Uganda Readies for National Elections

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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Ugandans are preparing for their first multi-party elections in twenty years. Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, was once heralded for bringing political stability and economic growth and tackling AIDS. However, concerns are growing inside Uganda and internationally that his rule is becoming increasingly authoritarian. Richard Lough reports.

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RICHARD LOUGH reporting:

Here at Adjumani(ph) displaced persons camp in northern Uganda, men, women and children wait anxiously in line to receive food aid from the United Nations. They're getting their monthly allotment of flour, oil, and grains. Across war- torn northern Uganda, one and half million people from the Acholi tribe live in overcrowded, squalid camps, uprooted from their homes, dependent on humanitarian assistance.

The Acholi live at the mercy of the rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army, which has waged a nearly 20-year campaign of terror in Uganda's north. Charles O'Kelo(ph) and Margaret Oyem(ph) from Adjumani, seek one electoral promise in the upcoming vote: the guarantee of peace in the region.

Mr. CHARLES O'KELO: (Foreign language spoken)

Ms. MARGARET OYEM: We want peace. We want to go home. We are tired. We are dying.

LOUGH: The man who carries the hope for so many in the north is Uganda's leading opposition politician, Dr. Kiiza Besigye. Besigye was Museveni's personal physician during the rebellion that led to his presidency in 1986, and remained a close political ally. He fell out with Museveni in 1999, and two years later, made a bid for the leadership.

He lost those elections and fled into exile, claiming Ugandan state agents were trying to kill him. He returned to Uganda last October, but was soon arrested on charges of treason and rape--charges he claims are trumped up. Outside the high court, in Uganda's capital, Kampala, Besigye said his detention was the act of an increasingly authoritarian president tightening his grip on power.

Dr. KIIZA BESIGYE (Presidential Candidate, Uganda): These are just political charges. The whole intention is to eliminate legitimate political opposition.

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LOUGH: Standing among fellow opposition party members outside his office in the northern town of Gulu, Acholi member of Parliament Reagan Akumu(ph) claims Besigye has much support in the region. He says many there believe Besigye might be able to end the conflict in which rebels have maimed and killed thousands, and preyed on children they've kidnapped for sex slaves and fighters.

Mr. REAGAN AKUMU (Ugandan Parliament): This war can come to an end if there is a serious political will from within the government. This war has been going on because Museveni cares less for the people of the north.

LOUGH: Tribal identities remain strong in Uganda. Akumu says there's a suspicion among the Acholi that Museveni, who is from western Uganda, has used the war to systematically destroy the northern tribes.

Mr. AKUMU: A society is being destroyed. The Acholis were one of the superior people in this region, but the culture is being destroyed, people are being killed, and everything, and that is genocide.

LOUGH: The Ugandan government calls talk of genocide and tribal division opposition propaganda.

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LOUGH: On a parched recreation ground in Gulu, a military band greeted Museveni as he promised a small crowd of supporters that the war would soon be over.

Mr. YOWERI MUSEVENI (President, Uganda): For a long time, the people of Acholi, you were always deceived, not to work for the movement, or don't want from (unintelligible) would be defeated and (unintelligible) always wins. I don't want you to make the same mistake this time.

LOUGH: It was time, he said, for the Acholi to believe in his government, and his party which he calls, the Movement. Ugandans go to the polls on February 23. For NPR News, I'm Richard Lough.

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