Monthly Archives: November 2012

Justice, Uganda, Women

#I6Days: No justice as Uganda female journalist commits suicide after gangrape

It is that time of the year when we dedicate 16 days to remind the world of the endless need to eliminate violence against women.
November 25 is the International Day for the elimination of violence against women. In Uganda various organisations have done a good job using different media to pass the message that ought to be the everyday message to the population.

Tweetups, SMS campaigns, radio talkshows are all on to get Ugandans to understand that violence against a woman is violence against humanity too! That you can judge a society by the way it treats its women.

A week before November 25th, I read a thread on Facebook group that I am part of. It was about a female journalist from Bukedde who had died during childbirth.

We didn’t discuss much. It was just condolence messages although I felt this was time for us to reflect how close issues we cover are to our own lives. In Uganda everyday 16 mothers die due to childbirth. This is due to complications that could be prevented. In many ways maternal health is a social justice issue.

Just as this news was sinking in, another disturbing post came up. A female journalist had committed suicide. Moreen Ndagire, whom I didn’t know personally, was a Sub-editor at a Red Pepper, a leading tabloid in Uganda. At the age of 24, she had achieved quite a lot that not many youth can do in this country with a high unemployment rate.

Moreen Ndagire at her graduation in last year. Photo from Observer.

Continue reading →

Standard
Africa, Conflict

Uganda threatens to withdraw troops from missions, UN distances self and Congo circus continues.

On Friday, Uganda’s Premier announced Uganda would pull its troops out of all peacekeeping mission over accusations that Uganda and some generals were backing M23 in Eastern DRC.

But like most people said, the threat was politicking which Uganda seems to gain an upper hand since the UNSC president has already said the report doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of the UN.

Could the views of UN be far from the contents of the report or could they be closer but UNSC will play safe in light of Uganda’s threats?

The UN Group of experts report will be out in about two weeks and seems by that time, Uganda and Rwanda and UN will have reached a settlement. This leaves the people of Congo in watching the same of old games.

Mineral looting vs security concerns

Uganda called the allegations in UN report baseless and complained that the UN wasn’t giving them credit where they have done well but this isn’t convincing. Our history in Congo shows that for every warlord that comes out strong, there’s a godfather in the neighbouring country.

This is done either by top generals in the armies with a blind eye of the presidents or big companies and agents who are trading in guns for minerals.  And many times the companies have a link to the top leadership in east African countries. However this is not to ignore role of western and Chinese companies in this conflict.

Continue reading →

Standard
Africa, Conflict

Uganda withdraw from peacekeeping missions would threaten regional peace

When UN report on Congo was first leaked in July 2012, Uganda’s support for M23 was largely ignored. So it appeared like Kampala had gotten away with as the world attention was drawn to Rwanda’s involvement and support for M23. Neither did we hear of the role of Kabila in this conflict.

Following the leak, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in August came to Uganda and met president Museveni.

In the wake of the M23 military advances, the AU summit tasked the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) to look at the renewed Congo conflict. President Museveni offered to broker the talks between government and M23 rebels, the offer which President Kabila’s government was against. Nonetheless Uganda hosted three summits.

Three months down the road, it was revealed that Uganda has not been a spectator as M23, a group of former fighters from CNDP- an ethnic Tutsi rebel movement, marched taking over territory with much more advanced arms.

Who are M23?

The report says Bosco Ntaganda, a former Congolese general nicknamed the Terminator, who is wanted by the international criminal court, controls the rebellion on the ground while Sultani Makenga is in charge of operations.

M23 fighters had been folded into the army three years ago but they walked out and started the fresh fighting “to force the government to honor its agreement.”

Continue reading →

Standard