Yes, Museveni has been dictator since Reagan was president.
[Open Letter To President-Elect Trump]
Dear President-elect Donald Trump,
Please do accept my belated congratulatory message upon winning the trust and confidence of the American people to be elected the 45th President of the most powerful nation on earth.
You may wish to know that Ugandans in specific and Africans in general, follow with a lot of interest, American politics and election campaigns. This was not any different in the case of your own election campaign.
This happens for mainly two reasons. First, we believe that American Presidents have the requisite political, diplomatic and military infrastructure to liberate a people shackled by tyrants such as Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in my own country and dictators elsewhere in Africa.
Secondly, we know that American citizens taxes give budget support to economies of developing countries like Uganda for delivery of social services and construction of physical infrastructure, among others. In many cases these resources don’t reach the intended beneficiaries.
We believe the American people through their government should be concerned about waste of their hard-earned tax monies by tyrants for self aggrandizement rather than delivery of services to the citizens.
Sadly, over the years, our hopes and confidence in American Presidents and government to spur socioeconomic development in countries like Uganda has dissipated. African tyrants have continued to suppress, maim, kill and destroy their countries under the watch and even assistance from U.S. leaders and government.
In fact, Mr. Trump, we believe that American government only intervenes in Africa where they have interests and when those interests are seriously at stake.
To many Ugandans and Africans, the U.S. is perceived as a nation that only pretends to encourage democratic governance, rule of law and observance of human rights. In fact, we believe that American government will even protect African tyrants in power as long as they purvey their interests, at the expense of African peoples national and continental interests.
Make no mistake Mr. President-elect, I am not in any way suggesting that Americans should not protect and advance their interests. Neither am I saying that American government should be responsible for solving all our problems. Not at all.
All I am saying is that we are a community of nations that are inter-linked with one another, so much so that, what affects one country, in one way or another, affects all the other countries. We must thus as nations be concerned about the well being or lack of thereof, of sister countries.
Mr. President-elect, Ugandas tyrant, Gen. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has been in power since the reign of Ronald Reagan. In other words, you are the 6th U.S. President that has been elected while he is in office. In fact, you may finish your tenure as President and still leave him suppressing, impoverishing and brutalizing the people of Uganda.
Mr. President-elect permit me to offer a mere summary of Gen. Museveni’s resume for you to determine if this is the type of ruler U.S. taxpayers need sustain:
[[ After his National Resistance Army (NRA) took over power in 1986 he eliminated several political leaders. To resist extrajudicial arrests and vicious killings, Ugandans rebelled.
In response, Gen. Museveni and his soldiers conspired with one of the unsavory rebel groups, Lords Resistance Army, (LRA) and massacred several people in places like Atiak, Corner Kilak, Burcoro, Achol-pii, and Barlonyo.
[] Museveni’s government then herded people in camps whose squalid conditions caused the death of hundreds of thousands.
[] In Eastern Uganda, in a place called Mukura, his soldiers burnt several hundreds of people locked in train wagons.
[] In Central Uganda, he and his army are alleged to have master minded the murder of key political leaders, like Dr. Andrew Kayiira, a renowned Democratic Party leader.
[] In Central Uganda when the traditional King of Buganda region, Kabaka Ronald Mutebi II, was blocked from visiting Kayunga region people resisted. Estimates of those killed by Gen. Museveni’s forces reached 30.
[] In Western Uganda, under the guise of fighting against another rebel group, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), Gen. Museveni’s soldiers massacred several people in cold blood.
[] As mentioned, recently, on Sunday, 27th November, 2016, Gen. Museveni and his soldiers massacred hundreds of innocent citizens in the Western Uganda district of Kasese. As it is always the case with massacres, we shall never know the actual number of people butchered by the blood thirsty soldiers of the tyrant.
On this occasion, the tyrant ordered his men to ferociously invade the palace of a traditional King and cultural leader, Omusinga wa Rwenzururu, Mumbere Wesley. He accuses his government of allegedly mobilizing his subjects to secede from Uganda. Indeed, Museveni’s soldiers in addition to invading the palace and setting it ablaze, arrested and killed several unarmed subjects of the cultural leader.
Interestingly, the cultural leader was arrested and charged with murder and not treason or even misprision of treason as the nature of his offence would have warranted.
[] With respect to economic development and social services, the regime of Gen. Museveni spews economic growth figures that are far removed from the reality of the citizens. Unemployment for instance is nearly 80% among the youth and nearly 70% of the population lives below the poverty line.
[] The healthcare system is ailing with no medicines and personnel in hospitals. In fact, the only chemotherapy machine the country had in the national referral hospital, Mulago, has since broken down and there is no sign of repairing or buying a new one soon.
[] Grotesque corruption scandals have pervaded all sectors of government. Millions of U.S dollars are swindled almost daily from different government departments.
[] In East and Central Africa, Gen. Museveni has fought with almost all countries in our neighborhood. In DRC, in the mid 1990s, his army and those of his colleague, Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda, looted the natural resources of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) amounting to several billions of U.S. dollars and massacred people.
Government of Uganda was consequently found liable by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and asked to pay Congo government reparation amounting to USD 10 Billion.
[] In the aftermath of the disputed elections in Kenya in 2007, Gen. Museveni is alleged to have sent troops to commit atrocities against the people of Kenya.
[] Gen. Museveni’s troops are propping the regime of Gen. Salva Kiir, who together with his nemesis, Dr. Riek Machar are responsible for the untold death and suffering of hundreds of thousands of the people of South Sudan.
Mr. President-elect, you can clearly see that Gen. Museveni is not only a menace to Uganda, but the whole region.
He is now a huge liability to the peace, harmony and political stability of Uganda as well as the region.
Mr. President-elect, I propose that, first, your administration mount serious diplomatic pressure on his regime to accept negotiations with opposition political parties with a view to forming a Government of National Reconciliation and Unity. Should he refuse to yield, please do not hesitate to impose economic sanctions, cut aid, including arms shipment, and slap travel bans on him and his henchmen until they accept to negotiate.
Negotiations will ensure peaceful transfer of power from the tyrant to another leader.
Secondly, it will give a chance to the people of Uganda to undertake the required reforms in the governance of the country.
Mr. President-elect, our country is standing at a critical juncture in history. It is within your moral and leadership responsibility to save our nation from falling apart by not continuing the same policy of previous U.S. administrations.
U.S. policy plays a critical role in determining whether or not there is more bloodshed in Uganda and elsewhere in Africa..
Mugabe Robert is a Uganda based columnist.
