US condemns government for human rights violations

By TABU BUTAGIRA

The US government has condemned what it called the “deteriorating” human rights situation in Uganda and asked the country’s leaders to respect civil liberties of all citizens, including minority groups.

Department of State’s Spokesperson Victoria Nuland in a statement issued on Wednesday, expressed concern that the government has “failed to respect freedoms of expression, assembly and the media”.

“(The) United States is concerned about Uganda’s deteriorating human rights record,” she noted, adding: “Recently, the Ugandan government has failed to respect freedoms of expression, assembly, and the media, as well as its commitment to protect the human rights of all Ugandans.”

Washington’s public disapproval over human rights abuses in Uganda, its strategic security ally in the fragile Great Lakes region comes a day after London-headquartered rights group, Amnesty International, said in a report that President Museveni is maintaining power through “repression”.

It noted that the regime had become intolerant to dissent and narrowed the space for democratic expression by introducing draconian legislation and harassing, intimidating as well as slapping criminal charges on opposition political leaders, civil society activists and journalists.

Uganda’s reputation has been soiled internationally by its security forces’ violent crackdown on walk-to-work demonstrators in April and May that resulted in the death, from bullet wounds, of about a dozen people, the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies (ACSS) said in a separate report on Wednesday.

“More than anything, Besigye could have said or done,” the Centre notes, “the images capturing the government’s heavy-handed response badly damaged the legitimacy of Museveni regime, both domestically and internationally.”

The ACSS, located at the National Defence University in Washington D.C., undertakes research and analysis to inform decisions of US policy makers as well as foster open dialogue on Washington’s strategic priorities, among them African security matters.

In its latest report titled; Africa and the Arab Spring: A New Era of Democratic Expectations, the Centre lumps Uganda together with Zimbabwe among 10 African countries it says have “semi-authoritarian” political regimes. The leaderships are ranked as consolidating democracies, democratisers, semi-authoritarian and autocracies. In East Africa, Rwanda falls in the worst category.

Ms Nuland also raised the red flag over the house arrest of FDC party leader, Dr Kizza Besigye, using the colonial-era ‘preventive arrest’ legislation whenever he attempts to walk to work. She criticised government’s recent introduction of a draconian Public Order Management Bill that she said targets government critics and aims to suffocate political activism.

Yesterday, Information Minister Mary Karooro Okurut said the government is being criticised unfairly. “It’s only those who engage in unlawful acts that are handled by police and that cannot amount to violation of human rights,” she said.

Makerere University Political Science Professor Aaron Mukwaya, however, said public agitation over a gloomy economy and political mistreatment of regime opponents shows Mr Museveni’s February landslide re-election was “theoretical”. He cautioned government not to wish away the problems without fixing the economy and democratising politics. He blamed the government of not punishing the corrupt and said the current economic meltdown is as a result of the thieves in government.

tbutagira@ug.nationmedia.com


(2011-11-4/monitor.co.ug)