMS OF THE REVOLUTION THIS REVOLUTION ISNT ABOUT ARAB CONCERNS THIS IS ABOUT DEMOCRACY THE MORE THEY CRETAE THESE LITTLE SPECCHES AND REDEFINING THE REBVOLUTION FOR DEMOCRACY. THIS IS MORE ABOUT AFRICAN UNITY
Ras_Sideeq;
Anyone who views what you are saying and what you feel about the barbaric bombing of Libya as being wrong is not only a moronic idiot but is also a lunatic.
I agree with you in total, Ras_Sideeq, on ALL the points you put across; you are more than just right; you are one person I have come to rely on, on this site. You do not comment from the blues but focus your comments to the future. You also see through the machinations of the "bloody vampires" bombing Libya right now.
How right you are to observe that the war in Libya is WESTERN TRIGERRED AND THE REBELS ARE FINANCED AND SUPPORTED BY THE FRENCH AND BRITISH ". Can anyone tell me how the terrorists fighting Qaddafi are able to direct planes in the skies to bomb Libyan soldiers? What and whose communications equipment are they using to communicate?
Mind you, the Libyan army got split in the middle when Benghazi was taken over by terrorists. Army barracks were overrun and those soldiers who refused to or did not agree with the terrorists were summarily executed while those who agree became part of the terrorist formation.
How then are the French, British and America fighter planes able to distinguish who is who on the ground (without their men on the ground as per UN Resolution 1973) when both sides, besides wearing the same army uniforms, have the same tanks, armoured vehicles, anti-air guns, bazookas, rocket launchers and what have you?
How then are these "bloody vampires" able to tell who is pro- or who is anti-Qaddafi. This ONLY goes to explain the correctness of what you said, Ras_Sideeq, that this is an imperialist instigated war meant to have control over Libyan OIL. PERIOD!!
They had long planned this war; they were only waiting for an opportune moment and the so-called 'revolution' sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East became the moment they had been waiting for to instigate war so as to indiscriminately bomb Qaddafi and his people.
And the Arab League, being the ignoramus and confused organisation that they really are, endorsed the massacre of Libyan civilians without undertaking a SINGLE, just one SINGLE, peace mission to Libya. It shows that the dictators in the Arab League have never forgiven Qaddafi for being to the point about them selling out to "bloody vampires". Qaddafi did not beat-about-the-bushes about them being stooges and puppets, and this is one reason why they did not like him to the extent of wanting him killed.
How did they know that what they were hearing, or seeing on imperialist channel TVs and reading in the western press was the 'gospel truth'? What if ALL THESE ALLEGATIONS turn out to be false - which they really are - what will Amar Musa and his bunch of idiotic morons say and how will they face the Libyan people after everything has been destroyed and half the population exterminated by these "bloody vampires"?
Worse still, the Arab League circumvented Africa and made a devastating and far-reaching decision over an African country without consulting Africans. Do they consider us nonentities? Di they see us as human being worth consulting or as animals just like the way barbaric European vampires and crusaders view us. Why did they not invite the AU to their crucial meeting so as to make their decision with Africas concerns in mind?
Maybe they will say or are saying that Africa has no say over an Arab country. While it is true that Libya is pre-dominantly Arab, it exists within the territorial integrity of the African Continent such that anything to do with Africa should be referred to Africa first before the UN.
Is it logical and right to discuss and rule over (literally determining the affairs of) your child who has left your village to settle in another village, without consulting the village elders of the village to which he now subscribe? Can Africa have a say over countries like Haiti, and Jamaica, for example that are predominantly black?
The Arab league has shown gross racism, retardedness, and its foolishness will definitely come back to hound them one day. Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and all the other countries in that region are burning; we want and are waiting to see how they are going to react with so many deaths being reported everyday.
If they do not react, as they are right now (muted and unconcerned), we will then know (what we know already) who they are doing to bidding for in Libya. We will also know that they are still as racist as they have always been. We will know that they are not different from those who colonised, oppressed, suppressed, subjugated, enslaved, exterminated, dispossessed and disoriented us.
They are birds of the same feather with those they allowed to indiscriminately kill Libyans and assassinate Qaddafi. Qaddafi is African first and Arab second. He was and still is focusing ALL his attention and energies to Africa and Africans. He has helped, in many ways than one, many Africans, thus, his commitment to AFRICA is UNQUESTIONABLE. The few incidents in which he is alleged to have sponsored this or that group should not overshadow the good things he has done for AFRICA and AFRICANS.
I also agree with the comparison you made about Palestinians (FAATHA) asking Israel to have absolute rights over their lands because of the internal dispute they have with their HAMAS brothers. A reasonable person would see this as problematic but I guess reasonableness is rare in some African and Arab countries that see no problem in inviting a snake in the house.