U.S. in Uganda: $50 million more to help Museveni hunt Kony???
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee this week voted to
include another
$50 million, in the draft version of the fiscal 2013 Defense bill, for
surveillance and intelligence support to Ugandan troops, U.S. Green Berets and
Navy Seals, who are, according to the Obama Administration, hunting East
African warlord Joseph Kony.
Transcript:
KPFA/Ann Garrison: The Ugandan Army commanded by Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president of 26 years, has a record of atrocities, resource plunder and other human rights abuse in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has been well documented by UN human rights investigators. In 2011, the Uganda Daily Monitor reported on Museveni's Military Police shot Ugandan civilians, including a three-year-old baby girl and an 18-yr.-old pregnant woman, during street protests against the soaring costs of food and fuel. Uganda's secret service has a record of torture, as documented in the 2009 Human Rights Watch Report "Open .
Secret, Illegal Detention and Torture by the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force in Uganda." And, a 2012 U.S. State Department report on Ugandan Human Rights Practices in 2011 cited international and local human rights organizations' accounts of torture by the State Security Forces, which included caning, severe beating, squeezing of rivate parts, stabbing, kicking, tying of limbs in contorted positions, forced marching, rape, water torture, tearing off of fingernails, burning with molten plastic, and cutting off of body parts.
Nevertheless, the U.S. Armed Services Committee says it wants to spend another $50 million to help Museveni's troops, and U.S. Navy Seals and Green . Berets, hunt East African warlord Joseph Kony. High profile critics including Milton Allimadi, Keith Harmon Snow, and Pepé Escobar have said that the Kony hunt is really about securing African oil, cornering Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, and checkmating China in the African resource scramble.
Barbara Allimadi, a Ugandan human rights activist in the country's capital Kampala, and, the sister of New York City-based Black Star News Editor Milton Allimadi, told KPFA that she'd like to ask Americans to question why the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee wants to spend another $50 million dollars to aid General Museveni:
Barbara Allimadi: Anybody who's really interested in our country, and in the Ugandan people can see the dictator Museveni in power. And the United States is supporting him. I really urge the American people to stand with us and question this. Why is America doing this? What is their motive? Because really, the people of Uganda . . . our human rights are being violated. So really I would urge Americans to ask why your government is supporting General Museveni.
This week NTV-Uganda recorded Barbara Allimadi's most recent arrest, as she attempted to read a statement protesting indefinite detention without trial in front of police headquarters in Kampala.
Barbara Allimadi, as recorded by NTV-Uganda just before her latest arrest: I certainly will not turn a blind eye to any injustice. On Tuesday, the 18th of May, I was arrested for visiting the DPP's office, which is a public office. Myself and other concerned citizens had gone there to express our concern at the way the DPP cancels files . . . Leave me alone! Don't touch me! Don't touch me!
KPFA/Ann Garrison: NTV-Uganda also recorded the arrest of Ingrid Turinawe, Womens' League leader of the political party Federation for Democratic Change. The video sparked outrage around the world, because a Ugandan policeman was seen brutally grabbing and squeezing Turinawe's breast, as they dragged her from a vehicle.
Barbara Allimadi said that Uganda's Parliament is now debating legislation called the Public Order Management Bill, which would make it illegal for more than three people to assemble in the streets.
For Pacifica, KPFA, and AfrobeatRadio, I'm Ann Garrison.
Also see,
