The donor community has asked the government to strengthen the fight against corruption or miss further donations. Representing the donor community on Monday [31 October] during the launch of the corruption week at the Constitution Square, the royal Danish ambassador, Mr Stig Barling, said Uganda had failed to minimize corruption though it had a framework to minimize it. "As Uganda's development partners, we will not tolerate corruption. Any score below four is unacceptable by the development partners. We have zero tolerance on corruption and impunity when it comes to corruption. We have zero patience on such issues. The government institutions should act or will miss donations in future," he said.

As the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights prepares to meet next month, Amnesty International and human rights defenders from across East Africa and the Horn of Africa expressed fears that progress made during the last two years could be lost in political negotiations. Over 60 grassroots activists from Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda will be participating in a conference taking place in Entebbe, Uganda from 31 October to 04 November 2005. The talks have been organized by Amnesty International and the East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders' Project (EHAHRDP).

"We Ugandans and friends of Uganda, in tandem with Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative (ARLPI: http://www.acholipeace.org), Human Rights Watch (http://hrw.org/campaigns/uganda/), Amnesty International (http://web.amnesty.org/report2003/uga-summary-eng), local Human Rights groups, the civil society and all peace loving members of the international community, are extremely concerned about the continuing genocide (http://www.acholitoday.worldbreak.com) that is ravaging the Acoli, Lango and Teso sub-regions of Uganda. Please join us in signing the petition."

The Global IDP Project says Northern and eastern Uganda is seeing a resurgence of attacks against civilians by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), even in areas that had experienced relative calm for over a year, raising fears that the 19-year conflict with the Ugandan government may be far from over. In one recent attack in the Katakwi district of eastern Uganda, the LRA burned huts and looted food stocks, causing nearly 600 residents of a nearby IDP camp to flee in fear of further attacks.

Dr Kizza Besigye, the leader of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change, returned home, ending his four-year exile in South Africa. Besigye, whose return date was forced by the Electoral Commission's October 28 deadline for registration of voters, was also registered on the same day at the FDC's offices in Najjanankumbi. He will vote at his home polling station at Southern Ward, Rukungiri Town Council. The retired colonel, whom the government has accused of possible involvement with a shadowy rebel group, the People's Redemption Army, said he would not renounce armed rebellion as President Museveni had demanded in the past.

For someone who just turned 90, Amamiya Akera has big plans for the future of his Acholi community. He sees rolling hills of maize, simsim and cassava. He sees school children walking on the road with full stomachs while shiny tractors traverse the green goldmine that surrounds them. Security and agricultural growth in the region may not be far away, reports the Daily Monitor. "The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has retreated into the Congo (where UN is sending soldiers to defeat them) and Sudan (where the US is supporting joint Ugandan-Sudanese military operations against them), says the report.

Water levels of Lake Victoria are extremely sensitive to moderate changes in rainfall over the lake and rain catchment basin, with the lake's large surface area making it the largest recharge source. The lake's only outlet is at Ripon Falls, located near Jinja Uganda, which is the natural topographic control that originally formed the lake. In 1954, Owens Falls Dam (later renamed Nalubaale) was commissioned downstream of Ripon Falls to generate hydroelectricity along the Victoria Nile river and became Uganda's largest power station.

The International Justice Tribune reports that it was an unusual week at the International Criminal Court (ICC), with The Hague strangely silent while in New York the UN envoy for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) revealed the ICC's first arrest warrant. Confusingly, the office of the prosecutor announced a press conference on Friday 7 October in The Hague, only to cancel it. On the same day, it was Kampala who finally made the official announcement. "The [ICC] investigation is complete and the court has taken a decision," the Ugandan defense minister told the news agency IRIN. He said that the ICC has issued arrest warrants against five leaders of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), including its chief, Joseph Kony, vice-commander Vincent Otti, and three lieutenants, Raska Lukwiya, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen.

ISIS-Women International Cross Cultural Exchange (Isis-WICCE) have launched a state of the art Information Unit for Teso Women Peace Activisits (TEWPA) in Soroti town in Eastern Uganda. The unit which is the fourth in the country comprises of a computer set with its printer, a television set, a video deck, a mobile telephone hand set, and a landline telephone system.

Referendums are the indulgence of governments who are confident that they will not loose. Such was the July referendum in Uganda, writes Ronald Elly Wanda, who says that the vote served as notice of President Yoweri Museveni’s candidacy for the impending 2006 elections. Wanda expresses concern at the undemocratic nature of Ugandan politics.

Since the dawn of political thought the question “who should rule?” has been a recurrent issue of argument and debate. More recently in East Africa, the referendum held on 28th of July in Uganda rekindles this interest. In the referendum the Ugandan electorate were asked to choose whether the state adopts a multiparty political system or continues with the existing mono (movement) arrangement. The result, as expected by the government was an overwhelming yes. According to the Electoral Commission chairman Dr Badru Kiggundu, 92.5% balloted yes whilst only 7.5% objected to altering the system. Understandably, without more ado, the opposition camp fittingly cited that the outcome was partly due to the fact that a large number of the 8.5 million electors stayed away from the 17000 polling stations.

As far as referendums are concerned, it is fair to say that governments tend to utilize them only when they are confident that they are in a strong position to win them. For instance in Britain, Tony Blair indefinitely postponed a planed referendum on the EU constitution, fearing defeat after it was clear that the French and Dutch nationals had rejected it. Five years ago Museveni, unlike Blair, knew that he would win when he petitioned Ugandans with the first referendum. As expected voters at that time again “overwhelmingly” rejected multi-party politics in favour of continuing with the President’s "no-party" system, the electoral commission then reported that 91% of voters favoured retaining the National Resistance Movement as the country's political system.

The purposes of the referendum for movementism in 2000 were as much the same as the now concluded referendum on multipartism. Only the ranks have been changed and the referendum question reversed. Thus they were a mere quantitative and not qualitative exercise; their real intentions designed to systematically marketise the “Kisanja project” (Museveni’s third term campaign) in time for the March 2006 presidential elections. Although the National Resistance Movement-Organisation (NRM-O) government would have Ugandans believe that the referendums were a result of yielding democracy, the reality is that external factors played a far more significant role. Furthermore, neither referendum had anything to do with enhancing the democratic franchise, in spite of the fact that the methodology employed (referendum) and the apparatus used (ballot vote) replicated a commotion in a liberal democratic system.

Democracy

Today only a few people in Uganda would admit to thinking that democracy is a bad thing. Nonetheless, the emergence of more than one recognised political grouping and the appearance of multi-party politics, as is the case now in Uganda, is not necessarily the same as democracy. There is thus a hazardous tendency to call a system ‘democratic’ simply because the incumbent government (in this case, NRM-O) says that it is.

A quick perusal of the history of democracy illustrates that it is a procedure that takes time. It also took time for a mature liberal democratic state such as England to realise democracy’s fruition. During the 17th century prior to the so called first democratic revolution, elite groups in England, regarded democracy as a threat to be overcome, and not a prospect to be encouraged. Indeed not so long ago in the 1940s the unrepentant imperialist Sir Winston Churchill when about to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire went on to confess that: “democracy was the least efficient form of government but that every other form was worse”.

In Uganda, as has been the case in almost all corners of Sub Sahara Africa, the process of democratisation has been unfairly pushed by international financial institutions (IMF, WB, WTO as well as the donor community) in order to fulfil their own agenda of “opening up Africa” to the global economy.

The result is best summed up by a key Nigerian political scientist Professor Claude Oke in 1993 when he said: “What is being fostered in Africa is a version of liberal democracy reduced to the crude simplicity of multiparty elections. This type of democracy in the least emancipatory especially in African conditions because it offers people rights they cannot exercise, voting that never amounts to choosing, freedom which is patently spurious, and political equality which disguises highly unequal power relations.” This is exactly what President Museveni is doing by reengineering the constitution to permit his third term candidacy and secondly by holding a meaningless referendum.

In order for democracy to be realised in Uganda, it must firstly be allowed to naturally evolve and secondly the law must be respected by all (including the President himself) as it is a key essential aspiration for democratic ideals. Decisions ought to be taken by the people. This means that:
- The mass of the people should have some say in what they are going to be, and not just told what they are as the July referendum did;
- This say should be genuinely theirs and also not manipulated by propaganda, misinformation and irrational fears; and that
- It should to some extent reflect their considered opinion and aspirations, as against ill informed and knee-jerk prejudice. Democracy being an evolutionary process, a democratic political culture ought to be encouraged and militarism discouraged.

Political culture

In Uganda since political independence in 1962 one finds that domestic socio-economic and political problems have been responsible in attracting military elements into usurping national political power. Indeed in the country’s last coup de tat in January of 1986, the incumbent president was seen as a political saviour whose NRM machination delivered Ugandans from a corrupt, and inept Dr Milton Obote’s UPC (Uganda People’s Congress) government. Resultantly, militarism has and continues to play a significant role in Uganda’s post –independence political culture. For instance the defence budget was $44m in 1991. It went up to $88m in 1996 and rose again to $155m in 2003. It was estimated at between $193 to $203m last year alone. According to tangible sources the cost of defence amounted to around 23% of the public administration to 20-23% of total expenditure. This is money that should have been better spent elsewhere, eradicating poverty and providing education and other rural developments.

Constitutionalism

Thus the process of democratisation in Uganda will continue being severely hindered unless the political culture of militarism is dismantled and the rule of law respected. NRM-O’s deliberate incapacitation of Article 105(2) of the 1995 Uganda constitution - that limits presidential terms to a maximum two five years, thus precluding Mr Museveni (who has been a continuous tenant of Nakasero State House since 1986) from contesting the March 2006 general elections - should serve as an indication of the President’s candidacy for the impending 2006 elections.

The Musevenisation of the Ugandan constitution should be condemned by all not only because it is undemocratic but also on the grounds that it is insincere. The long-term ramifications for Ugandans are that any future president might use this same clause to personalise constitutions to suit their individual needs- at the expense of the Ugandan mwanainchi (citizen). This is selfish and dangerous for it is the law that defines our responsibilities to the state and vice versa. Therefore it is also the law that provides for and defines the good of society. By contrast, the democratic justification of political power is essentially legalistic, being based on the legal idea of a contract.

Mr Museveni and his strategists have revised the terms of the contract (constitution) in the absence of the Uganda electorate, subsequently infringing the state/citizen contract. President Museveni’s has to a degree served Ugandans well but his quest for an extension is undemocratic and as such the preservation of the status quo sadly means that inhabitants of the “Pearl of Africa” may sadly never experience the pleasure of seeing an incumbent relinquishing political office voluntarily, thus rendering a coup inevitable.

* Ronald Elly Wanda is a political scientist based in London, United Kingdom.

* Please send comments to [email protected]

Alarmed by reports regarding the administration of the death penalty in Uganda, and aware that a petition filed in September 2003 against the death penalty, signed by 417 death row inmates, was pending before the Constitutional Court of Uganda, Networking Human Rights Defenders (FIDH), decided to send an international fact-finding mission to the country. The mandate of the mission was to inquire into the administration of the capital punishment in Uganda, including the conditions of detention on death row. The objective was also to assess the possibility of Uganda abolishing the death penalty, or adopting a moratorium on capital punishment, as a first step towards its abolition, and to issue recommendations in that regard. For the full report, follow the link.

Military aid to Uganda should be tied to human rights performance in order to stem numerous human rights violations by both the military and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), says Human Rights Watch (HRW). 'It will be good for governments that give Uganda military aid of any kind, especially the United States, to tie such aid to human rights performance,' said Jemera Rone of HRW.

Uganda Women's Network (UWONET) is looking for dynamic, self-motivated, organised, innovative and outgoing individual to work for its focal point, the Secretariat, which is the nerve centre of the Network.

Uganda's army commander says his troops have been given unlimited access to fight Ugandan rebels based in Sudan. The move follows last week's indictment of five Lord's Resistance Army rebels by the International Criminal Court. Until now the army could not go beyond a so-called "red line", about 100km (62 miles) into Sudanese territory. The Khartoum government backed the LRA until the end of Sudan's civil war, but the rebels remain active - their latest attack was reportedly on Friday.

The recent spate of attacks on civilians in northern and eastern Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has raised fears that the brutal 19-year old conflict is "not yet over", a top religious leader in the region said. "We have in the past been hoodwinked that rebel activities were on the wane, only [for such activities] to resurface with renewed vigour and brutality. Widespread attacks in many areas are not the signs of a group weakened," Archbishop John Baptist Odama said on Wednesday.

The Ugandan military and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army continue to kill, rape and uproot civilians in northern Uganda with brazen impunity, Human Rights Watch said in a report released in September. A brutal rebel group responsible for countless atrocities, the Lord's Resistance Army continues to wage war against the Ugandan government, whose undisciplined army has committed crimes against civilians, the very people they are supposed to protect, with near-total impunity.

In a bid to advance self-regulation in the press, veteran media practitioners and stakeholders have set up a board to prepare for formation of an independent media council in Uganda, writes Evelyn Lirri in the Daily Monitor. The council, which will be controlled by journalists and media stakeholders, will be independent of government control and will become operational by July 2006.

The Land and Equity Movement in Uganda (LEMU) reports that the District of Apac is typical of most of Northern Uganda, almost completely un-industrialised with few urban centres of any size. In a report, 'Land Rights: Where we are and where we need to go' LEMU states that the population is rural and depends entirely on agriculture for its livelihoods. Mechanisation is rare, so the only productive assets which most households own are land, a few hand tools and livestock.This is described as 'traditional' and has in recent years seen changes. The report reviews the situation of land rights in the Apac District and looks at opportunities for land rights protection work. It examines the 1998 Land Act and its implementation in practice and finds that the protection clauses for women are proving ineffective.

Ugandan army soldiers fighting a 19-year insurgency by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in the north of the country torture civilians as a method of enforcing discipline and extracting information from suspected criminals during interrogations, the Ugandan government human rights watchdog has said. "In 2004, the commission received 108 complaints alleging torture by soldiers of the UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces, the national army]," the Uganda Human Rights Commission said in its annual report for 2004, released on Tuesday.

An effort to rid Uganda of some 50,000 small arms began on Monday with the burning of about 3,000 weapons at a ceremony in the capital, Kampala. Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said: "Weapons destruction is intended to ensure that weapons seized, collected or deemed excess to national security requirements do not find their way back into illegal circulation or recycled into neighbouring conflict areas," Rugunda told the audience of mainly government officials and diplomats. The UN Development Programme funded the arms destruction.