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Uganda The Return of Military Rule: 1985
The military government of General Tito Lutwa Okello
ruled
from July 1985 to January 1986 with no explicit policy
except the
natural goal of self-preservation--the motive for their
defensive
coup. To stiffen the flagging efforts of his army against
the
NRA, Okello invited former soldiers of Amin's army to
reenter
Uganda from the Sudanese refugee camps and participate in
the
civil war on the government side. As mercenaries fresh to
the
scene, these units fought well, but they were equally
interested
in looting and did not discriminate between supporters and
enemies of the government. The reintroduction of Amin's
infamous
cohorts was poor international public relations for the
Okello
government and helped create a new tolerance of Museveni.
In 1986 a cease-fire initiative from Kenya was welcomed
by
Okello, who could hardly expect to govern the entire
country with
only war-weary and disillusioned Acholi troops to back
him.
Negotiations dragged on, but with Okello and the remnants
of the
UNLA army thoroughly discouraged, Museveni had only to
wait for
the regime to disintegrate. In January 1986, welcomed
enthusiastically by the local civilian population,
Museveni moved
against Kampala. Okello and his soldiers fled northward to
their
ethnic base in Acholi. Yoweri Museveni formally claimed
the
presidency on January 29, 1986. Immense problems of
reconstruction awaited the new regime.
* * *
The best general introductions to Uganda in the
precolonial
and colonial periods are: S. Karugire's A Political
History of
Ugandaand J. Jørgensen's Uganda: A Modern
History. For
the place of Uganda in the larger context of East African
and
African history, see B. Davidson's A History of East
and
Central Africa to the Late 19th Century; Zamani: A
Survey
of East African History, edited by B. Ogot and J.
Kieran; and
the relevant chapters in History of East Africa,
published
by Oxford University, 3 volumes, and The Cambridge
History of
Africa, 8 volumes.
More specialized treatment of Uganda issues can be
found in
T. Sathyamurthy's The Political Development of Uganda,
1900-
1986; D. Rothchild and M. Rogin's "Uganda" in G.
Carter's
National Unity and Regionalism in Eight African
States; D.
Apter's The Political Kingdom in Uganda, F.
Welbourn's
Religion and Politics in Uganda, 1952-1962; N.
Kasfir's
The Shrinking Political Arena; and C. Gertzel's
Party
and Locality in Northern Uganda.
The destructive period of Amin in the 1970s produced a
series
of studies, among them D. Martin's General Amin; H.
Kyemba's A State of Blood, A. Mazrui's Soldiers
and
Kinsmen in Uganda; M. Twaddle's Expulsion of a
Minority, G.I. Smith's Ghosts of Kampala; and
the
International Commission of Jurists' Uganda and Human
Rights.
Sources for Uganda since the fall of Amin are T.
Avirgan and
M. Honey's War in Uganda; H. Hansen and M.
Twaddle's
Uganda Now; P. Wiebe and C. Dodge's Beyond
Crisis;
K. Rupesinghe's Conflict Resolution in Uganda; and
the
Minority Rights Group's Uganda and Sudan--North and
South.
(For further information and complete citations,
see
Bibliography.)
Data as of December 1990
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