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“ | This is not a mere change of guards, I think this is a fundamental change in the politics of our government. | „ |
~ Yoweri Museveni |
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (born September 15, 1944) is a Ugandan politician who has been President of Uganda since 29 January 1986 after seizing power from Milton Obote in a successful coup. In the mid-90s Twentieth century, Museveni was faced by the countries of the West as a model, as a representative of a new generation of African leaders. In recent years, he has been noted for his harsh persecution of and intense hatred of LGBT people, signing into law the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014 making homosexuality a crime with repeat offending punishable by life imprisonment (the Ugandan Parliament having refused to pass a previous version of the law allowing the death penalty for homosexuality).[1] This law was later struck down by the Ugandan Constitutional Court on procedural grounds.[2]
He has the distinction of being the fifth-longest serving head of state in African history, following the fall of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi.
Biography
Museveni was born on September 15, 1944 in Ntungamo, Uganda Protectorate, to parents Mzee Amos Kaguta (1916–2013), a cattle herder, and Esteri Kokundeka Nganzi (1918–2001), a housewife. He is a Muhororo by tribe.
Musevini was a part of the rebel faction that opposed President Idi Amin during the war with Tanzania. The exile forces opposed to Amin invaded Uganda from Tanzania in September 1972 and were repelled, suffering heavy losses. In October, Tanzania and Uganda signed the Mogadishu Agreement that denied the rebels the use of Tanzanian soil for aggression against Uganda. Museveni broke away from the mainstream opposition and formed the Front for National Salvation in 1973. In August of the same year, he married Janet Kataha.
With the overthrow of Amin in 1979 in the Uganda-Tanzania War and the contested election that returned Uganda's earlier president Milton Obote to power in 1980, Museveni returned to Uganda with his supporters to gather strength in their rural strongholds in the Bantu-dominated south and south-west to form the Popular Resistance Army (PRA). They then planned a rebellion against the second Obote regime (Obote II) and its armed forces, the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA).
During Museveni's presidency, Uganda has experienced relative peace and significant success in battling HIV/AIDS. At the same time, Uganda remains a country suffering from high levels of corruption, unemployment and poverty. Museveni's presidency has been marred by involvement in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other Great Lakes region conflicts; the rebellion in Northern Uganda by the Lord's Resistance Army which caused a drastic humanitarian emergency; and the suppression of political opposition and constitutional amendments scrapping presidential term limits (2005) and the presidential age limit (2017), thus enabling the extension of his rule. These have been a concern to domestic and foreign commentators. Museveni has been accused of rigging Ugandan elections, with online videos showing ballot box stuffing[3] and voter intimidation being widely reported.[4] A number of political opponents have also been arrested in disputed circumstances.[5][6][7]
Although Museveni now headed up a new government in Kampala, the NRM could not project its influence fully across Ugandan territory, finding itself fighting a number of insurgencies. From the beginning of Museveni's presidency, he drew strong support from the Bantu-speaking south and south-west, where Museveni had his base. Museveni managed to get the Karamojong, a group of semi-nomads in the sparsely populated north-east that had never had a significant political voice, to align with him by offering them a stake in the new government. The northern region along the Sudanese border, however, proved more troublesome. In the West Nile sub-region, inhabited by Kakwa and Lugbara (who had previously supported Amin), the UNRF and FUNA rebel groups fought for years until a combination of military offensives and diplomacy pacified the region. The leader of the UNRF, Moses Ali, gave up his struggle to become second deputy prime minister. People from the northern parts of the country viewed the rise of a government led by a person from the south with great trepidation. Rebel groups sprang up among the Lango, Acholi, and Teso peoples, though they were overwhelmed by the strength of the NRA except in the far north where the Sudanese border provided a safe haven. The Acholi rebel Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA) failed to dislodge the NRA occupation of Acholiland, leading to the desperate chiliasm of the Holy Spirit Movement (HSM). The defeat of both the UPDA and HSM left the rebellion to a group that eventually became known as the Lord's Resistance Army, which would turn upon the Acholi themselves.
The NRA subsequently earned a reputation for respecting the rights of civilians, although Museveni later received criticism for using child soldiers.[8] Undisciplined elements within the NRA soon tarnished a hard-won reputation for fairness. "When Museveni's men first came they acted very well – we welcomed them," said one villager, "but then they started to arrest people and kill them."[9]
In March 1989, Amnesty International published a human rights report on Uganda, entitled Uganda, the Human Rights Record 1986–1989. It documented gross human rights violations committed by NRA troops. In one of the most intense phases of the war, between October and December 1988, the NRA forcibly cleared approximately 100,000 people from their homes in and around Gulu town. Soldiers committed hundreds of extrajudicial executions as they forcibly moved people, burning down homes and granaries.[10]
Following the Rwandan Genocide of 1994, the new Rwandan government felt threatened by the presence across the Rwandan border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) of former Rwandan soldiers and members of the previous regime. These soldiers were aided by Mobutu Sese Seko, leading Rwanda (with the aid of Museveni) and Laurent-Désiré Kabila's rebels during the First Congo War to overthrow Mobutu and take power in the DRC. Uganda and Rwanda later invaded again in the Second Congo War to overthrow Kabila.
Troops from Rwanda and Uganda plundered the country's rich mineral deposits and timber.[11] The United States responded to the invasion by suspending all military aid to Uganda, a disappointment to the Clinton administration, which had hoped to make Uganda the centrepiece of the African Crisis Response Initiative. In 2000, Rwandan and Ugandan troops exchanged fire on three occasions in the DRC city of Kisangani, leading to tensions and a deterioration in relations between Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Museveni.[12]
The Ugandan government has also been criticised for aggravating the Ituri conflict, a sub-conflict of the Second Congo War. In December 2005, the International Court of Justice ruled that Uganda must pay compensation to the DRC for human rights violations during the Second Congo War.[13]
In recent years, Musevini has been accused of committing genocide against the Acholi people of northern Uganda. Though he has denied these claims and instead simply states that he is using extreme methods to try and combat the Lord's Resistance Army led by Joseph Kony, it has been revealed that Ugandan Army forces have been committing atrocities that are just as bad - and, in some cases, worse - that those perpetrated by the LRA.[14][15][16] Many of these atrocities were first brought to light in the 2016 documentary A Brilliant Genocide. The documentary reveals that atrocities committed by the Ugandan Army included the rape of women and men, facial mutilations and burying people alive in large pits which were then covered with earth and grass and set on fire to roast the victims alive.[17] Others atrocities include Museveni personally evicting two million Acholi from their homes and herding them into concentration camps where women and girls were victims of sexual assault by Museveni’s soldiers and roughly 1000 people died each week, mostly from starvation and disease.[18]
In 2014, Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2014, which made homosexual activity a crime punishable by prison time of up to life imprisonment and mandated a prison sentence of three years for failing to report homosexual activity.[19] A previous version of the bill making homosexuality punishable by death had failed to pass.[20] However, by the end of the year the Ugandan Constitutional Court had struck down the law, ruling that not enough lawmakers had voted for it to be valid.[21] Museveni had previously amended Uganda's constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage.[22]
Another law which was passed under his regime which received a lot of backlash is the “life presidency” bill. This bill would allow President Yoweri Museveni who has already held power for five terms to rule until 2031. The bill takes out a measure in the constitution which prevents anyone younger than 35 or older than 75 from holding the presidency. The president who is 71, would not have been able to run in 2021, yet this bill would allow him to run for another term in office. The majority in parliament takes a different perspective and described the bill as a means to correct discrimination against the elderly. Museveni fixed his re-election for 2021 in case a coup is not organized.
See Also
- Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Real Life Heroes Wiki
References
- ↑ Uganda MPs pass controversial anti-gay law, Al Jazeera
- ↑ Uganda court annuls anti-homosexuality law, BBC News
- ↑ Two Presiding Officers Arrested in Lugazi for Ballot Stuffing, Uganda Radio Network
- ↑ Uganda: Elections Marred by Violence, Human Rights Watch
- ↑ Uganda: Key Opposition MPs Arrested, Human Rights Watch
- ↑ Uganda riots over treason charge, BBC News
- ↑ Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine 'under house arrest', Al Jazeera
- ↑ Africa's child soldiers, The Daily Times
- ↑ Uganda: A killer before she was nine, Sunday Times
- ↑ Uganda: The human rights record 1986-1989, Amnesty International
- ↑ Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
- ↑ Will Uganda Pay Up for Congo Occupation?
- ↑ ICJ orders Uganda to pay $325m for DR Congo occupation, BBC News
- ↑ The Secret Genocide, Foreign Policy
- ↑ Like Tattered Grass Beneath Warring Elephants: The Destruction of the Acholi in Uganda, Organization for World Peace
- ↑ The Truth About Museveni's Crimes, The New York Review
- ↑ A Brilliant Genocide
- ↑ A Genocide in Northern Uganda? – The ‘Protected Camps’ Policy of 1999 to 2006, Justice in Conflict
- ↑ Uganda MPs pass controversial anti-gay law, Al Jazeera
- ↑ Uganda's "Kill the Gays" Bill Back in Limbo, The New Yorker
- ↑ Uganda constitutional court annuls new anti-gay law, Times Live
- ↑ Uganda: IGLHRC Condemns Uganda's Targeting of Lesbians and Gay Men; Calls Ban on Same-Sex Marriage "Legislative Overkill", OutRight International