Uganda: Terrorism Threat is Real, Says Museveni
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The Monitor (Kampala)
10 October 2008
Posted to the web 10 October 2008
Tabu Butagira
Kololo
President Yoweri Museveni yesterday confirmed reports that security organisations are on high alert to tackle terrorist groups believed to be planning attacks in urban areas.
"Groups of urban terrorists may try to disturb (Uganda)," Mr Museveni said at celebrations to mark 46 years of Independence at Kololo. "But we shall deal with them using the vast security networks that we used during the (November 2007) Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and other occasions."
The President's warning comes a week after the Police put the nation on the watch for potential terror strikes, especially in crowded areas, as Uganda prepares to host 27 leaders for the joint international summit for Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (Igad) and the East African Community regional blocs.
The October 16-22 meeting will be held at the Commonwealth Resort - Munyonyo. Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, the inspector general of police, in a separate interview said there was "no specific" terror target but it had been decided that national security organisations maintain a "permanent vigilance and preparedness" for rogue elements.
"Our involvement in peacekeeping operations in Somalia has made some characters there unhappy. Osama bin Laden and his group may try to cause trouble, and there is a possibility that some of them would want to disturb us," Maj. Gen. Kayihura said.
Uganda has provided troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia to help restore normalcy in the volatile Mogadishu city, but the forces have lately become targets of attack by Islamic Courts militia who once controlled large parts of the country a few years ago.
Daily Monitor has learnt that Ugandan intelligence agencies are frantically following a tip from their Kenyan counterparts that a man believed to be a suicide bomber from Somalia could have slipped into the country through Entebbe Airport at the end of last month.
Gen. Kayihura rebutted fears that the government could be trumpeting the threat of terror attacks as a ruse to adopt draconian rules to clampdown on civil liberties of citizens.
At Kololo, where Uganda's first executive prime minister Apollo Milton Obote received the instruments of power from the British colonialists, President Museveni said Uganda had built an infallible military infrastructure and no one could destabilise the country.
"The metamorphosis of the UPDF into a bi-service (air and land forces) has provided Uganda with a powerful hammer to deal with terrorists and other traitors," he said adding, "We have dealt with cattle rustlers (in northeastern Uganda) and (the Lord's Resistance Army rebel commander Joseph) Kony is now hiding in the DR Congo. If he tries to come to Uganda, we shall deal with him expeditiously."
The President said the economy is now growing at 9.8 per cent, stressing that the current credit crunch crushing American and European business conglomerates would not significantly shake domestic trading and financial sectors, and "most government programmes would be implemented as planned."
"I want to assure all Ugandans and investors that there is no need to panic. Our financial system is well regulated and the (commercial) banks have been following prudent lending procedures," he said.
The present world economic crisis has been triggered by unsecured lending by United States banks, especially to prospective home owners, who have massively defaulted on the back of increased interest rates, drying up liquidity of banks that halted lending to each other.
Mr Museveni said Uganda's economy may experience temporary shocks when the global economy dives into recession but the local economy would readily bounce to steady growth as a result of diversified exports and greater trading with regional partners.
He lamented that the first 24 years of Uganda's independence were wasted due to political and economic misrule and claimed that Ugandans only started enjoying the tangible fruits of self-determination when he took over state power in 1986.
However, dozens of hospitals and secondary schools were erected by the Obote 1 government across the country while Idi Amin's government blamed for much of Uganda's bloody past, did undertake infrastructure development and set up the collapsed Uganda Airlines; the only such national air carrier in the country's history.
President Yoweri Museveni, while quoting official statistics, said Uganda's Gross Domestic Product had grown from Shs3 trillion in 1986 to Shs24 trillion last financial year while the GDP, which was growing at 0.6 per cent then is now buoyant at 9.8 per cent.
He said the service sector was at 49 per cent today up from 36 per cent 22 years ago while the share of agriculture to GDP has declined from 53 per cent to 21, pushing the Per capita income from $264 in 1986 to $493 today.
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"I advise you not to allow yourself to fall sick (and keep alive) to enjoy the coming prosperity for Uganda," he said moments after announcing a master plan for building modern domestic and inter-regional road, rail and air transport infrastructure.
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These are fictions from Uganda's most useless leader in the history of the country. The fact that the only development worth mention was done by previous regimes that lasted less than the time Museveni has been in power is very telling. As usual he is trying to milk the Bush war on international terrorism - as he has milked the Global fight on AIDS money, which he has consistently misappropriated - to give a semblance of legitimacy to an essentially corrupt and bankrupt military dictatorship. Museveni's problems are with the people of Uganda, who he has terrorised for 23 years… [Read Full Text]