Gen. Museveni. The Wall Street Journal reported that he once asked for an ICC investigation to be blocked
[EDITORIAL]
Americans must call The White House, (202) 456-1111, and also their Congressional representatives and demand that the U.S. cut off all tax-payer monies that go to the regime of Gen. Yoweri Museveni who on Monday launched a hate campaign against Gays in the East African country.
Museveni’s new law imposes life sentences. At the same time in encourages mob attacks.
The phone number for the U.S. House of Representatives is (202) 225-3121 and the U.S. Senate (202) 224-3121.
Uganda receives about $500 million in financial and military aid annually thanks to U.S. taxpayers, including Gay Americans. Any U.S. aid must go directly to non-government affiliated organizations not controlled by Museveni’s government or military.
On Monday Uganda’s dictator, Gen. Museveni, in office for 28 years now, signed the so-called anti- homosexuality law. Museveni also told CNN Gays were “disgusting.”
This is not a man standing on a street corner. This is a president of a country abusing the office to essentially incite hatred and violence towards a segment of his own population. Why should U.S. taxpayers, including Gay Americans, subsidize his dictatorship and hate campaign?
Gen. Museveni’s motives for inciting hatred towards gays is purely for political reasons as he hopes to attract votes in the 2016 election and divert attention from woeful domestic policies and militarism in neighboring countries. His military misadventures in Rwanda, Congo and now South Sudan, through the years, caused the deaths of millions of innocent civilians.
The U.S. should not be financially backing a general responsible for millions of deaths and now persecuting gays.
In 2000 the World Court found Uganda under Museveni liable for what amounts to war crimes in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and later awarded Congo $10 billion compensation. The Wall Street Journal reported on June 8, 2006 that Gen. Museveni asked then U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to block a separate investigation by the International Criminal Court, possibly fearing criminal indictment. Support for Museveni is assistance for a general who is aware he is an unindicted war criminal, judging by The Wall Street Journal article.
Perhaps that’s why even after 28 years in power he still clings on, and has now cynically and deviously introduced an emotionally charged issue to try and prolong his regime.
How should the U.S. react?
1. Avoid any response that is narrowly targeted only at the odious anti-Gay bill which will allow Gen. Museveni to cast himself as a defiant African nationalist standing up to “perverted” Western cultural imperialism; the pushback must address tyranny, corruption, and human rights abuses that affect all Ugandans, including Gays.
2. Impose a U.S. Travel Ban on Gen. Museveni; Gen. Museveni’s Family; his Senior Ministers; and, Members of Parliament who voted for the Anti-Gay law in Uganda. 3. Impose an Asset Freeze on Gen. Museveni and his Senior Ministers. Gen. Museveni’s former minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development, Ms. Zoe Bakoko Bakoru, in a recent interview told New York -based SaharaTV and The Black Star News that Uganda’s First Family was involved in stealing $5 million PER MONTH, possibly for years, from the country’s National Social Security Fund (NSSF), contributions of workers towards their retirement fund. Ms. Bakoko says she was granted asylum in the U.S. after she shared her information about this criminality with U.S. authorities.
An article in The Wall Street Journal said his top ministers, Sam Kutesa (Foreign Affairs), Amama Mbabazi (Prime Minister), and Hilary Onek (then Internal Affairs) were accused by lawmakers of accepting millions of dollars in bribes from oil companies for oil concessions in Uganda.
This is not a regime that deserves any U.S. tax-payers’ dollars, including Gay Americans, in order to harm all of Uganda’s citizens.
