Text:
http://www.mg.co.za/mg/news/98sep2/24sep-uganda_congo.html
Uganda overstretched
by Congo war
Uganda's army has been stretched too far by fighting in three neighbouring
countries, and against a range of internal dissidents. The country also finds
itself on the opposite side to Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola. JUDITH
ACHIENG reports
GANDAN President Yoweri Museveni's increased involvement in regional conflicts will not only add to the growing insecurity in Uganda, but will also lead to the country's isolation by its neighbours, analysts say.
''The outlook is bleak, the region has woken up, and is beginning to question the wisdom of Uganda's role in conflicts in Sudan, Rwanda and Congo,'' says John Barya of the Kampala-based Free Movement Organization (FMO).
Barya says Uganda, whose economy has been growing at the average rate of eight percent and attracting investments worth between 500 and 600 million US Dollars per year, since 1988, has been spending more on defence in the past two months.
''It has been difficult for the government to contain rebels despite the army's superiority and state machinery advantage. The question is, for how long will he (Museveni) sustain the wars,'' asks Barya.
Uganda army, which brought Museveni to power in 1986, is overstretched, fighting
the Alliance of Democratic Forces (ADF) in the west, on the border with the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) in the north, on the border with the Sudan. It is also trying to contain a
group of unknown dissidents operating in the capital Kampala.
Museveni has also admitted having troops in the DRC, which he said crossed into that country to fight Ugandan dissidents operating in the east of the country, where President Laurent-Desire Kabila's government has no influence.
Kabila has accused Uganda and Rwanda of fermenting the rebellion in the DRC, which erupted on Aug 2, after the Congolese leader ordered the remaining Rwandese troops and military instructors, who helped him overthrow the late President Mobutu Sese Seko in May 1997, out of the country. Both have denied the claims.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe whose country, along with Angola and Namibia, has been sucked in in the conflict in the DRC has dubbed Uganda and Rwanda ''hypocrites'' for denying they have troops in the DRC.
''Uganda has become an isolated island in Africa,'' said outspoken Ugandan legislator, Aggrey Awori, last week, after Museveni told parliament that Ugandan troops would remain in the DRC until Uganda was satisfied that the ADF was not operating from there.
Kenya has also accused Museveni's
government of pursuing rebels deep
inside its territory. ''The two countries
have maintained friendly relations but
underneath, there is uncertainty in terms
of suspicion,'' says Cephas Torori of
the Kenya Institute of Democracy.
Relations between Uganda and Sudan
are also at a low ebb. It heightened
after Museveni's open support for the
Aug 20 US missile attack on a
''pharmaceutical'' factory in the
Sudanese capital of Khartoum.
Washington claims the Islamic
fundamentalist regime in Khartoum was
using the factory for making chemical
weapon. Khartoum has denied the
claims.
Last week Ugandan authorities claimed
that some 2,800 Rwandan and
Ugandan rebels were being trained in
Sudan to fight the rebels seeking to
overthrow Kabila's government.
''Khartoum has a basis for backing Ugandan rebels, because if the country can involve itself in wars in other countries, then how can it be trusted to be a good neighbour,'' says Torori.
Uganda's outspoken opposition legislator, Cecilia Ogwal, agreed. ''We should not be dragged into other people's wars when we have our own problems at home,'' she says.
Ogwal, leader of the banned Uganda People's Congress (UPS), has attributed the increased rebel activities in Uganda on the ''inflexibility'' of Museveni's ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. ''This is a dictatorial system, monolithic and does not allow the opposition to develop,'' she says.
Uganda has stepped-up security in banks, diplomatic missions following a spate of ''terrorist'' attacks in Kampala. Last month, three bombs exploded inside three buses travelling from Kampala to southern Uganda, killing at least 30 people.
Addressing parliament last week, Museveni ruled out talking with the rebels. ''These are people who have committed crimes against humanity,'' he said.
He also denied that the East African country had been seiged by rebels. ''On the question of insecurity in Uganda, I do not agree that it is growing. It is actually diminishing as the capacity of the state grows,'' he said.
Recently, Uganda's parliament approved a 26 percent increase on the defence
budget to help Museveni fight the rebels. -- IPS/Misa, September 24, 1998.