Museveni: General In His Labyrinth

Yet, Museveni does not believe that Mugabe should treat voters in Zimbabwe with similar disregard and arrogance. The message is fine, the messenger is flawed. It’s like the chief of a mafia family warning bandits to refrain from stealing. Here, we have the penultimate in hubris.

[Black Star News Editorial]

 

Speaking in London, Uganda’s U.S.-backed dictator Yoweri Museveni reportedly demanded that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe quit office if he loses the run-off election against opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in Zimbabwe.

Why did Museveni make such remarks? To win some points from his British hosts and to continue his desperate attempts to inoculate himself against possible impending indictment for crimes against humanity.

To begin with, the great sage from Uganda could have heeded his own advice about conceding electoral defeat in 2006 when, as widely believed, he lost to Dr. Kizza Besigye, the opposition leader in Uganda. He simply ignored the will of the voters and, since he controls the army and serves as U.S. and U.K. puppet in East Africa, clung to power.

Yet, Museveni does not believe that Mugabe should treat voters in Zimbabwe with similar disregard and arrogance. The message is fine, the messenger is flawed. It’s like the chief of a mafia family warning bandits to refrain from stealing.

Here, we have the penultimate in hubris.

Nonetheless, such self-serving nonsensical remarks, and further attempts down the line to ingratiate himself to paymasters in London and Washington, may not save the general in the long run from the long arms of the law. George Bush will soon be out of office, as will Gordon Brown, who has turned out to be a most incompetent prime minister.

General Museveni is in his labyrinth.

As The Wall Street Journal reported on June 8, 2006, the International Criminal Court in the Hague is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Uganda’s army and its allied militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo, when Museveni’s troops occupied eastern Congo, including the Ituri region.  (Please see http://hrw.org/reports/2003/ituri0703/DRC0703-04.htm#whoiswho)

Estimates of the dead in Congo range anywhere from five to seven million. While the genocide has not been recognized by London and Washington, the ICC has exerted its own independence: Last month the court unsealed indictment of Jean Pierre Bemba, the former Congo warlord sponsored by Museveni, much in the same manner that Liberia’s Charles Taylor had sponsored the militias that committed crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone.

As the whole world knows, Taylor is being tried in the Hague for sponsoring and abetting the Sierra Leone war crimes.

While the ICC in its press release last month stated that Bemba had been indicted for crimes against humanity that he sponsored in the Central African Republic, the court also made reference to similar crimes committed by his Uganda-sponsored militia, including mass rapes, in the DRC.

Already in 2005, with respect to the civil aspect of the alleged crimes against humanity committed in the DRC, Uganda was found liable by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for the massacres that deprived Congolese civilians of life and property; Uganda troops and allied militias, including allegedly Bemba’s thugs, also committed mass rapes, mutilations, burning of people alive and theft of Congo’s mineral and natural resources. Uganda was assessed $10 billion in liability. (Please see: http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/116/10455.pdf)

The ICC handles the criminal aspect.

The Ugandan dictator knows the seriousness of the ICC’s investigation. According to the Journal report: “President Museveni of Uganda asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to block the Congo investigation, according to one person familiar with the matter. Mr. Annan replied that he had no power to interfere with the court, this person said. A Ugandan government spokesman, Robert Kabushenga, declines to comment on the matter.”

So here’s what we have so far:

Taylor sponsored genocide in Sierra Leone—he was indicted by the special court.
Bemba sponsored genocide in Central African Republic—he has been indicted by the ICC.

Museveni sponsored genocide in DRC …..

Case closed.

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