FUF Report2: With Congo Defeat And Internal Dissent Growing, Pressure Mounts On Gen Museveni Regime

Kaguta2

Gen. Museveni

[Global: Commentary]

In Situation Analysis Report N02, Freedom and Unity Front (FUF) continues to inform Ugandan citizens and the entire global community of the catastrophic political and socio-economic situation in the country, and to provide insights into the reasons why FUF has launched a liberation struggle in Uganda.

As most Ugandans now know, Freedom and Unity Front (FUF) is a new movement whose main objective is to unite different forces, political Organizations and individuals to free the country from the dictatorship of Yoweri Museveni.

The formal launch of Freedom and Unity Front is due to take place in the next few weeks, together with the publication of FUF’s Manifesto.

It is worth of note that the Ugandan people’s spirit and determination to resist and to oppose the flagrant violations of their rights and freedom by the Museveni regime is not and will never be broken. The tyrannical repression of an entire nation is instead emboldening Ugandans, who are now seeking to compel Museveni out of State House.

The ‘Spirit of Kasokoso’, a small impoverished and alienated community in the Kireka slum area near Kampala, where Museveni is unleashing unbearable suffering on the population, is the ‘Spirit of Patriotic Defiance’ that will grow and spread throughout the country until the brutal dictator is ended.

The residents of Kasokoso are defying the brutality of heavily armed troops and Special Forces Command (SFC) operatives, who are shooting, arresting, torturing and teargasing them. Like the rest of the Ugandan masses, the brave people of Kasokoso, are now ready to stand up and oppose Museveni’s land-grabbing (under the guise of bring development to the targeted area). They are ready to stand up against politically motivated murders, arrests, deep-rooted corruption, nepotism, and, most of all, Museveni’s current efforts to entrench further an undemocratic culture of family rule and dictatorship.

Analysis Focal Points for FUF’s Situation Analysis Report N02:

    •    Deterioration and erosion of people’s human rights as exemplified by the increase in extra-judicial killings carried out by Museveni’s killer squads, the brutalization, beatings and torture of innocent citizens.

    •    Museveni’s Selective Justice as political opponents are punished and purged, while Museveni, his family, friends and associates go Scott free

    •    Lack of accountability, transparency, and the failed fight against corruption

    •    The militarization of the civil service as part of the deliberate obliteration of Uganda’s civilian institutions

Extra-judicial killings by State House and Special Forces Command-linked killer squads; brutalization, beatings and torture of innocent citizens

Extra-judicial killings are gaining pace under the Museveni regime. FUF is, accordingly, seeking to liberate Uganda, so that those meant to protect civilians and enforce the rule of law are not the ones who abuse the law and violate the constitutional rights of the country’s citizens.

The current murders are a reminder of the track record of politically motivated murders which Museveni has been carrying out throughout the 27 years of his rule. One need only remember how high profile citizens like Cerinah Nebanda, Dr. Andrew Lutakome Kayiira,  Major General James Kazini and others died, and how the Museveni regime has obstructed and sabotaged any independent investigations into the killings, which the families believe were carried out on the orders of president Museveni. According to the latest statement from the family of the late Major General Kazini, five years since Kazini’s death the Museveni regime continues to withhold from the family and the public not just the police report of the investigations into the murder, but even the post-mortem. The family is now demanding for a fresh independent probe into the General’s death.

Still fresh in the minds of Ugandans is the recent mysterious death of Dan Mutungi, the 56-year old brother of General David Sejusa, one the founders and top leaders of Freedom and Unity Front (FUF).

Even before the postmortem report is out, and without an official police report being availed to the family or the public, Museveni is engaged in sickening and callous spinning games around the death of General Sejusa’s brother.

Initially, regime operatives were churning out all sorts of purported causes of Dan’s death, with a frenetic eagerness to absolve the regime from any responsibility. They also brought out false statements attributed to the relatives of the late Dan Mutungi, which statements have now been disowned by the family. But in any case, what is required are investigations which are factual, professional, timely and independent. It is immaterial what a distressed father or stepmother says.

Noteworthy, reports are coming in about the appalling way the old father of General Sejusa is being manipulated by a shameless dictator to gain political capital in the grief of others. 

What drives these inordinate machinations if it is not guilt?

Special murder squads on the loose: Special murder squads are now targeting all sections of Ugandan society. In so doing, they are sowing maximum fear in the population.

The regime has acknowledged that in the Kampala Metropolitan area alone, 10 people are gunned down every month. This figure is on the very low end, as many bereaved families do not report the cases to the state authorities.

The daylight shootings of prominent businessmen in many parts of Uganda have brought to light a new reality of state inspired killings, which the Museveni regime has attempted to blame on organized criminal gangs.

Investigations by FUF have uncovered the fact that most of the dead businessmen were either unsympathetic to the ruling NRM regime, or were actively supporting opposition political parties.

Intriguingly, even the police authorities themselves have conceded the fact that most of the killings are committed using standard issue-type munitions that are commonly used by armed police, Flying Squad unit operatives and the military.

Museveni’s own trusted police commander Kale Kayihura, who has himself been accused of masterminding politically motivated killings, had this to say when pressurized by the media to explain why most guns used in recent murders are traced back to the security services and sections of the military like Special Forces Command (SFC): “The crimes are being committed using lawful guns, but worsened by illegal guns in the country.” He also shamelessly conceded that “…we need to strengthen the control of the records, the armories among other departments in our agencies to help control the movement of legally registered guns”. 

This admission only serves to highlight what Ugandan people have long suspected – that extra-judicial killings are happening on a massive scale, and that these horrendous crimes are being committed by the State using the cover of gangland crimes. It is operatives from State House, Muhoozi’s SFC, and the special killer squad under General Kayihura’s personal watch – the so-called Flying Squad, who are the real murder gangs.

Among those killed are security forces operatives, who, it is believed, are marked for elimination on suspicion of being sympathetic to the growing anti-regime opposition.

Not even children are spared in the game of murders perpetrated by Museveni regime. The recent cold-blooded murder of primary school pupils in Busia District has not only horrified Ugandans. It has struck fear and apprehension in families across the country.

Part of the problem is driven by Museveni’s decision to deploy troops and police flying squad operatives in even in the remotest villages of Uganda. The police Flying Squad operatives, who are committing most of these killings, are operationally linked to State House and Brigadier Muhoozi’s Special Forces command, where they take their orders from.

This decision is informed by Museveni’s growing fear that the whole country is turning against him, and that the masses may be organizing a people Revolt.

While it is true that a People Revolt is on the way, there is no justification for Museveni to kill innocent Ugandans on mere suspicion of being rebel supporters.

Kevin Tibita was a primary four pupil at Luwere Primary School, and Philip Ouma was another pupil at another school in the same district. Two separate incidents of extra-judicial killings in the same place, after marauding killer squads run amok.

Officially, the children were shot on the spot by armed police operatives, who suspected them to be armed robbers. But, as FUF has established, the operatives were following state house orders to gun down, without trial, anyone suspected of being a rebel collaborator.

Museveni’s killer squads are also targeting functionaries of public bodies, like the Inspectorate of Government meant to investigate illegal and unethical activities of Big People.

FUF’s investigations of on-going killings and shootings indicate that the shooting of Mr. Robert Kalungi, the Inspectorate of Government’s principal investigations officer, was done on the orders from State House. Robert had been involved in investigating some of the improprieties and illegal dealings involving the Museveni Household.

The Very Important Persons Protection Unit (VIPPU) operative who shot Robert Kalungi is known to have direct links to the president’s office and also to Muhoozi Kaneirugaba’s Special Forces Command (SFC). Since the transferring of VIPPU to the Counter Terrorism Police in January 2013, many if its operatives are actually members of SFC who don police uniforms to disguise their actual identity. 

Beaten and tortured for supporting a political party – the case of a young Ugandan girl whose constitutional rights were gravely violated.

In addition to extra-judicial killings, Museveni has now ordered the brutalization of the political opposition to take place right to the grassroots level. The recent brutalization of a young girl by the name of Twesiime Annet in Omukalembe – Runengo parish by the NRM parish chairman, is the daily experience of millions of simple Ugandan citizens on the streets and in the villages across Uganda.

Annett Twesiime was badly beaten and tortured by the local area NRM chairman for supporting an opposition candidate during a by-election campaign in a Western Ugandan constituency.

As many Ugandans know, Museveni has empowered a select band of ruling party cohorts to vigorously and violently silence political opposition activists using all possible means. This has made Ugandan elections at every level not just a time-wasting exercise, but a very dangerous one too for those who do not support the regime.

Uganda is now in a state where even a mere parish chairman of the ruling party can beat, even kill, a simple citizen on mere suspicion of being an opposition activist.

These types of extreme brutality, which involve beatings, torture and even killings, are normally done at the behest and on the orders of State House, and they are proof of the increasing stark violations of the constitutional rights of Ugandan people.

The reach of the repressive hand of State House is felt not just in the major cities, but in every corner of the country. Simple Ugandans are living in a state of extreme fear and apprehension.

Museveni’s Selective Justice – suspected regime opponents are punished and purged, as Museveni, his family members and close associates go Scott free

The Case of the Ugandan contingent in Somalia:

The pervasive and entrenched corruption and immorality in Uganda under Museveni is a widely known and felt phenomenon, which the regime has catastrophically failed to deal with.

In recent attempts to fool the donors, who have cut off their financial aid to the government of Uganda, Museveni ordered the selective purging and victimization of some senior public officials, including notable army officers.

The arrest and detention of Brigadier Michael Ondoga and his fellow commanders and officers from the Somalia-based African Union Peace Keeping Mission (AMISOM) is a graphic example of how a paranoid Museveni is frenetically striking out at each and every one suspected of supporting anti-regime groups.

FUF is aware of the suspicions within Museveni’s State House that many UPDF officers, commanders and even simple soldiers may be ready to abandon him. This has triggered wholesale victimization of many innocent servicemen and women, on mere suspicions, rendering them victims of selective justice. Politically motivated selective justice has become the norm in Uganda today.

While the corruption and bribery culture of the first family and the illegalities of those who support Museveni go unpunished, Ugandans suspected of being opposed to the regime are severely punished, quite often without due recourse to the rule of law.

FUF invites all Ugandan citizens to ask the following intriguing questions:

    •    Why are some senior military officers being accused of stealing and selling food-stuffs, military equipment, etc?

    •    Is it this part of the corruption culture, which is pervasive in the whole society?

    •    Is it indicative of the failure by the Museveni regime to tackle entrenched corruption?

    •    Is it the result of the total collapse of the economy and political governance in general?

    •    Is what is happening, in terms of punishment for those accused, a genuine fight against corruption, or is it politically motivated purging and elimination of suspected political enemies?

FUF believes that, at the end of the day, what the Museveni regime is doing is:

   •    a mockery of justice, because it is selective justice;

    •    an abuse of justice, because it is unfairly dispensed by NRM cadres, both in the military courts and the emasculated and broken-down civilian justice institutions;

    •    not really a fight against corruption, but politically motivated purging and repression of sections of the population, i.e., using the guise and the cover of fighting corruption to eliminate, punish and clamp down on opponents and suspected opponents of the regime;

It is now an open secret that many of the officers being investigated are also suspected of being sympathetic to the growing national struggle for freedom.

FUF notes with grave concern the fact that the purging of sections of the military, especially the officer corps of the Somalia-based Ugandan contingent, falls within the notions and practices of selective justice, politically-motivated purging and repression, and the application of illegal judicial procedures and structures to sit in judgment or to carry out politically-motivated investigations of those Ugandan citizens deemed to be opposed to the regime. These injustices are being dispensed by either civilian courts presided over by NRM cadre-judges or military tribunals manned by Museveni’s close friends and military relatives.

Lack of accountability and transparency: The matter of Mr. Museveni forcefully re-appointing Mr. Benjamin Odoki as Chief Justice, against the constitutional provisions which stipulate that he can only do so on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission is further confirmation of the regime’s pervasive lack of accountability and transparency, and Museveni’s personal zeal and eagerness to abuse and disrespect the constitution of Uganda.

The Ugandan nation must be warned that all these cynical and unconstitutional game-plays by Museveni, and his renewed rush to surround himself with trusted and dependable ‘yes-men’ and ‘yes-women’ before the 2016 elections, are selfishly driven by one and only one agenda – that of self-preservation.

The over-arching agenda and hidden mission behind Museveni’s keenness to recurrently overthrow the constitution of Uganda is to ensure the perpetuation of a Museveni dynastic rule and Museveni’s family oligarchy.

Lack of accountability – a pervasive culture of financial scams at the heart of the Museveni regime

A few weeks ago, an obscure story came to light about a group of soldiers from Museveni’s son Muhoozi Kaneirugaba’s Special Forces Command being sent to jail for 20 years for stealing Shs 654 million from State House. On the face of it, this looked like a normal case of theft by a few sticky-fingered SFC operatives. But a close analysis of this case betrays a bigger more serious problem that has characterized the Museveni rule for decades, and which has contributed to the total collapse of Uganda’s governance infrastructure as we now know it.

One immediate fact that shocked Ugandans on hearing about this story is – the amount of money in hard cash that is kept by Museveni in State House.

But, as intriguing was the fact that the said cash was apparently meant for a presidential trip that was cancelled. This glimpse into the type of quantities of money carried around by Museveni on foreign or internal trips can only point to what many Ugandans have been talking about for a long time – that Museveni and his family have been busy ‘helping themselves’ to millions of public money on the innumerable foreign and internal trips they make, which as we know are never fully accounted for. 

It is the view of Freedom and Unity Front that this case is only one of the hundreds of similar cases, that do not normally surface for public attention, but which are indicative of the deeper malaise of the lack of accountability on the part of the Museveni governance system. This story is not really about a few poorly remunerated soldiers stealing money from a State House that they know steals billions, if not trillions, of public funds as matter of norm.

The biggest revelation here is that Museveni has made Uganda’s resources, both natural and financial, his personal resources.

The rest of Ugandan citizens are meant to just watch hopelessly as Museveni, his family and cronies serve themselves to the country’s hard-earned income. And we are meant to look on silently as Museveni and his partners in crime additionally loot millions of financial aid donated to Uganda’s poorest communities, a preoccupation which has led to the cutting of essential poverty-alleviation aid by the donor countries.

Here are some revealing facts and truths linked to the above story;

1. There is a total break-down in accountability at Museveni’s Stare House, as millions of dollars are siphoned off by Museveni from the public purse. State House is the TOP LOOTER of Uganda’s public funds.

2. The State House Budget is the highest of any government department, and most of the money is illegally and irregularly acquired and unaccounted for, under the false pretenses that it is classified expenditure. Only Museveni is normally aware of the total amount of the illegal acquisitions by him and his family.

3. Millions are looted under the cover of Presidential trips abroad – which are, actually, huge allowance-collection missions – involving millions of dollars.

4. This money ends up in personal private bank accounts

5. The arrested guards are just small fish, but many of them are also victims of politically-motivated persecution. Some of them are entrapped and deliberately set up, so that they can be arrested and eliminated.

The militarization of the civil service as part of the deliberate obliteration of Uganda’s civilian institutions

The systemic destruction and break down of public/civilian institutions is designed to serve one man’s and one family’s interests. By forcefully installing serving military personnel in key institutions, like Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Immigration Board, the National Census Board and the Electoral Commission, Museveni is not only violating key constitutional provisions, but also deliberately seeking to force these public institutions to carry out specific tasks meant to strengthen his strangle hold on power.

Information reaching FUF’s research desk confirms that many of the military officers being drafted into the civil service and other public bodies are attached to the President’s office or the Special Forces Command (SFC) whose commander is Museveni’s own son, Brigadier Muhoozi.

The injection of serving military personnel is causing great fear and instability among the civilian workers there, but it is also serving to create alternate centers of power that are only accountable to Museveni, in contravention of the established constitutional rules and guidelines.

The specific example of serving military officers taking over the ID project confirms the widespread speculations that Museveni is planning to rig and steal the 2016 ballot through the falsification of the voter roll and the numbers of people who can vote or who should be denied the right to vote.

These illegal actions, including the militarization of the immigration bureau, also points to an elaborate plan to clamp down and purge many Ugandan citizens by framing them as anti-government rebels and activists.

It means that from now, State House and special forces command will have the liberty to scrutinize the identities of all those Ugandans who are rightfully complaining against the injustices, corruption and repression of the Museveni regime, and frame them as rebel collaborators.

Museveni’s regional misadventures: In recent months, the Ugandan Dictator Museveni has been at the heart of moves to undermine the East African Treaty, with the ultimate aim of killing the dream of regional integration and unity of Africa. Museveni’s defective approaches, in regard to the East African Community, are manifesting in the destructive maneuvers aimed at isolating the Republic of Tanzania and Burundi from the East African community. Several regional summits chaired by Museveni have taken place, where the leaders of the two countries were not invited, in spite of the fact that crucial decisions affecting the whole region were taken.

Now Tanzania has issued a stern warning, raising alarm bells that the East African Community is in grave danger because of what Tanzania sees as underhand and illegal maneuvers by some leaders in the region. President Kikwete of Tanzania has gone as far as addressing a special session of the Tanzanian parliament at which he detailed the violations of the various East African protocols, which violations are bringing the East African community to the brink of collapse.

Many Ugandans have been expressing the view that Museveni’s intentions are grounded in his fanatical search for self-aggrandizement. Uganda’s opposition parties, like Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and the Democratic Party (DP) have all condemned the current self-centered maneuverings by Museveni. In a recent statement, the FDC spokesman, Wafula Oguttu, put it bluntly that “isolating Tanzania as a result of president Museveni’s egocentricity was much at the detriment of Ugandans and the entire East Africa” and that “Museveni will crash EAC.”

What Museveni is doing is a chilling reminder of the circumstances which led to the collapse of the East African Community during the reign of Dictator Idi Amin. Again it was Uganda which started disestabilizing its fellow East African neighbors, culminating in a cross-border war that eventually led to the toppling of the Kampala regime in 1979.

On another front, things have not been going too well for Mr Museveni. The militaristic Ugandan dictator is gravely injured by his latest defeat in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

It should be remembered that Museveni has been a sponsor of M23, and Museveni’s brother General Salim Saleh is well-known for leading Museveni’s mineral exploitation forays and adventurisms in Eastern DRC. Also, the members of the Special Forces Command, which is headed by Museveni’s son Brigadier Muhoozi Kaneirugaba, continue to carry out secret missions into the DRC, whose aim is to destabilize even more the already gravely devastated country. This, as a way of creating a conducive environment that can enable the continued exploitation of the natural resources of the Congolese people. Remember that these same actors were the very ones implicated in the decision by the International Court of Justice, finding Uganda liable for aggression and plunder in Congo; Uganda is required to pay a whopping $10 billion dollars to the DRC in compensation.

The Defeat of M23 rebel group by the UN Intervention Force is, in effect, a decisive defeat of Ugandan Dictator Yoweri Museveni.

The subversive and disestabilizing Museveni regime is a regime of outlaws who have run amok and rule with savage repression at home and by exporting violence to neighboring countries. The international community and all must realize that outlaws can never be relied upon for anything; on the contrary, they constitute a menace to peace and any sense of decency.

Now that the Museveni regime has been terminally weakened by external and internal pressure, it is incumbent upon all progressive Ugandan forces to organize and mobilize for the ultimate dismantling of the 27-year old dictatorship.

Going forward – The type of Uganda, which Freedom and Unity Front is fighting for

FUF seeks to create a new post-Museveni Uganda, where:

    •    Corruption and all forms of unethical behavior are combated genuinely and effectively using revitalized and properly equipped and empowered legal and justice infrastructures, which are grounded in absolute constitutionalism and the respect for the rule of law

    •    True justice is dispensed wholesomely, without fear or favor

    •    The dispensation of justice is not politically motivated or used as a guise or a cover to prop up and promote individualised dictatorial rule

    •    The president and the president’s office are not the chief looters of public funds

    •    All public servants, starting from the country’s president, the ministers and all senior government officials, are fully accountable and respecting of all the constitutional laws and provisions, in regard to how they manage the affairs of the country.

    •    Civil and public service functionalities are not militarized or politicized at the behest of the political leaders

    •    The national identity and immigration management procedures operate without undue or illegal influence and interference from the country’s political leadership

    •    The management and the functioning of the civil service are operationalized in accordance and strict adherence to the provisions of the Constitution of Uganda.

    •    The power of leaders is checked through effective devolution and reinstatement of terms that limit the time which a leader should govern to make sure their influence is regulated and exercised according to the law so that state institutions are not abused or destroyed.

    •    In respect to Uganda’s future foreign affairs approaches, FUF is seeking to eliminate a Museveni regime which has become a menace to the entire African continent.

    •    Never again will Uganda be seen as the aggressor and exploiter of fellow African peoples.

    •    A post-Museveni Uganda will endeavor to make peace, where Museveni made war; to bring harmony and reconciliation, where Museveni sowed hatred and disunity; to follow the democratic path within Uganda, based on the respect of the human rights and freedoms of our people in Uganda, but also of all the peoples in our neighborhood and the African continent as a whole.

    •    Freedom and Unity Front (FUF) is fighting to bring change to Uganda, not just for Ugandans to enjoy, but also for all our fellow African brothers, by pursuing policies that galvanize their consciousness and encourage genuine efforts to bring about regional integration and African solidarity based on shared values and historic bonds.

    •    The empowerment and total emancipation of the African peoples is a key tenet in the principles that form the vision of FUF.

 

Dr. Vincent Magombe, Press Secretary, Freedom and Unity Front

13 November 2013

 

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