International Criminal Court (ICC): Defence Team for Dominic Ongwen (16.12.2022)

Amuru Land Grab: The Apaa Village evictions is never ending story…

“Legislators from the Acholi sub-region were blocked from accessing the Apaa township, bordering Adjumani and Amuru districts. The eight MPs from the region were in Apaa on a fact-finding mission following an arson attack, displacement, and reports of gross abuse of human rights over persistent land wrangles. These were instead met by police officers and army men heavily armed with teargas and guns who blocked their access” (NBS Television, 10.06.2022).

This here story goes back in time. So far back that we are now soon two decades since the state gave the land to the investor. Since then the Apaa village has seen the forceful state, evictions and other sorts of tactics of the state to takeover the land. In the Northern Uganda land has been taken and given to “industrial” purposes like the plantations for the Kakira Factory for instance. Therefore, the ideas of taking land for “development” isn’t new. However, the state doesn’t give anything in return to the evicted and only creates more internally displaced persons. Which is another crisis in the making.

The Apaa village and Apaa community deserves better. They have been victims, which shown by this quotation from a report in 2014.

“The case of land in Apaa Village (Amuru District) illustrates the suspicions of local people concerning the acquisition of large tracts of land. In 2005, when people were still living in the camps, land was given to Bruce Martin from South Africa who was investing in game reserves for sports hunting. When resistance from the community intensified, it is claimed that the government changed tactics and asked the neighbouring district of Adjumani to contest ownership and claim that this land actually lies within Adjumani District. The Adjumani District authorities then passed a council resolution giving the land away to the ‘investor’. Some participants in this research argued that the boundaries between the two districts of Adjumani and Acholi are clear, and that some district politicians are manufacturing the boundary conflict. During an interview with the District Chairperson of Adjumani, he showed a map of the area in dispute claiming the area belongs to Adjumani District” (Otim & Mugisha, P: 8, 2014).

What is striking is that this case has been a running case in the 9^th and 10^th Parliament. Now, it returns to prominence in the 11^th Parliament too. That means the Apaa village never been resolved, neither has the rights of the Apaa community really been heard. Secondly, the former MPs and Local Councillors haven’t been able to voice it up. This because it is a stalemate and the land is still up for grabs.

We know in 2018 that Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) did some evictions of people in the area. This was done with the support of the army or the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF). That just shows that the District Land Board and Area Land Board wasn’t able to petition or have a say. Therefore, the directives and the promise of land was already settled without considering the implications locally.

That’s maybe why the MPs are trying to investigate it. They are MPs representing the Acholi sub-region, but still not allowed to access the area. That says something about the what is going on and possibly could be furthering escalations. We can be rest assured that the State House has directed it and is silently behind it all. As they have promised the land for the investor.

It is tragic that this is happing to Apaa village. Wonder, if the President would have been so kind to an “investor” if it happened to his farm in Rwaiktura farm in Kiruhura district. As a Namibian “investor” was given land and for “development” purposes in the greater Mbarara area. Because, that would be the same and he would have to idly move without any compensation. That would have been a similar act of land grab, which is what’s happening here in Apaa village in the Acholi sub-region. Peace.

Reference:

Otim, David & Mugisha, Police Charles – Saferworld: ‘Beyond the reach of the hoe: The struggle for land and minerals in Northern Uganda’ (April 2014)

Uganda Wildlife Authority letter to All Residents of Adjumani District – “Re: Shifting of Apaa Market to Zoka Centre” (10.04.2019)

Press Statement by the Acholi Parliamentary Group: On the Issue of Land in Acholi Sub Region (28.02.2019)

Statement to Parliament on the Situation in Apaa Parish, Adjumani District by the Minister of Internal Affairs (05.0.2019)

Solidarity March against the Apaa Land Grab in Gulu today: It was shutdown by the Police!

Today, there was held an demonstration in Gulu town for the land evictions happing in Apaa village. This is a planned land grab by the authorities dating back to 2006. As the land in Amuru have been given to Madhvani Group to the planned Kakira Sugar Factory there. Therefore, these evictions have been planned for decades.

That why I rewrite this again: The Amuru Land Grab: What is ours, is OURS; What is their’s, is OURS; and Whatever is your’s, is still OURS.

Here is today’s reports:

“SOLIDARITY MARCH Monday 4th February: Apaa Monitor has received information that a demonstration is taking place tomorrow at 8am, departing from Ker Kwaro Acholi head quarters in Gulu, in solidarity with those who are suffering in Apaa, and to denounce the atrocities that have taken place there. 8am, Ker Kwaro Acholi, Gang ker ma dit” (Apaa Monitor, 03.02.2019).

“Acholi MPs; Amuru Woman MP Lucy Akello, Kilak South MP Gilbert Olanya, Kilak North MP Anthony Akol and Aruu North MP Odongo Otto arrested over Apaa land demo. They were detained at Gulu Central Police Station for holding an illegal demonstration” (Edge.ug, 04.02.2019).

He we see again, that the public, the Members of Parliament and others are not allowed to address or voice out their grievances. This is currently very normal. Even if the people behind or organizing the demonstration had notified the authorities about their planned demonstration. The Police might still stop it or even bar it from happen.

They might have all the papers right, but still the police would come all out, because it doesn’t matter, even if they did follow the Public Order Management Act (POMA). The Police could still deem it illegal, as they didn’t notify correctly or “incited violence” breaking the penal code.

This is very common, therefore, I have a hard time believing this rally/demonstration was illegal. If it was, they did it this way. Because the MPs and the ones behind it, knew the authorities never would get it accepted. Since, the Apaa Land Grab is an accepted deal between the State and Madhvani Group since 2006. Therefore, the President would be humiliated and the Police Force cannot accept that. Peace.

President Museveni letter to PM Ruhakana Rugunda – “Re: Existence of a “Sugar Board” in Kampala” (19.08.2018)

Amuru Land Grab – Apaa Village Evictions: A long process of failure from the state!

That the Northern Uganda have been in deep end of the stick in many eyes is evident, by how lax the state has been to take care of their needs and their rights. That can now be proven by the forceful evictions from land in Apaa Village in Amuru District/Adjumani District. Where the previously have been attempts to make a giant farm for an investor called Bruce Martin and also become sugar cane plantations and factory for Kakira Sugar Factory owned by the Madhvani Group, this goes all the way back to 2006. Therefore, the plans to evict these people has been slow process from the state.

Now in 2018, the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) have evicted dozens upon dozens of the local residents from their lands. As the purge on the village and the area continues, this has been in the making, but the ones losing their lands get nothing, but lose their homes and their livelihoods at the same time. The government authorities have torched the houses and left nothing behind, as they are continuing to evict people. Their lives are no meaningless, as they have to flee their land and are living on the United Nations Compound in Gulu, while awaiting their future, as the state, UWA and the Uganda People’s Defence Force have been evicting them over the last two months. Surely, the hurt is felt and real.

Who can wonder if the state is finalizing the agreement with Madhvani Group to deliver his second sugar factory and also sugar plantation in the area or they are making a game drive from Bruce Martin. However, this is still grabbing the land without any forewarning and also taking their livelihoods without any compensation for the hurt.

The District Land Board and Area Land Board cannot been informed or care to inform the people, as the army and UWA have been busy evicting people with force. They are just pawns on the chess-set, and the authorities in Kampala let it happen. The leadership from afar are accepting it and have gazetted the land and taken the land. Therefore, the people who has settled in Apaa have to flee or be evicted from the land, without any justice or law helping them out. No compensation and nothing left for them.

This sort of play has to stop; I am sure the State House is fully aware and let it happen, as they are getting their cut of the transaction of the land for whatever purposes it has. Its been planned for years, but doesn’t make it better, when they could have had solutions back-in-the-day as the government knew this would come. They were already in talks with both Kakira and with Martin. They knew perfectly well, what was up. There is even a third scenario where the land is sold to someone else named Linton Brimblecombe.

Clearly someone forgot the memo and left it stranded. They just evicting people in the favour of one lucky bastard who capture all lands, without paying the needed ones who was actually living their and done so for generations. This is a violation of the trust between the citizens and the government. Because someone accepted the trade of the land people where living on and had rights too.

The Apaa village and Apaa community deserves better, all of the Acholi deserves better. They are being misused and taken for granted by the government. They are just pawns on the chess-set. No value, the first one in the battle-line to take out so the ones of value can be put into play. That is how it looks from the outside.

This have been planned for decades and now it happens.

Amuru Land Grab: What is ours, is OURS; What is their’s, is OURS; and Whatever is your’s, is still OURS. Peace.

Kakira Sugar Limited addressing farmers strike (02.07.2018)

A brief look into how similar Museveni’s rule is de facto the same as Mobutu!

“In a clear reference to the team effort to dethrone Mobutu, the 53-year-old Museveni asserts that “for the first time since independence {in the 1960s}, the African intelligentsia, in partnership with the peasants, are assuming leadership.” This is an era of “new independence in decision-making. We don’t decide on matters because foreigners want us to decide.” He suggests that African leaders must push their countries toward “modernization and industrialization,” with special emphasis on infrastructure, education and health care. “If that doesn’t take place, the new order will be as empty as the old one,” he says” (Buckley, 1998).

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was supposed to be a liberator, a reformer and Marxists leader who rose from a Bush-War in the 1980s to change the state of Uganda. However, with time he has shown his true character, maybe that was the reason why he went rogue from being a minister to become a rebel. Maybe it should have been a visible sign from day one, as the National Resistance Army/Movement (NRA/M) leaders of 1980s has gotten a vital space from then until now. None of them has given way and are entitled because of what they fought for, which is non-existence.

Mobutu was supported and had a coup against the leader who liberated the now Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). President Museveni had a coup and a war against the first Prime Minister and President Dr. Milton Obote. Even on that level, Museveni has actually copied Mobutu. I’ll show parts of other articles that was written int the time of his reign, Mobutu, as it shows how he did it and then. It can show the similarities, and it shows that we haven’t gotten further than this. Museveni has become Mobutu in the flesh, he has become the ones that he fought against and isn’t funny. It is a tragedy, that to many people are living through and that should be shed a light on. Because the silence and the continued support of this sort of leadership and administration should stop. It doesn’t make sense.

Growing loans in 1980s:

“Although the details of possible corruption and massive personal profit have captured most attention, the major portion of the report deals with Zaire’s $4.1 billion international debt. On this subject, Blumenthal bluntly says: ‘‘There is no – I repeat no – chance on the horizon for Zaire’s numerous creditors to get their money back. . . . There has been and remains only one major obstacle to annihilate such prospects – the corruption of the team in power.” He concludes that ‘‘Mobutu and his government show no concern about the question of paying off loans and the public debt. They are counting on the generosity of their creditors and the indefinite renewal of the loans and their repayment.” (Fouquet, 1982). So as the news of growing debts to the Republic of Uganda, don’t expect him to be in a hurry to repay the debts to the international creditors or anyone. As he taking out debt, to repay debts and money gets lost along the way. Even the accountability and transparency is lacking, as there are many ghosts, projects without any signs of change or building the infrastructure as promised. The money just vanish. It is just like Mobutu, everyone expect handshakes, all business-deals and corrupt affairs has to get a thumbs-up from the State House. It is just made like a rewind of the Mobutu rule.

How the Political Elite is eating:

“Mobutu and his inner circle sit atop a social ladder of corruption. Everyone is forced to take from those less powerful, both to survive and to meet the demands of more powerful people above. Almost all of Zaire’s wealth stays on the upper rungs, in the hands of powerful politicians and politically-connected businessmen. The enduring symbol of this social stratum is the Mercedes-Benz. Zaire reputedly imports more Mercedes than anywhere in Africa and Kinshasa’s Mercedes dealers prosper while all around them crumbles. The Mercedes-riding class have made smuggling and black-marketeering Zaire’s leading industries. By paying bribes to customs agents instead of taxes to the Government, they have elevated illegal gold exports to ‘several times the (official) national production,’ according to a confidential World Bank report. While discreetly avoiding identification of the culprits, the World Bank also notes that theft and smuggling of Zaire’s most vital strategic mineral, cobalt, ‘is primarily carried out by some of the most powerful individuals in the country’” (New Internationalist, 1990). The richest people in Uganda, are the ones connected with the political elite, that get funds from the state, get license to do business and also lands. The businesses are getting back-door agreements with the government to do business. Even all investors are connected somehow and their deals are done in favor the President and the State House. If not Ministers and others close connected with the family, as the Operation Wealth Creations are giving state funds to favorable companies that are accepted by the General Salim Selah, which happens to be a brother of the President. The same thing is that Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kuteesa are having business-deals with government and also all-over, while being in office and profiting on his position. That is just natural in the state of affairs. Just like during the times of Mobutu!

Not possible to get rid off:

““The one thing that everyone agrees on is that we’re a long way from getting rid of Mobutu,” an opposition leader said. “He’s incredibly tenacious, and appears determined to hold onto power at any cost.”” (Noble, 1992). Museveni are using all tactices, rewriting laws, making the constitution to fit his life. He is rigging elections, he is fixing the Parliament and also the institutions, all to go around him. He sends the Special Forces Command into Parliament to install fear and let know how important it is to him to get the law passed. There isn’t anything the President will not do, he will kill you if your becoming to close to him. If not he will house-arrest for just being a viable Presidential Candidate like Dr. Kizza Besigye. He will put your trial for treason, he will send you from court to court only malicious charges with no criminal intent.

Making political enemies into criminals, damaging their homes, charge them and hold them in contempt. Destroy and allege that Civil Society Organizations are using bad methods and disorganizing society in general, therefore, it has to stop. That is why the Army and the Government are used as tools to keep Museveni in power. Nothing else. Mobutu would be so proud!

Stalling Tactic:

“Yet it is precisely these conditions that have made Mobutu’s tactics effective. Most Zaireans see a method in his seeming madness, a deliberate strategy of destabilization as a means of discrediting the movement toward democracy and undermining the capacity of the people to mobilize against him. “Mobutu tries to keep the population in fear,” a lawyer in Kolwezi told me. “The population is traumatized. Mobutu wants to keep them in this position for a long time. That’s how he maintains his position.” Foreigners living in Zaire often marvel at the “passivity” of the Zairean people; one I spoke to speculated about a version of the “battered-woman syndrome.” But Zaireans point out that Mobutu and his allies still have all the guns and all the money. Hundreds of thousands of people marched in Kinshasa, they reminded me, and more than thirty of them were shot dead. In any event, a clergyman said, “when the population is hungry and tired, it doesn’t have the energy to go into the streets.”” (Berkeley, 1993). It is not strange that Museveni does this, he has used the army all his life and his ego of being a General. His generals and his closest associates are usually connected with the army. He even shown up to Budget Speech with full army-fatigue. When the NRM shows up, he is either in a suit or army fatigue.

Museveni has used the army and spread fear, they are targeting people and arresting people. They are creating unknown militias, that comes and goes. The army is all out during elections and campaigns to install fear. Make people worry, as it was full-war, when it is really just dropping ballots into buckets. Seemingly, the army is used to do police work and everything else. The military are used in any sort of work, to prove the power of the army and capabilities.

So that the people knows, that if they are having trouble with the NRM, then they might meet the power of the Army. The army will kill and show no mercy, like they did in the recent time in Kasese against the Rwenzururu Kingdom. As this crime hasn’t been solved and neither has anything positive come out of it. As well as the rising levels of kidnappings, killings of woman in Entebbe and so on. The Police and Army are not able to contain the violence, as the corruption and lack of accountability has hit the security organizations. Which is like a wet-dream from the legacy of Mobutu, that lives-on with Museveni.

31 Years of Mobutu:

“Once there, the strongman who, his opponents say, has beggared and brutalized Zaire for 31 years pledged that he was again ready to solve the country’s myriad problems. “The enemies of our country have chosen when I was sick to put a sword in my back,” Mobutu, 66, said in a nationally broadcast speech interrupted by applause, singing and the loud cawing of nearby peacocks. “I’m not going to disappoint you. I know your expectations and your hopes. I will act rapidly and positively.””(LA Times, 1996). Just like Museveni is saying anyone who questions his vision, his methods and policies are enemies of the state, so did Mobutu. Even after 30 decades of Mobutu, he did that and now we know that Museveni does the same. He says he will fix everything and he has the solutions, it is just that ones he orders to do it, doesn’t know how to do their job. That is just like a mantra he got from Mobutu.

We can see that Museveni has become a twin-soul of Mobutu. Everything Mobutu did, Museveni are doing. Both having amazing levels of cronyism, corporate politicians, bribes, corruption, spreading of fear and making people believe that Museveni cannot step down. The similarities are two alike. The same with the massive bank-accounts, while the state in rapid poverty, the lack of the accountability and transparency, all control from the State House and none in the institutions. Museveni and Mobutu are so the same.

Museveni forgot the peasants or he didn’t care about their participation, since he is the only man with a vision. That has he said all along. But that he has now become everything he was supposed to fight. Shows how bad it is for leadership to linger in power, because it evaporates and eat your soul. You loose everything in the hinges of staying in power. There is now nothing left for Museveni to do and that he hasn’t done. He can only eat, steal and spread fear, because he doesn’t have to deliver. He takes, he took and he continues to loot. There is no mercy, there is only thieving.

Museveni is now the Mobutu in the flesh, he is acting like Mobutu and talking like Mobutu. The difference is that is in Uganda and not the DRC. The DRC has the issue of Joseph Kabila, but Uganda has the issue of Museveni. Museveni, Museveni and Museveni is the problem.

This is just tragic and it should be known. Peace.

Reference:

Berkeley, Bill – ‘Zaire: An African Horror Story’ August 1993, The Atlantic

Buckley, Stephen – ‘AUTHORITY’S CHANGING FACE IN AFRICA’ (02.02.1998), Washington Post

Noble, Kenneth – ‘As the Nation’s Economy Collapses, Zairians Squirm Under Mobutu’s Heel’ 1992, New York Times

Fouquet, David – ‘Corruption charges swirl around Zaire’s President Mobutu’ (08.10.1982), The Christian Science Monitor

New Internationalist – ‘Zaire’s Den Of Thieves’ (05.07.1990)

Los Angels Times – ‘Mobutu returns to Zaire, but reveals no solutions Ailing strongman vows to fix myriad problems’ (18.12.1996)