M7, the executioner, is now prepared to walk Uganda down the last mile, the green mile, to its execution
08 Apr 2012 3 Comments
in FDC, Museveni and NRM, Politics, Protests, Revolutions
In response to a pressure group called the Activists for change (A4C) founded by the opposition in Uganda after the 2011 elections, the government of Uganda has officially banned its activities indefinitely. I was among the people so confused about the sole objective of this organization till when I recently read an anonymous message a few days ago on my blog , presumably from one of the leaders of the A4C, that stated in one of the paragraphs:’ “Museveni must go and this time we shall not use guns, but people power. The government propagandists keep referring to the next elections of 2016, that we should instead plan to defeat Museveni in 2016. This is a joke. The Museveni regime will be overthrown this year (2012), a transitional government will be set up and a truly democratic election will follow”.
‘The press fears to report this message this clearly for fear of economic consequences. But no one attends an A4C rally or town hall meeting leaves with any doubt what the end game is. The removal of the fraudulently installed Museveni government from power, by the (protest) power of the people.’
After reading this message, I thought to myself: ‘how is the government going to deal with A4C if they are determined as they are saying to use people power to get Museveni’s government out?’ The protests have been going for a year now and that is extra ordinary in the history of Uganda but my worry came when the government through its Attorney General (AG) Peter Nyombi on Wednesday declared A4C an “unlawful society”.
The truth is that the existence of the A4C is not in the way about breaking the law or doing anything illegal as any Ugandan has got a right to protest against anything. I believe the law in Uganda does not ban peaceful protests, as they are allowed under the constitution. If this was not the case, I believe the group would have been banned ages ago. What “freedom to peaceably assemble” means is that you can assemble as a group and discuss things, and the government can’t shut you down, somewhere where you don’t infringe upon others. From the few YouTube videos I have watched so far, it looks like the police are the ones that spark up all this ‘kavuyo’( trouble) whenever some people are marching or assembling or protesting somewhere. I believe that poor policeman would not have died if the police had not interfered with the people walking alongside Dr.Besigye and Erias Lukwago.
John hated the bad guys in the Green Mile.So, M7 wouldn't be in his good books
Basically, banning protests or groups such as A4C is not what most people want to see happen in this country. What we need is free and fair elections, proper democracy, free society, no corruption, e.t.c. So the mere fact that the A4C has managed to live for a year should be a reality check for the government that not everything is a bed of roses. NRM as a party is now an intellectually dishonest organization, and this is not good for the country because they are in power. The leading option here would be for president Museveni to form a coalition government with the opposition and then organize fresh presidential elections.
If president Museveni refuses to give in to the protests, then I will start believing what most people have been telling us that he is a bad person. From what I watched from the film called’ ‘The Green Mile’, directed by Frank Darabont and adapted by him from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name, all the bad people there had a bad ending. The film tells the story of Paul’s life as a death row corrections officer during the Great Depression in the United States, and the supernatural events he witnessed in prison.
Actually I have a problem with the term ‘bad person’ despite its numerous usage in that film, because it’s far too general. It’s easy to take the term ‘bad person’ and use it to justify one’s own inaction on the suffering of others. Like the whole idea that only ‘bad people’ need to protest as the government is portraying the A4C, or that AIDS is a judgment from God. That’s why this kind of stuff gets tricky if you really want to be fair about it.
Some people say that Museveni is worse than Obote but I’m likely to give him a benefit of doubt and see if he will listen to the cries of the protestors or he will just keep torturing, killing or imprisoning them. Killing or torturing people lives permanent mental scars from that horrible time period. Leaders should not think that people are the enemy. The logic is clear: the people they lead want to have a good, free and stable country.If they don’t get it, they will do something about it.
I want to personally thank Dr.Besigye for taking up the banner of freedom at a time when he ought to be able to enjoy a retirement in freedom and liberty- considering that he already fought for it in the bushes of Luwero against Obote dictatorship. Whoever will become the next FDC president will do no less than he has done, because our very system of government and our essential freedoms and liberties are in serious jeopardy?
Like they say in the ‘Green Mile’, it looks like Museveni, the executioner, is now prepared to walk Uganda down the last mile, the green mile, to its execution. “May God have mercy on Uganda’s soul,………roll on two.”
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Like this:
Saif Al-Islam cannot get a fair trial in Libya yet he deserves one
19 Nov 2011 9 Comments
in Africa, international, International Issues, Legal issues, Museveni and NRM, Political murders, Revolutions
saif-al-islam-gaddafi
Saif Al-Islam is in the hands of the Libyan authorities but I don’t think he is enjoying his food right now. A lot of people may not understand why I still support NTC after the way they handled Gaddafi on capturing him but let’s give them more time. To be fair, they are doing better than some people expected. Yes, militias are still independently controlling some regions but I’m still optimistic that the situation will change for the better. I’m not like the owner of the Independent Magazine, Andrew Mwenda, who has been exaggerating on capitalfm from the start that Libyans will slaughter themselves as it is in Somalia, as soon as Kaddafi goes. These guys seem to be a bit more organized and nationalistic compared to the Iraqis after the fall of Saddam Hussein or Afghanistan’s after the fall of the Taliban.
I’m, however, a bit worried that Saif Al-Islam may not get a fair trial in Libya because there are a lot of emotions running deep in the country as far as the Gaddafi family are concerned. The ICC still has an upper hand over this if they sense that Saif may not get a fair trial in Libya but the international laws allow the host country to try their guy first if they assure the ICC that he or she will be given a fair trial.
Let us also remember that ICC lost some kind of credibility as far as project ‘Saif-Al-Islam’ is concerned. The court was viciously ridiculed by critics after it “confirmed” Saif’s capture by rebels in August, saying it was in the process of bringing him to The Hague for trial. He embarrassed them when he appeared in a Tripoli hotel — supposedly under rebel control —later that day to lead a crowd of cheering supporters and foreign journalists on a tour of the city.
I don’t know which kind of evidence the ICC or the Libyans have got against Saif but by the look of things so far, it looks like the evidence is not as strong as the one Ugandans have reportedly got against our first son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba. Gaddafi tried to keep him away from military affairs as he was mainly responsible for the financial management of the country’s affairs rather than military or intelligence. It was the other brothers that were reportedly more involved in military and intelligence affairs.
That’s why I still think that president Museveni made a mistake to involve Muhoozi in the military because it is very easy for anyone to build a case against you if you are involved in matters of life and death. Already people are saying he is responsible for the death of people at Kasubi tombs and somewhere in Karamoja, and it’s kind of difficult for any judge to rule against that if your father is no longer in power. Judges are human beings like anybody else, you know.
So, I think Saif should be handed over to ICC but that is a real dream because there are people who want to see his neck on a platter. Even the two tribes: Gadhafi and Waffala tribes, that highly protected him, cannot protect him anymore while in Libya.
There is an argument that people like: Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Gaddafi and their sons will never have a fair trial anywhere in the world. The end result is always the same: death. So, instead of wasting people’s time and money, they are usually eliminated on the spot. They are usually assassinated as soon as troops find them hiding in some cave, drainage or house somewhere. For instance, Saddam’s sons were shot down on the spot but their father got a ‘fair trial’ that ended with his death. The Saddam supporters could not argue that he did not get a fair trial; after all, he continually received 100 percent of the votes during Iraqi elections. They loved him there! On the other hand, Gaddafi and two of his sons were killed on the spot but Saif Al-Islam may also end up with another ‘fair trial’ with the same predicament as Saddam’s if he is tried in Libya.
What do you think would be the reaction in the U.S. if Osama bin Laden got a smart lawyer like USA’s Johnnie Cochran (RIP) or Uganda’s David Mpanga, and got himself acquitted like O.J Simpson. It is possible for anybody ‘guilty’ to walk out of the court ‘not guilty’ with a good lawyer. There is something in legal terms called “exclusionary rule” where even perfectly good evidence can be thrown out on the basis that it was illegally obtained. I don’t know whether we have got this too in Uganda but it is common in developed nations. A murderer who confesses his crime can still be acquitted simply because the cop forgot to read him his rights first.
Nonetheless, I personally still think people deserve a fair trial whatever the circumstances and I can’t see Saif Al-Islam getting one in Libya. Let us examine one historical trial in USA where Alger Hiss, an American lawyer who was one of the founders of the UN, was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950. There was massive government misconduct against Hiss, including: 1. An FBI agent who knowingly lied on the witness stand, 2. the withholding of evidence by the FBI which would have acquitted Hiss, and 3. the infiltration of the Hiss defence team by the FBI. The Hiss defence team contained an FBI informant.
If any of these three major areas of government misconduct had come to light at the time, the Judge would have declared a mistrial and he probably would have prohibited any further prosecution of Hiss by the government. The single witness against Hiss, Whittaker Chambers, had changed his story many times, including his grand jury testimony, in effect making him guilty of perjury, had the government prosecuted him.
Hiss spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name, and struck pay dirt with the Freedom of Information Act, when, in the mid-1970s, the knowledge of government misconduct at his trial became public. Courts reversed his disbarment and he was allowed to practice law again.
Unfortunately for Hiss, when his case finally reached the Supreme Court, it was loaded with Nixon appointees. Rather than confirm Nixon’s deceit in convicting an innocent man, the Supreme Court let the Hiss conviction stand. Hiss died shortly thereafter (in 1996).
So, we all need a fair trial whatever our backgrounds. Hopefully, Ugandans treat the Museveni family fairly in case the Libyan experiment becomes a reality in Uganda some day.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
Syria: Inside the Secret Revolution(Video)
21 Oct 2011 Leave a Comment
After Libya, will Syria be the next Arab dictatorship to fall to people power? For months, a popular uprising has been fighting an unseen and bloody battle against the Syrian regime.
Panorama has been filming inside Syria, and can now tell the full story of those struggling against President Assad and the truth about his brutal crackdown against his own people.
Released 26 Sep 2011. 30 min. TV documentary.
M7 is not as ”Naive” as Gaddafi- He wouldn’t Stay and Fight Incase of NATO bombs
25 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Africa, Lule and Uganda politics, Museveni and NRM, Politics, Revolutions
Julius Nyerere
Some of Muamah Gaddafi’s messages to the media ever since he had that unbelievable exist from Tripoli have been very touching but I think they have come too late. He made his bed and now he must lay in it. He should have resigned before the situation escalated into something he could not control. I really feel sorry for him. He is probably the most generous dictator Africa has ever had.
Uganda’s Museveni will never make that mistake of staying on to fight as Gaddafi did despite his recent rhetoric I read in the Weekly Observer- because he is a very realistic man. He knows which wars he can win and those he cannot. If they put you against Mike Tyson in the ring, you should know when to call it off, because if you don’t, your nose gets blown away. Brother Gaddafi should have realized when the game was up, but on a good note: he was indeed a strong hearted, patriotic leader who saw himself only ” ending with the world’’ (as most dictators do).
Muslims and Africans will miss him. He did a lot for Libyans, Muslims and Africans in general but he denied political freedom to his people. Hope the NTC does not disappoint us. Libyans deserve to feel free in their own country. We all deserve to feel free in our own countries.
Freedom is not about putting food on somebody’s table. Otherwise, women married to rich husbands would have made the best wives ever. Because freedom is not about money, better housing, better health care,……. a poor man can easily bang your wife if you are treating her like a slave( like your own her). Hello! Human beings are not properties. They need a breather, and they always get bored easily if someone has been on their nerves for a long time.
I know it may be very difficult for some people to believe that Gaddafi fell without shooting any of the NATO planes but that‘s how the mission was planned, I believe. It was planned to neutralize his air space from the beginning. More so, I suspect that Brother Gaddafi initially thought that the situation will pass and NATO will eventually negotiate with him. So he did not want to make things worse for himself at the beginning by shooting their ‘birds’. I guess by the time he realized that NATO was about regime change not anything else, it was too late. He could not even move any of his weapons because there were within NATO target.
Look, most dictators fall in the least way expected. It is not unique to Gaddafi. Iddil Amin, for instance, also fell when people least expected it. Just like in Libya’s case, the OAU (AU) was against the foreign invaders (in this case the Tanzanians) though their arm was twisted over Amin’s own invasion of the Kagera triangle in northwestern Tanzania in October 1978.
Amin, like Gadafi, they never respected fellow leaders. Before the dust had settled over the Kagera incident, he annoyed Nyerere by suggesting that they should have a boxing match as a possible means of resolving the fate of the Kagera triangle. Amin was a professional boxer, remember. This was the point when Nyerere called up Obote to help organize the Uganda opposition in exile such that he could kick Amin’s ass.
But few people in Uganda saw all these developments as serious. Masaka and Mbarara fell into insurgent hands in early March but still Amin was making as much noise as Gaddafi was making till the last minute. Lukaya was taken and the road to Kampala seemed visible to the insurgents but Amin was still chest thumping. It’s good he did not promise a ‘Vietnam’ for Nyerere as some people are doing now.
Iddil Amin Dada
On March 28th 1979, both Libya and Kenya asked Tanzania to get their forces out but Nyerere stuck to his guns: ‘’SONGA MBELE’’ style. On April 6th, Entebbe Airport was then in the hands of the Tanzanian forces. A week later, Lule was pronounced as the new president of Uganda. Amin’s quick fall surprised a lot of people including him. Yes, Amin regime had internal weaknesses but without the help from Tanzanians, it would have survived for a long time.
The point here is that ‘chest thumping’ and rhetoric by leaders does not necessarily save them when their moment of ‘falling down’ comes. Gaddafi had bought a lot of military equipment from the Russians even before the war started. Actually, he had bought a lot before the sanctions were put on Libya in 1980s. He serviced the old equipment and also bought more after the sanctions were lifted. His old military weapons and planes were even better than what we have got in Uganda. But it is very difficult to use all these equipment when there are under surveillance. The first thing NATO did was to effectively destroy most of this stuff at the start of the air campaign.
Let’s us also not forget that MI6 and CIA had a close relationship with Gaddafi before all these so called people’s revolutions in North Africa started, as revealed by recent media revelations. They at least had their agents on the ground that had done enough home work on Libya and its military capabilities. So every bomb thrown by NATO was meant to hit the target. They neutralized the guy. They basically disabled him to stop him from walking. May be it was for the best because a well equipped Gaddafi would have died with a lot of people. He is a wounded lion now but without power and enough military equipment. Imagine if he had both!
Going back to Museveni, I think a coup is now almost impossible in Uganda because president Museveni has fragmented the army and air force there into as many separate segments as possible. During the ‘walk to work’ protests, for instance, we used to watch people in plain clothes ordering Besigye around such that in one of the videos, I remember Besigye asking one of them: ‘who are you?’ It seems even Besigye was surprised to see people in plain clothes ordering those in uniforms.
So, at the moment, it is difficult to tell the actual number of officers in UPDF or police or intelligence units. This situation has certainly made a military seizure of power much less likely in Uganda at the moment, which is ok for me because i hate millitary governments, but i feel sorry for those who may invest their hopes in a coup. Security matters,it seems, are certainly and directly in the hands of Museveni and the people totally committed to him.
Abbey
No Internal Revolt Will Dislodge M7 In The Near Future Unless if it is backed by a Strong foreign nation
03 Sep 2011 10 Comments
in FDC, international, Museveni and NRM, Politics, Revolutions, UPDF
Ugandans are not capable of getting rid of Museveni on their own without foreign help. Ugandans are not capable of overcoming Museveni’s security organs that at least seem to be loyal to him- personally. A guerilla war in Uganda without any foreign backing is more like walking in a death trap. This is the reason why Dr.Besigye made a lot of noise in 2001, 2006 and 2011 but he never openly came out to declare war on Museveni despite the rigging of elections -mainly because I believe there was no foreign nation willing to sponsor such a war. The rumors about Rwanda sponsoring him were absolute nonsense than anything else. It is believed that the intelligence experts wanted to squeeze more money out of the government, and president Museveni temporarily fell for it. But he wizened up and that is why he made up with president Kagame through a presidential visit recently.
Guerilla war
Historically, all Uganda’s long serving president have been pushed out with the help of foreigners. Obote’s was ousted by Amin in 1971 with the help of the Israelites and British. Even Iddil Amin would have died a president if the Tanzanians had not come to our rescue in 1979. Museveni received help from Libyans and British to fight Obote 2 and later Tito Okellos in late 1980s.
In Angola, UNITA’S Savimbi fought the government for over a decade if I’m not mistaken but how much did the rebels achieve? In the meantime, how many lives and property were lost during that time? By the way, Even Savimbi made some progress during that conflict because of foreign backing. Everyone needs some form of foreign backing to make it. Fighting a guerilla war is not easy, from what I have observed, such that even Museveni would not have made it if the Acholis and Langis were not so divided then. Actually, Museveni is a lucky man indeed, because I cannot see anybody doing what he did in 1980s and become president in the present Africa. It is just so difficult.
Military coup
The only internal revolt president Museveni is scared of is a coup by the military guys but not ‘walk- to -work’ or a people’s revolution of any kind. Did you see how the ‘walk- to- work’ died suddenly as soon as Besigye was ‘arinaitwed’ in the eyes and ears. The protests can only dislodge Museveni if they are backed by again foreign nations as it happened in Gaddafi’s Libya recently. Protestors on their own cannot dislodge him.
Let us also remember that Museveni is USA’s main man in the sub sahara Africa, a reason we saw some Kenyan politicians with ICC problems campaigning for him during the elections yet they hate him. According to Wikileaks, Museveni asked the Americans to protect his plane after falling out with Gadaffi. So attacking Museveni is more like attacking USA interests in the region. Whoever plans to attack Museveni will need some kind of endorsement from Washington. Museveni may write as many documents as he wants against NATO bombing in Libya but he is not going to fool some of us. What he is doing is more like a man that abuses an ugly woman in public yet he is sleeping with her.
The day the Americans stop trusting Museveni is the day things will start falling apart in Kampala. Museveni has built a weid relationship with Russia, Chinese and some Arab states though Europe seems not to like him anymore. But Europe can do nothing if it is not endorsed by Washington.
Yes, Ugandans have now got a lot of options to get rid of any president but all need some kind of foreign endorsement, if you ask me. Look, Uganda is now in a bad shape; everything is so bad; people are so poor, the economy is wanting; but Museveni has not been shaken by it. He can even afford to bring in ‘’Mabira-give away’’ without being worried of the repercussions. Everybody is feeling the economic pinch in the country but there is not even some smoke coming out of the hut, what does that tell you about the people of Uganda and the opposition in general?
Syrian Revolution
Guys, let’s accept it that Ugandans aren’t Tunisians or Syrians. Assad has killed over 4000 Syrians but they are still going, but Ugandans aren’t like that. They could not even sustain ‘walk to work ‘ protests without Besigye. We are a different kind as we never walk the talk.
I believe Washington disappointed Besigye when he made that trip to America after the protests, and I guess that is why he tactically pulled out of the whole protests. If Washington had endorsed Besigye’s ideas, Museveni would be history by now but it seems they don’t trust him. No wonder Besigye made an announcement not to stand for party president again as soon as he came back from that trip.
Egyptian Revolution
The Egyptian revolution would not have been successful if Washington had not endorsed it. It seems to me that the Americans owned the Egyptian army indirectly but Mubarak was not aware of it. The Egyptian army used to receive $1b annually and may be that constituted something we don’t know. The army never helped Mubaraka at the time he needed them. Some of them joined the protestors, but I don’t see that happening in Uganda.
Anyway, what do I know? May be UPDF is also waiting for someone to sustain the protests for a long time and they join, but I highly doubt that. UPDF is a micro-managed institution unlike the Egyptian’s army.
By the way, I believe that Mubaraka, is very bitter with President Obama as he ( Mubaraka) used to do everything the Americans wanted( just like Museveni) but they abandoned him for reasons I’m yet to know up to now.
Abbey
ICC is good for Africa but Bad for dictators
25 Feb 2009 Leave a Comment
in international, Legal issues, Politics, Revolutions
International Criminal Court logo
Dear Africans,
We have got to support the existence of the ICC because Africa is the top beneficially compared to other countries due to the number of dictators on the continent. The treaty which created the ICC is not even as old as Museveni’s regime or Kony’s war in the north because it was adopted in 1998 at an international conference in Rome after intense negotiations. So why should we start discarding it before It has been tested enough.
The ICC is an important deterrent to those that are committing crimes on the continent. At least, every sitting African president knows that there is now an arm of law that can touch him before he leaves the presidency, if he commits crimes against humanity. We used to have ad-hoc war crimes tribunals (modelled on the Nuremberg trials of Nazi officials following World War II) ,like the one that tried the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague and the Kagame courts in Rwanda that tried genocide criminals, but they were not as legally and internationally pronouncing as the ICC. The ICC is the first new international judicial body since the International Court of Justice, or World Court, which was created in 1945 to adjudicate disputes between states.
The only reason why some people fear this court is because they assume that the West can use the court against developing countries and the presidents they support. This is the same fear Asian countries had before putting their signatures on the treaty. That is why most of the Asian and African countries delayed signing it. For instance, during the war in Kosovo, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians were raped and murdered. NATO intervened and conducted an 11- week aerial campaign against Yugoslavia that ended the ethnic cleansing. Surely war crimes were committed but it ended with the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic not USA’s Bill Clinton. The same has happened in Libya when NATO intervened to save the Libyans from being killed by Late Muamar Gaddafi. Gaddafi son, Seif, is among those that are likely to be paraded infront of ICC courts if the Libya’s NTC allows it.
Nevertheless, the ICC is regarded as a major step forward in most of the world though it is derided in mainly western nations. No one claims it is perfect, but there are many safeguards. The ICC is based in The Hague and those it convicts can be held in prisons in any of the signatory states. Being used by western nations to push their interests in Africa and elsewhere may be wrong but isn’t that an aspiration worth making a tiny risk for? Who does not want to feel free and safe in their country without these dictators making it hard for everyone?
People with such fears have got a point because the west dominates almost all international bodies but given a choice, i would rather see the ICC help us get rid of the dictators, and then we sort out the west lateron. Atleast, we already know that the great nations are using Africa using different international organs but this does not mean that we have to get used to having dictators on our continent.
Let us also note that Prosecutions in the ICC are only valid if national courts are unable or unwilling to prosecute serious crimes. And only a nation ratifying the treaty can make a complaint against its own citizens or those of other nations for crimes committed on its soil. For instance, the International Criminal Court had no authority over events in Ethiopia or Eritrea, because neither country had ratified the treaty creating the tribunal. Israel signed it but not ratified. So ICC cannot touch Israel despite committing crimes against humanity in Palestine. Egypt, Iran and Syria signed. India, Pakistan and China neither signed nor ratified. Russia signed but not ratified. I know that Uganda signed but I’m not sure whether it ratified it. Most democratic nations and all European Union countries signed and ratified the treaty. In the USA, Former President Bill Clinton signed the pact in December 2000 but President George W. Bush renounced it in May 2001. Let us hope that Obama will do the needful and get USA back into ICC before he leaves the presidency.
To be honest, I don’t know why Bush pulled the USA out of the ICC. First, the ICC is strictly prescribed to only atrocities that are spelled out in its treaty. Second, the ICC can’t actually go and arrest people unless they are given enforcement power to do so, which requires a vote of the United Nations Security Council. The US has a veto there, so there is no threat to Americans. Third, even if a third country voluntarily arrests and extradites an American to the ICC, the Security Council can intervene on individual cases. The point is pretty clear: the ICC isn’t something that can harm USA; it only will focus on precisely defined war crimes and crimes against humanity. It isn’t the monster idiots like what some people claim it is. The US is going against the world community by not participating in a court to deal with those crimes. If USA was part of the ICC, it would have made it stronger. It is for this reason that I see no point in the ICC dragging Britain, Russia, China or any of the countries that permanently sit on the Security Council in courts of law because they can easily overpower any form of extradition.
I am not an expert in constitutional law, but I do know that the Constitution recognizes that state crimes are the jurisdiction of state courts. Of course, the rights of the Constitution continue to hold, and if we had federalism in Uganda, certain “due process” would be recognized to be the jurisdiction of Buganda or Bunyoro or Busoga courts.
It seems reasonable that the Constitution be interpreted consistently. Things of a state are the jurisdiction of the state. Things of the world could be the jurisdiction of the world. Perhaps more knowledgeable men than myself might work out the details of a treaty recognizing world courts and establishing the review process by treaty. By the way, I don’t know what court you appeal to after being found guilty in the ICC. May be the lawyers reading this can help us on this one.
However, what we must know is that the war crimes tribunal was created as a court of last resort, and its mandate is to only step in when countries are either unwilling or unable to dispense justice themselves. This means that Ugandans or president Museveni cannot be prosecuted over Kony war or any crimes committed in Uganda if the mechanism to prosecute war crimes already exists within the Uganda judicial system. So I ask anti-ICC to stop misrepresenting the court’s concept or to continue arguing that it will be used for frivolous and/or politically motivated prosecutions. Once and for all, the whole concept of an International Criminal Court does not in any way contradict our African/Ugandan ideals. Every Ugandan wants to see justice done fairly but unfortunately we cannot see true justice in our own courts of law.
Byebyo ebyange
Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba
