According to Daily Monitor , the Uganda army Land Forces Commander, Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala has revealed that they are ready to go ahead and attack Islamists strongholds in Somalia if they are given a green light by the United Nations and the African Union. If such a mandate is issued it will see about 4300 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers more embroiled in the Somalia conflict. The two countries went to the horn of African nation in the name of peacekeeping but of late have been calling for change of mandate with increased attacks from Al Shabab.
This comes at a time when the troops are battling an unknown disease they contracted in Somalia. Some people have hinted it could be poisoning but about 40 Ugandans were airlifted to Kenya following the outbreak of the disease that has so far killed one UPDF soldier and four Burundians.
The opposition leader in Uganda Dr. Kiiza Besiggye has called on government to withdraw troops from Mogadishu saying “Rather than keeping peace they were sucked into civil war. There is ample evidence that the UPDF supplied arms to one of the warring factions and that is why we are saying they should return home.”
Lt.Gen Katumba Wamala, Uganda's army Land Forces Commander (L) while visiting troops in Mogadishu last year. AMISOM photo
Two weeks ago The Independent carried a lead story questioning whether 43000 AU troops could succeed where about 38000 UN troops failed in the early years of the conflict. No doubt if this mandate is given a go ahead it will further complicate the position of the AU and the two troop contributing countries in Somalia. Will they win or lose the fight and in case they win what price are citizens of Uganda and Burundi will to pay? If this intervention fails how would AU deal with this taking sides?
The war between Khartoum and South Sudan may be long ended but the reconstruction of South Sudan is not going to be an easy ride. Even as the ruling on Abyei was recieved, African women and children in Sudan still face challenges from food, infrastructure to lack of security. One major obstacle left behind by the war are land mines. Some were planted by the Lords Resistance Army and others by government forces and rebels in Sudan. For this week’s Women of Valour, I chose the women of South Sudan who bear the harsh hot sun to demine the villages to make safe places for people to resettle.
Migingo Island row has raised its ugly head yet again. Teams of Ugandan and Kenyan
The disputed Migingo Island in Lake Victoria.
surveyors whom we expected to shed light on where the island lies have disagreed. And Uganda’s minister for East African affairs has said the matter could end up at the International Court of Justice which recently gave a verdict on the fate of Abyei region in Sudan which was claimed by both the government of South Sudan and the government in Khartoum.
After spending a lot of taxpayer’s money to the committees to demarcate the border, citizens in the eastern African nations will still have hold their breath for the way forward. I read a good commentary on the situation from Global Politician by Ronald Elly Wanda, a political scientist.
I agree with him that the dispute has been magnified and it shows that these governments aren’t that dedicated to find a amicable solution. But where I differ is the way he thinks that colonial agreements are being given too much attention as where the solution lies.
“In fact, one striking feature that the Migingo tussle vividly illustrates, is that the so called independence we were granted is in actual fact ‘dependence’. The territorial dispute and the references sought to pre-colonial documents (as a possible resolution), indicates a collective colonised Kenyan and Ugandan mindset that is still soaked in cultural imperialism.”
Much as I find it distasteful that we still have to be affected by these colonial agreements we can’t escape the fact we have to depend on them because after many years of defining our states many of us see ourselves more in terms of those boundaries that we didn’t put up. Migingo I believe shouldn’t be detraction for these two countries but where ‘big men’ rule and are in charge almost solely, we are bound to see such issues become a clash of egos.
Holocaust scholars– including Yad Vashem Professor Yehuda Bauer and the president of Genocide Watch, Gregory H. Stanton – signed a petition praising Uganda’s move to ‘block’ Sudanese President Omar al Bashir from attending a conference in Kampala over the ICC indictments.
Map of Sudan showing Darfur region where Bashir's is accused of supporting a conflict that claimed thousands of lives of black tribes
The media was awash of stories as Bashir kept quiet on whether he would attend the conference, a move that would have put Uganda between a rock and a hard place.
I know and I have gained from Gregory H. Stanto’s vast knowledge of the Genocide at the young leader’s forum in Montreal in 2007. I learnt alot about the stages of genocide and that genocide can be prevented.
While Santon and other scholars said “Uganda’s action helps isolate Sudan’s president and shames the Arab and African countries that have given him red-carpet treatment,” I believe their move is not worth the praise. This is because it wasn’t done in total belief in justice. Uganda simply did what was politically convinien by asking Bashir not to attent in person to avoid a diplomatic row. If Uganda really believed in the whole Rome statute the government wouldn’t be moving to enact a law that grants a seating president immunity from prosecution for war crimes.
See pictures from Darfur by Stuart Price a photojournalist who spent more than a year in the region.
Of recent Matany Hospital has seen a reduction in the number of patients seeking treatment for bullet wounds and the Medical Superintendent believes it signifies a reduction in the number of violent encounters either inter-tribe or between the Karimojong and UPDF.
Between 2006 and 2007, the hospital treated about 200 people with war wounds and these were probably just a few of those who survived in the fighting.
A Karimojong man injured during a raids lies on a hospital bed in Moroto. violent clashes have reduced in recent months. Rosebell Kagumire photo.
“Most of them would actually come when wounds are already rotting, about a week after they were shot,” said a doctor at the hospital, “The hospital currently admits about 12 gunshot wounded people per month but the past data shows that before the forced disarmament started, for every two days two wounded people would be admitted.”
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Liberia in its final report this week recommended that President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf among others should be barred from holding public office for 30 years.
The recommendation also extended to all those associated with former warring factions, their leaders, political decision makers, financiers, organizers, commanders, foot soldiers. President Sirleaf has already spoken on the subject saying she gave support to the Charles Taylor group but “only intended for humanitarian purposes.”
The TRC doesn’t outright say Sirleaf is guilty of partly fuelling the 14 year old conflict that claimed thousands of lives in the West African nation but their recommendation has got many thinking about the implications. President Sirleaf has been one of the African women that inspire me not because she was the first female head of state but because of her ambition displayed in a career in the finance industry built over decades. In the elections I was excited by George Weah because of his football career but a good look at Sirleaf made me believe she was the right person for the job of heading a country emerging out of a war.
I never knew I would have a chance to talk to Sirleaf. But that chance came in February 2007 in Kigali Rwanda where I had gone to cover a huge African women conference. I was working for NTV at the time and it was a one man crew. I had to secure an appointment for an interview with the president at her suite at Kigali Serena Hotel.
After waiting for long hours (because the SABCs CNNs of this world had to go in first) I got into her room. I was told by her press secretary that I had exactly 15 minutes to setup the equipment and do the interview. First she was amazed at how a lone girl from Uganda could make it in these minutes and she said something to that effect before the interview began.
Why am I bringing this up? It’s because I asked how Sirleaf could have supported Charles Taylor during this interview. And her answer was that she thought of him differently at the time. She didn’t think that Taylor wanted power for himself just like many other leaders on the continent. She agreed it was a misjudgment on her part but she insisted she had started a new page of rebuilding her nation. Sirleaf said that as a woman and mother she understood well that women suffered the brunt of war through rapes and that such wounds can mostly deeply be understood by a woman. She said she was determined to see justice served.
To me she cut across as an honourable politician and I was in no doubt she was the iron lady I had long read about. Her experience on international stage gave her a different added understanding of conflict and governance in Africa as she put forward her views of leaders who cling to power during the interview. With this judgment from the TRC I am left thinking, what options does the honourable iron lady have? And if she’s to step down would this be good for Liberia? Before I even think of her stepping down, what truth is in her defense when she says her support was for humanitarian use? Charles Taylor is still being held at The Hague, on trial by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the conflict in Sierra Leone. So this means we won’t hear from Taylor whom Sirleaf dealt with but this shouldn’t water down the case for or against Sirleaf. There should be extensive revelations whether Sirleaf was aware of Taylor’s mischief and whether Taylor was the only person through whom such supplies could have passed to reached the people.
I still believe that Sirleaf should remain president unless there’s insurmountable evidence that her support for Taylor was aimed at elevating herself politically. After her work that has improved lives in Liberia, I think Sirleaf should be given a chance to correct her wrongs if she hasn’t done that already. At the end of our interview she was warm and she asked how I find my work and the challenges. After my brief answer she said: “We need women like you in the media in Liberia.” This statement showed me this is a president who thinks of her country in every sense. If the recommendation of the TRC is to be adopted, they will put an abrupt and ugly end to the career of a great woman. And such great women in African who can traverse male dominated political playgrounds in a dignified way to go on to become great leaders are hard to come by. This is where the question of justice or moving on comes in play. With appreciation that one can hardly move on without justice, I still believe banning Sirleaf will be Liberia’s loss.
Papers in Uganda today are reporting that President Museveni has given a directive that the army stops the ongoing arrests of suspected rebel collaborators in northern Uganda. Since late last year, the army has carried out a series of arrests but it wasn’t until late last month that they arraigned 10 suspects in Kampala including a Gulu based journalist Patrick Otim.
Elders in Odek Village, Gulu gather remains of people killed in the LRA war for reburrial. Rosebell Kagumire/2009
But up to now the army doesn’t say who was heading this group. They have pointed at a document supposedly found on Gulu LCV chairman Mao’s flash disk. But if the army thinks Mao is guilty as they have put it in the media, you expect that he would have been the first to be arrested. And Museveni’s directive sends mixed signals. The army spokesperson Maj. Felix Kulayigye said the reason for halting the arrest was “the nucleus of the emerging rebellion was crushed and those concerned have received the information.”
Some questions need to be answered. Can people who have spent the last 20 years in camps be the ones seeking to elongate their suffering? Is this another move by government to alienate people of northern Uganda? And if the rebel group was real why are govt officials trying to release the arrested suspects? If they are indeed rebels why don’t they go through a trial or be given a chance for amnesty rather than just releasing them? Why would a president halt genuine moves to protect the country even if the so called nucleus of the movement has been crushed? Isn’t this what many thought when Lakwena was crushed only for Joseph Kony to emerge?
As long as government doesn’t give a reason for these arrests beyond the ‘nucleus crushed’ many Ugandans will continue to believe that the rebel group threat was imaginary.
Many people have died or had their legs shot off because of a mine 
Rosebell Kagumire 