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30.04.2011 Feature Article

Where is the Pearl of Africa?

Is former adviser to former Ugandan President late Idi Amin. The 2006 Oscar Award winner The Last King of Scotland, by Forest Whitaker, is slackly  based on Astles' life in Uganda.Is former adviser to former Ugandan President late Idi Amin. The 2006 Oscar Award winner "The Last King of Scotland", by Forest Whitaker, is slackly based on Astles' life in Uganda.
30.04.2011 LISTEN

It was Sir Winston Churchill who referred to Buganda as the “Pearl of Africa” when he visited the country and was amazed to find a democracy on a par with that of many European countries at a time when Africa was seen as the Dark Continent.

Churchill's assessment was acknowledged at the time and history has recorded the factual basis for it but today, reading the courageous writings of Ugandan journalists, one can imagine Churchill turning over in his grave. However, to be fair, his concerns would have been over the provision of the cotton and developing Darfur to cultivate it on which so much of his nation's industry and prosperity then depended, not on the oil on which Western nations now depend for survival. .

One reads today in the Uganda press “The U.S.-backed Uganda Dictator Yoweri K. Museveni is struggling to contain discontent following the presidential election of February 18 which he is widely believed to have stolen” and then we look at a news photo of a once well trained Uganda policeman, Gilbert Arinaitwe, now under military leadership and with his face contorted with rage, acting like a mad person smashing with his automatic pistol the window of the country's leader of the opposition, Dr Besigye, in order to violently drag him from his car. It is unbelievable that Uganda could be rapidly going back to the dark ages but we are reading and seeing all this daily violence which is leading to deaths and here we have the Opposition leader of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), Dr Kizza Besigye, being violently re-arrested after Western diplomats had him released.

A former Museveni's physician, Dr Besigye represents a democracy no longer accepted by Uganda's emerging dictatorship and one way or another has to be put down amidst clouds of tear gas and by soldiers smashing their way with sledge hammers into his car and those of other opponents.

Amazingly, to think only a few days before, Dr Besigye had been in one of Uganda's notorious prisons where occupants usually have no hope of release but luckily for him there was a visit from Western diplomats from Ireland, Holland and elsewhere and that had been pure luck because permission for the visit had been given by the prison authority and not the government. Now it results an enraged Museveni accusing foreign governments of trying to overthrow his government in power. It was of course this diplomatic visit that caused Dr Besigye's release; after all, his only crime had been to lead a demonstration of walking to protest against the present cost rise of petroleum products and other essential commodities that is fast leading the nation's citizens to being half starved beggars.

The Uganda press report that lawyers of re-arrested Dr Kizza Besigye and others again detained have been stopped from seeing them whilst in detention, which includes any attempt by Western diplomats to make a visit.

Today an appeal has been made to all peace loving Ugandans to walk and pray for this country, pray for the leaders so that they can reflect on their obligation to the people, and remind themselves of the founding spirit of the country; that it is only prayer that will redeem the situation in the country where, at the look of events, common sense does not exist! The appeal continues that while today, Friday, is dedicated for Moslem brothers and sisters, the situation at hand requires a whole country in prayer. Prayers are needed to motivate the whole country into not fearing the paranoid military; prayer to re-awaken the sleeping giant that is the Ugandan people, to get out of their slumber and save this beautiful country for generations to come.

Hundreds have been injured since the walk-to-work protests began two weeks ago; at least five lives have been lost and scores are thrown into jail. There have been calls from world governments, human rights agencies, Members of Parliament and religious leaders for a stop to the use of disproportionate and excessive force against protesters. Sadly, Uganda is no longer “The Pearl of Africa”.

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