Security Personnel Must Serve the Nation

By Valerian Kkonde                                             

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Embattled Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, is clinging on whatever comes his way so as to stay in state house. The language he has been using during the campaigns for the concluded February 18, 2011 elections, betray his feelings of seeing no future outside state house. But there is a future after the presidency, Mr. Museveni.

This could be understandable and forgiven. What cannot be forgiven is the turning of security personnel against the very people they are mandated to protect irrespective of their political, ethnic and social status. By so doing, Museveni believes that he will get the security personnel to pay allegiance to him instead of the country. This is proof that the bush mentality of resorting to the gun for solutions is still alive.

Nepotism is another weapon Museveni is using to disorganize and kill the morale of the forces. Many professional and dedicated personnel have in turn been rewarded with dejection and non-promotion. It is even a practice in the forces for the juniors, hailing from Museveni’s Western region, to give orders to those senior to them!

Uncouth security officials, in the army and police, have done everything possible to frustrate and bar the opposition from reaching voters especially in the rural areas. Their overzealousness went to the extent of forcing radio station owners not to host opposition politicians, and even harass their supporters.`

While in Sembabule, the Inter Party Cooperation flag-bearer, Retired Colonel Dr. Kiiza Besigye, also known as Kizza, accused the Intelligence Agencies Coordinator, General David Tinyefuza, of intimidating opposition supporters with arrests and torture, if they attended their rallies.

People’s Development Party presidential candidate- Dr. Abed Bwanika- had to suspend his campaigns for some days after he had been harassed by the District Police Commanders in Lira and Masaka. Other politicians from the opposition have also had their share of the state-inspired torture aimed at those vying for leadership positions in Uganda.

Looking at the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces top brass, one can rightly predict that it is a Western Region affair and devoid of professionalism and nationalism. It all smacks of sinister motives.

Worse still, majority of them, if not all of them have criminal records amounting to crimes against humanity. They have become hostages of their own making and that explains why they are doing everything to protect Museveni from defeat so that they procrastinate their prosecution and accounting for their crimes.

While there are many complaints about security personnel campaigning for Museveni, contrary to the Constitution and Army code of Conduct, the Commander-in-Chief only acts when security personnel declare allegiance to the Opposition. This is interpreted as: it is okay to engage in partisan politics as long as one supports Museveni. This is the reason why some security agents are openly meting out violence on members of the Opposition. Murders, disappearances, torture and arbitrary imprisonment are the weapons security agencies use against government political opponents.

One simple question but heavily laden with meaning is: Where is the logic in having army representatives in a Parliament for a Multi Party political dispensation? It is feeble to keep reasoning that the historical role of the army in bringing Museveni to power gives it the mandate to stay in the legislature; it is an excuse to cover up the deliberate destruction of institutions that is synonymous with Museveni’s National Resistance Movement (NRM).

Given the fact that day follows night, and that change is a fact of life, security personnel have a duty to reject orders that contradict their mandate to protect members of the public, more so given the fact that they are the ones who pick their salaries and allowances. It will be a matter of time when the untouchable security agents will have to answer for their mischief.

The torture, suppression and all forms of dehumanizing treatment that the people are subjected to because they differ politically, socially and economically with the powers that be, does not exclude the security personnel. It is the form that differs.

Security personnel are also members of this public but with a special mandate to protect and promote the well being of society. And because they have a mandate to oversee the safety of the values the public lawfully holds dear, they must never be fooled with money and promotions to renege on this noble duty. With or without promotions, there is nothing as noble and rewarding as diligently serving motherland.

During the 2001 presidential elections, soldiers in Makindye Military barracks were forcefully ordered to vote for Museveni. The soldiers obliged, but later complained.  The polling centers were removed from the barracks during the 2006 elections and soldiers voted according to their wish.

Security personnel need to constantly reflect on the demands of their career and the stability of their country so as to desist from becoming the property of individuals and regimes; all security personnel, irrespective of rank and descent belong to the nation and this is what guarantees their safety, future and true freedom. Regimes come and go, but the country remains. And just as whatever has a beginning has an end, even the most notorious regimes come to an end. That is when even the so called untouchables yell like a kid before a cane-wielding parent. The people’s ability to bring about regime change, in Tunisia and Egypt, for the good of the country and not individuals, is worth emulating.

And to achieve this, security personnel must resolve to fight crime and bad governance instead of becoming accomplices or instruments of terror. This is what will win them public support at retirement and regime change.

 It is a great statement for one to be identified with the Black Mambas besieging the High Court in 2005, the Kiboko squad, the shooting at Kasubi Royal tombs, the shooting of Dr. Besigye’s supporters during the 2006 election campaigns, as well as the fracas that is already unfolding in the on-going campaigns and elections.

Pearl News Service sources have also intimated that the country could be destined for a wave of violence as Museveni begins to stare change in the face. Museveni believes that by undermining the Army and Police he is consolidating his hold on power but it goes without saying that he is as well an enemy of himself.

Benefits of keeping on the right side of the law are enormous. So are the rewards of turning into terror machines.

Retired Col. Kiiza Besigye has been able to keep at bay president Museveni’s envy and hatred because he maintained a clean sheet while serving as an army officer .Just imagine

what would have happened to him if he had accepted to be used to serve the selfish interests of his commander-in-chief! Besigye’s decision to join politics, after being discharged from the army, would have offered an opportune moment the ghost of the past to return to haunt him. But it is no where in sight!

The best they could do was to concoct rape and treason charges against him. In all instances, the law that he had respected was the same law that set him off the hook. It is a great lesson to the serving men and officers.

It is the opposite in respect to General David Tinyefuza, Lieutenant Ramadhan Magara and their ilk. When Tinyefuza wanted to assert his independence, it was enough to flash, before him, his record during the dreaded Operation Iron Fist in Acholiland, and call him to order.

In its bid to expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable, Human Rights Watch details all the Operation’s crimes against humanity. Magara secured himself a seven-year abode in Luzira prison. He had shot dead Dr. Besigye’s supporters during the 2006 presidential campaigns. Of course the regime tried to protect him but as usual, the law finally caught up with him. What goes round comes round.

And today, with the Global Village phenomenon, it is not only Ugandans watching; the whole world is taking note of the atrocities committed by security agencies and other aggressors. It is the reason why Jean Pierre Bemba is in The Hague to answer charges for atrocities committed in the Central African Republic.  

Events in Tunisia and Egypt should help security operatives in Uganda to appreciate the mandate that the constitution confers upon them, and respect the will of the people. Ugandans will be proud of the security operatives the moment they realize that they have an obligation to safe guard the rights of Ugandans and not the selfish, destructive and suppressive tendencies of demagogues who claim to have a vision to rule the country till death do them part.

It is time for Uganda to get rid of such.