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Uganda The Second Obote Regime: Repression Continues
Yusuf Lule, chair of the UNLA's political arm, formed
the new
government. He called for law and order and outlined a
strategy
to rehabilitate Uganda. To improve the military's
reputation, he
set new standards of literacy and political education for
army
and police recruits. To reduce the army's political role
and
build a truly national force, he proclaimed his intention
to draw
military recruits from all ethnic groups in proportion to
their
population. In achieving this goal, Lule hoped to
authorize
increased military recruitment among the Baganda, Uganda's
largest ethnic group. Non-Baganda government officials
opposed
this policy. The National Consultative Council (NCC),
which
became the new legislature, and the Military Commission,
which
oversaw the army's operation, refused to support Lule's
policies,
and they voted him out of office after only sixty-eight
days as
president.
In late 1979, the NCC elected Godfrey Binaisa, who had
served
as attorney-general under Obote and Amin, to form a new
government. Binaisa, an ineffective president, failed to
consolidate support within the military. This allowed
senior army
officers to operate almost independently of the
government.
Rather than authorizing military recruiting among all
ethnic
groups, Binaisa allowed then Minister of Defense Yoweri
Kaguta
Museveni to enlist a disproportionate number of volunteers
from
his home region in the southwest. The use of regional and
ethnic
affiliation as a political lever prompted a power struggle
with
Chief of Staff David Oyite Ojok, a northerner. Binaisa
tried to
resolve this dispute by dismissing Ojok. The Military
Commission
rejected this action, ousted Binaisa and the NCC, assumed
control
of the government, and called for national elections in
December
1980. Milton Obote, who had been ousted by Amin's 1971
military
coup, returned to the presidency. Obote called on the army
to
restore peace, but several ethnic-based military forces
emerged
instead to challenge his authority.
Among the groups opposing Obote were Museveni's
National
Resistance Movement (NRM) and its military wing, the
National
Resistance Army (NRA), both of which attracted members
from
western Uganda. Also working to oust Obote were the Former
Uganda
National Army (FUNA), most of whose members had served in
the
army under Amin, and the Uganda National Rescue Front
(UNRF),
which drew members from Amin's home territory in the
northwest.
In addition, the Uganda Freedom Movement (UFM) and the
Federal
Democratic Movement of Uganda (FEDEMU), both based
primarily in
Buganda, opposed Obote. To suppress these groups, the
Ministry of
Defense spent one-fourth of the government's recurrent
expenditures in 1983 and 1984; nevertheless, these groups
remained active against the government.
The UNLA mounted counterinsurgency operations in
numerous
areas, including Arua and Moyo in the northwest, Karamoja
in the
northeast, and Luwero north of Kampala. The army, whose
ranks
were filled with poorly trained, poorly clothed, poorly
fed, and
irregularly paid foot soldiers, had almost no ability to
sustain
counterinsurgency operations. The government's inability
to
maintain discipline over the armed forces allowed many
units to
degenerate into unruly gangs. The military perpetrated
numerous
human rights violations and engaged in several illegal
activities, including theft, looting, assault, and holding
civilians for ransom.
In pursuit of remnants of Amin's army in the northwest,
UNLA
troops entered the area and killed thousands of civilians,
many
of whom were women, children, and old people. According to
a 1983
United Nations (UN) report, this reign of terror forced an
estimated 260,000 refugees to flee to Sudan and Zaire. In
the
northeast, cattle rustlers acquired an army arsenal of
automatic
weapons and ammunition, which they used on raids in
neighboring
districts as well as southern Sudan and Kenya. In response
to
these raids, the UNLA and Kenyan authorities mounted a
pacification campaign, which resulted in the eradication
or
displacement of most of southern Karamoja's population by
mid1984 .
Despite its many illegal activities, the UNLA's
atrocities in
the Luwero Triangle attracted the most international
attention.
In 1980 the inhabitants of this region had rejected
Obote's rule
and welcomed opposition guerrillas, including Museveni's
NRA.
Until the end of the Obote regime in 1985, the UNLA waged
war
against rebels and civilians in the area, and the Luwero
Triangle
became known for its devastation. Several local officials
estimated that the UNLA killed between 100,000 and 200,000
civilians and that it detained, tortured, and assaulted
several
thousand others. The International Committee of the Red
Cross
(ICRC) reported that 150,000 people displaced from Luwero
had
taken refuge in its camps.
By mid-1985 the demoralized UNLA began to disintegrate.
Obote's promotion of Opon Acak, a junior officer from
Obote's
home region of Lango, to army chief of staff alienated
much of
the Acholi-dominated officer corps. The UNLA's failure to
defeat
the NRA, which had emerged as the strongest antigovernment
guerrilla group, widened the gulf between the army and the
Obote
regime. On July 27, 1985, Brigadier (later Lieutenant
General)
Basilio Olara Okello and a small group of UNLA soldiers
overthrew
the Obote regime. According to Okello, he launched the
coup "to
stop the bloodshed; to create conditions for viable peace,
unity,
development, and the promotion of human rights."
Under the new government, which ruled through a
Military
Council, General Tito Lutwa Okello became head of state,
and
Brigadier Basilio Olara Okello served as the chief of
defense
forces. To establish a coalition government, Tito Okello
invited
all political parties and guerrilla organizations to
cooperate
with the new regime. In August 1985, members of FEDEMU,
FUNA,
UFM, and UNRF agreed to this proposal, thereby gaining
representation on the Military Council. However, this
alliance of
former enemies proved unable to govern Uganda. The NRA
took
advantage of the weak coalition government, established
control
over rural areas of southwestern Uganda, and overran
several
military garrisons west of Kampala. The NRA also
established an
independent administration in former president Amin's home
territory in the northwest.
Data as of December 1990
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