June 11 Protest: GE’s Oil-deal Empowers Uganda’s Genocidal Dictator Gen. Museveni

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CEO Flannery–CNBC Screenshot

[Open Letter To GE]

John L. Flannery
Chairman and CEO
General Electric Company

PROTEST NOTE/NOTICE OF INTENT

Ugandan Diaspora will hold a protest outside GE Headquarters,
June 11, 2018 at 10AM Sharp.
41 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA

Mr. Flannery:

We have learnt that your company through a subsidiary – Nuovo Pignone SpA, has joined others in a consortium known as Albertine Grabben Refinery Consortium (AGRC) to build an oil refinery in Uganda.

We hold a strong view that the deal that was signed April 10th, 2018 will not benefit Ugandans: Instead oil earnings will be for the personal gain of Ugandan dictator Yoweri Museveni who has been in power for 33 years and counting and is one of the most corrupt rulers in Africa. You must know that the regime embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars raised by the international community for refugees in Uganda.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5799355/amp/Refugee-numbers-Uganda-fake-officials-UK-foreign-aid-budget.html

You must know there is a trial underway in federal court in the U.S. Southern District Court in New York in which Gen. Museveni are alleged by the U.S. Department of Justice to have been involved in a money-laundering and bribe case.

https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/head-organization-backed-chinese-energy-conglomerate-and-former-foreign-minister

The case involves alleged bribes paid to the leaders in Chad and Uganda by a frontman for a Chinese oil giant to illegally gain deals in the oil industry. Why would GE sign deals with these same officials the U.S. alleges are corrupt?

https://www.npr.org/2018/05/04/608582956/fbi-indictment-opens-a-rare-window-into-how-chinese-firms-operate-overseas

You are exposing GE shareholders to known risks.

http://www.blackstarnews.com/us-politics/justice/fbi-says-sam-kutesa-uganda-foreign-minister-created-fake-charity

As you may be aware, despite harrowing poverty of Ugandans Gen. Museveni has already purchased 6 Sukhoi 35 Jet fighters and assorted military equipment worth $750 million against future oil revenues, although Uganda has had no military threat for the last 30 years and counting. However it has invaded neighboring countries and committed war crimes. In 2005 the International Court of Justice (UCJ) awarded neighboring Congo $10 billion for war crimes committed by Uganda’s army. Should the new Congolese government after elections this year enforce the judgment you could expose GE shareholders to risk.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2005/dec/20/congo.uganda

Ugandans are infuriated by your action to partner and embolden a dictatorship all for the sake of profit, especially in this era when corporations are adapting triple bottom lines. Indeed, we are enraged that American shareholders who value and cherish the defense of human rights and promotion of global democracy could allow their investments to be used to bolster dictatorship and human rights abuse.

Youth unemployment in Uganda is 85%, hunger is growing and many regions lack clean drinking water. Hospitals lack medicines, doctors have gone on strike because the regime won’t pay their salaries. Museveni’s solution was to invite doctors from Cuba to take their jobs.

In Uganda the roads are so narrow and poorly constructed that thousands of people perish in head-on collision accidents. The adjusted Death Rate is 37.14 per 100,000 of population, which ranks Uganda at number 7 in the world.

The health sector is in shambles; doctors are so poorly paid and lack necessities like gloves, disinfectant, and painkillers – and there is no ambulatory care, a simple accident may result in mild bleeding that will eventually kill anyone.

There is widespread insecurity of person and property, and the police that would protect citizens collude with criminals to profit from their activities – the police officers themselves are among the most poorly paid in the world.

Currently, Uganda’s infant mortality rate is 131 per 1000 live births, the highest in East Africa. Elementary grade pupils in Uganda’s rural areas study under trees, and teachers and pupils share a single latrine for hundreds; millions of girls have no access to sanitary pads and stay away from school during menstruation.

Ironically, Uganda is a country so endowed with rich mineral and natural resources. It has been impoverished by poor management under 32 years of Museveni’s dictatorship and corruption. Even the U.S. Ambassador to Uganda seems to have forgotten her critical speeches about the regime’s corruption, which are still on the embassy’s website.

https://ug.usembassy.gov/post-election-symposium-on-youth-democracy-and-governance/?_ga=2.268826097.1412690621.1528174572-801767018.1528174572

Information about the multiple corruption scandals regime officials have been involved in are available through Google searches as well as the website of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Why would GE expose its shareholders to all the risks outlined above?

We trust that you will make all the information available to shareholders and do the right thing by withdrawing from my oil deal with Gen. Museveni.

Don’t prop dictatorship in Uganda and don’t expose your shareholders.

Sincerely,

R. Martin Byakuleka

For Common League of the Uganda Diaspora (CLOUD)

Front for the Defense of Human Rights and Democracy in Uganda. 40 Kings Way Unit 304A
Waltham, MA 02451

Email: [email protected]

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