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My Torture at the Hands of America’s Favorite African Strongman
Yoweri Museveni, the country’s president and the Pentagon’s closest military ally in Africa, deploys security forces to assault opposition lawmakers.
By
Mr. Wine is a musician and a member of the Ugandan Parliament.
KAMPALA, Uganda — Brutal policing is a global crisis, but America’s favorite African strongman, Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president since 1986, has deployed his own security forces to a particularly malign end: assaulting opposition parliamentary lawmakers to crush the democratic challenge he is facing.
I speak from experience. I am a member of Uganda’s Parliament and also a musician, activist and founder of the opposition People Power movement. For the past three years, we have been seeking social, economic and political change with the support of Uganda’s youth — 80 percent of the population — who face dire poverty.
On April 19, my colleague Francis Zaake, a 29-year-old member of Parliament, was arrested and tortured. Previously strapping and healthy, he now walks with a cane from the beatings he received there.
Why torture an elected member of Parliament?
On March 31, the Ugandan government imposed a strict coronavirus lockdown without notice, leaving many citizens unable to work. When some parliamentarians began passing out relief food to constituents, Mr. Museveni threatened to arrest them. In theory, the ban was universal; in practice, politicians from Mr. Museveni’s ruling party continued passing out food. The message was clear: Support the regime or starve.
Mr. Zaake’s crime was delivering food to the hungry while being an opposition member.
Assaulting elected members of Parliament and their supporters is an assault on the very idea of democracy. Ugandans have lived under Mr. Museveni’s tyranny for 34 years. We have had elections, but their legitimacy has been marred by rigging and the killing and torture of opposition supporters.
We stand for democratic rule; depoliticizing the security forces, judiciary and other institutions; peace in our region; and fighting Uganda’s rampant corruption. We maintain that this will help create the conditions for Uganda’s economy to thrive.
We regret to say that we might not have suffered for so long had Washington not chosen to ignore Mr. Museveni’s abuses. He is among the Pentagon’s closest African security allies, with troops in Somalia and guards under U.S. command in Iraq. However, he has also stoked conflict both within Uganda and in neighboring countries, while hoodwinking Washington into trusting him on security matters.
The international community needs to rethink its financial, moral and military assistance to our tormentors in Uganda and stand up for democracy.
Bobi Wine is a musician and a member of the Parliament in Uganda.
Twice, Uganda’s Supreme Court seemed on the verge of overturning Mr. Museveni’s election. After the 2016 election, Mr. Museveni placed his main challenger, Kizza Besigye, under house arrest so that he couldn’t petition the court within the constitutionally mandated time period.
As support for our People Power movement has grown in recent years, Mr. Museveni has increased the frequency and brutality of attacks on lawmakers.
On Aug. 13, 2018, I was with colleagues in Arua, a town in northern Uganda, after a long day of campaigning. We were there to support an opposition colleague who was running for Parliament in a special election. All of a sudden, Uganda’s Special Forces Command besieged our hotel. They shot and killed my driver, Yasin Kawuma, who was sitting in the passenger seat of my vehicle. The bullets seemed to have been intended for me. Thirty-four of us, including three other lawmakers and the candidate Kassiano Wadri, who eventually won the Arua special election, were arrested.