According to the latest version of his schedule, Clinton will spend a day in Uganda meeting locals, then fly to Rwanda briefly, and then come back to Kampala for a summit with regional heads of state.
*****Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is a classic "new leader." He took power in 1986 with a promise to re-establish the rule of law and respect for human rights, and after the ghastly regimes of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, he has indeed made significant progress. But he rules the country through the "no-party movement" system of government, and the constitution prohibits parties from operating branch offices or endorsing candidates. In 1999, Uganda will hold a referendum on permanently entrenching the no-party system. The Ugandan government has been fighting a rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), in the northeast of the country. The LRA has carried out civilian massacres, mutilations, and torture, and has abducted children to be used as soldiers or for sexual exploitation. U.S. officials like to criticize the LRA rebels (and the Allied Democratic Forces rebels active in the western region), and with good reason. But in the last year, since the departure of its hard-hitting ambassador Michael Southwick, the Clinton administration has stopped criticizing Museveni openly for human rights abuses by the Ugandan government.
Question: Last year, outgoing U.S. ambassador Southwick said the U.S. government opposed the 1999 referendum on the "no-party" system, insisting that the rights at stake are fundamental human rights. Is this still U.S. policy?
Question: The 1997 State Department report on human rights in Uganda noted "numerous, serious problems," including extrajudicial killings, police and army brutality, harsh prison conditions, restrictions on press freedom, and limits on political and civil rights. Is the U.S. government insisting on improvements in Uganda's human rights record as a condition for future aid? Is President Clinton raising these "numerous, serious problems" with President Museveni?
Question: The U.S. is training some Ugandan troops as part of the African Crisis Response Initiative for responding to crises around the continent. But these same troops have been deployed against rebel insurgencies within Uganda, in areas where human rights abuses by army troops have been reported. Is the U.S. incorporating human rights training in its program for the ACRI?
Question for President Museveni: You have been a leading proponent of the United Nations arms embargo against Burundi. So why do eyewitnesses report that Uganda has been used for transshipping arms to that country?