UGANDA PEOPLES CONGRESS
(Office of the President)

UGANDA PEOPLES CONGRESS (UPC) CONFERENCE
(KOELN, GERMANY 7-9 OCTOBER, 2000)
ON

DEMOCRATIZATION AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN UGANDA

MESSAGE BY PARTY PRESIDENT: A. MILTON OBOTE

1. Members of the Uganda Peoples Congress and friends of the people of Uganda, my pleasure in opening this Conference, is blessedly unbounded.
2. This is the first time in its long history, that the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) is holding a Conference largely made possible by the efforts of very kind people whose country is not even in Africa.
3. On behalf and in the name of members of the UPC, world-wide, I send very heart-felt and warm greetings and gratitude to those very kind people, the citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany.
   Without their involvement, without their efforts and without their facilitation, this Conference would not have been possible.
   Very warm salutations again, citizens of the Federal Republic of Germany and I thank you very much.
4. I send also very warm greetings to members of the UPC who are in the Federal Republic of Germany.
   Your collaboration with friends you have made in Germany, has made this Conference possible.
   That is the spirit; keep it up and strengthen the friendships you have made.
   This Conference is concrete evidence that you are working for freedom to reign again in Uganda. I thank all of you very much and pledge always to be with you.
5. To the participants who have come from outside Germany, your presence has given to your Party, the UPC, and also the people of Uganda a great honour.
   Your presence has cemented and shall cement the glorious friendships which Party members who live in Germany have made.
   Your presence, is a great mark of your dedication and work for the attainment of freedom in Uganda. I very warmly greet you all and I thank you for coming to the Conference. I give you the same pledge I have given to your colleagues in Germany; I shall always be with you.
6. To everyone in the Conference, I present to you a very sordid and inhuman situation in Uganda regarding democracy and economic development.
7. In Uganda democracy has, for the past over 14 years since 1986, been condemned as unfit for Uganda. Instead military cum one-Party dictatorship has been imposed.
8. Two forces have imposed the military cum one-Party rule in Uganda. They are, first, an insurgent army which seized State power in January 1986. Second, the Governments in the European Union and in North America. The two forces have been collaborating, for the past over 14 years, to entrench military cum one-Party dictatorship in Uganda.
9. Uganda and countries conquered by Uganda or are satellites of the Uganda dictatorship are eminently now the countries in Africa where Governments in the European Union and in North America are entrenching military cum one-Party rule.
10. Elsewhere in Africa, where there was either military or one-Party rule or there should be a shift towards military or one-Party rule, Governments in the European Union and in North America shunned and suspended or shun and withhold their aid to such countries. The result has been that the military or one-Party rule, in those countries, have collapsed or are collapsing and democracy has been and is being restored, promoted and strengthened.
11. In the case of Uganda, any demand that Governments in the European Union and in North America should pursue a uniform policy in Africa and should therefore also shun and suspend or at least withhold aid to the Uganda dictatorship, is met with a pre-determined rejection. The curious rejection is that to suspend or withhold aid would hurt the millions of very poor people in Uganda. It is curious because the suspension or withholding aid to other countries apparently did and does not hurt millions of the very poor people in those countries.
12. The pre-determined rejection, therefore, has four puzzling and contradicting meanings.
    First, to suspend or withhold aid to countries in Africa which have not adopted the Uganda system or are not under the control of or satellites of the Uganda dictatorship but are under or shifting to military or one-Party rule, is good policy which demonstrates that the tax money of people in a democracy should not sustain or entrench a dictatorship.
    Second, to suspend or withhold aid to Uganda under a military cum one-Party dictatorship, would amount to Governments in the European Union and in North America imposing a system of governance namely, democracy in Uganda and is therefore not good policy.
    Third, to suspend or withhold aid to countries in Africa under military or one-Party or shifting to military or one-Party rule, would ostracise and hurt the rulers but the very poor people in those countries would not be hurt.
    Fourth, to suspend or withhold aid to Uganda under military cum one-Party dictatorship, would severely hurt the very poor people in Uganda and would not ostracise or hurt the dictatorship. What emerges is that only the Uganda dictatorship must impose dictatorship in other African countries and will not be suspended.
13. Although Uganda has been eminently a military cum one-Party dictatorship for over 14 years since 1986, the common policy of the Governments in the European Union and in North America in Uganda has also been to support, praise and entrench the dictatorship.
14. Through a diktat imposed in mid-March, 1986, which was not even published as a Legal Instrument and later codified in 1995 as Article 269 of the Constitution, the Uganda dictatorship clearly prescribed a system of governance which no Government in the European Union and in North America can accept, support, praise and finance to obtain in other African countries but, for some hidden objective, actually does obtain in the case of Uganda.
15. In the opinion of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC), the policy of the Governments in the European Union and in North America which accepts, supports, praises and finances dictatorship in Uganda, has the goal of removing the people of Uganda from the human race. The UPC condemns and has always condemned the policy most unreservedly.
16. Where a citizen cannot, in his or her own country enjoy and exercise his or her God given inalienable human rights and freedoms and where those rights and freedoms have been suppressed by a dictatorship in collaboration with very powerful Governments abroad, the citizens is as good as an outcast in the face of the Earth.
17. By accepting, supporting, praising and financing the suppressions of human rights and freedoms in Uganda, Governments in the European Union and in North America have been and are actively working to make the people of Uganda outcasts from the human race. The UPC shall not accept the design lying down.
18. Also by accepting that the suppressions of human rights is a system of governance which they have supported, praised and financed for over 14 years, the Governments in the European Union and in North America have shown that they do not believe in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UPC demands a clear declaration from them on this most fundamental human issue.
19. The provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights do not apply and are not respected and observed in Uganda. The oppressive situation is called a system of governance and the system is supported, praised and financed by Governments in the European Union and in North America. For democracies, in the opinion of the UPC, to sustain and entrench a dictatorship, is a crime against humanity which ranks with genocide.

Uganda Dictatorship System

20. Besides the army, the core of the Uganda dictatorship system of governance was first imposed by a diktat in mid-March 1986 and was vigorously enforced by armed Police and the military. Now, it is provided, in the layman's language, in Article 269 of the Constitution as follows:
-
1. Every political Party is prohibited from opening and operating Branch offices.
1. In Uganda, a Branch office of a political Party is not a building with chairs, tables, typewriters or computers. Branch office is the membership of a Party at its primary base, is the Executive at that base which is responsible for recruitment, and effective propagation of the Party's policies and for popularising the Party. In the UPC, the area of a Branch is the lowest administrative zone or Ward in a municipality. This provision in the Constitution and its antecedent stretching back to mid-March 1986, has effectively dissolved the Branches of all the Parties and also prohibited the formation of new Parties because without Branches, no Party has any root for existence.
2. Without active and functional Branches, all the organs of a Party are also dissolved. In the UPC, for instance, it is the delegates elected at the Branch General Assembly composed of all members of each Branch who start the process of constituting and composing the higher echelons or Organs of the Party.
3. Friends of the UPC abroad often ask how many members the Party has. The sincere answer is that the number is not known because the Branches have been made dysfunctional and there has been no recruitment in over 14 years. Secondly, of the nearly 2 million members in 1986, there have been very many deaths and much aggressive subornation by the dictatorship.
2. Every political Party is prohibited from holding its Delegates Conference (Convention).
1. Even in Europe and in North America, the apex organ of a Party is its Convention which in Uganda, having been popularised by the UPC, is called the Delegates Conference. In Uganda, particularly in the UPC, the Delegates Conference is the only Party organ which can adopt or amend the Constitution of the Party; can adopt Party policies on all matters; can adopt a Manifesto in the case of a public elections in which the Party is participating and can elect or remove the leader of the Party, and can adopt the Party's candidate for an elections to the office of the President of Uganda. This provision in the Constitution and its antecedent, has paralysed Uganda's political Parties because, in a changing world, they have been prohibited for over 14 years to adopt policies and also prohibited from electing their leaders.
3. Every political Party is prohibited from convening and addressing any public rally or meeting.
1. This provision in the Constitution and its antecedent, has removed Uganda's political Parties from politics and has left the arena entirely to the dictatorship and its political Party which is also the political Wing of the ruling army. For instance, in the Inquiry for a new Constitution conducted by a Commission for 4 years, from 1988 to 1992, the antecedent of the provision debarred the political Parties from gathering evidence from their members and from the public for articulation and submission to the Commission.
2. Since the Governments in the European Union and in North America give the dictatorship considerable funds annually which are debts to be repaid by the people of Uganda and since this provision prohibits the political Parties from debating the deployment and usage of the funds at public rallies or meetings, the funds have become subventions to strengthen and entrench the dictatorship. Second, the subventions have enabled the dictatorship to divert, annually, huge local resources to waging wars in Uganda and in neighbouring countries respectively for entrenchment and expansion.
3. This provision also shows, most inescapably, that Uganda is and has been, at least, a one-Party State for over 14 years. This provision which has been vigorously enforced for over 14 years effectively derides and exposes as deceit the human rights provision in the Constitution namely, that "Every person shall have the right to (e) freedom of association which shall include the freedom to form and join associations or unions, including trade unions and political and other civic organisations."
4. Every political Party is prohibited from sponsoring or offering a platform to or in any way campaigning for or against a candidate for any public elections.
1. This provision, again, reiterates that Uganda is and has been, at least, a one-Party dictatorship where political Parties except the Party of the dictatorship are prohibited to having their candidates in public elections and prohibited to campaign for their elections.
2. Although this provision prohibits the political Parties from participating in public elections which they cannot do even if they wanted on account of their Branches and other organs being dysfunctional, the Governments in the European Union and in North America in order to give some credence and credibility to patently one-Party elections have, in the past, actively wooed the political Parties to lend their names and names only to the charades. Even now, because another charade is due next year, the Governments in the European Union and in North America are actively wooing, cajoling and manipulating leaders of the political Parties to give credence and credibility to the charade next year. For rejecting every flirtation and for standing firm against every form of manipulation, the UPC is the Ugandan Party most hated by Governments in Europe and in North America.
3. Elections held in the past or are to be held on the authority of this provision, have been and are to be immoral and definitive schemes to suppress the human rights of the citizen to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information precisely because the model of elections imposed by the dictatorship, prohibits the presentation to the electorate by competing political Parties of their articulated policies for the governance of the country. To elect is to choose and in Uganda, under the dictatorship, elections involving choice between different policies known throughout the country for the governance of the country, are not permitted by the dictatorship. The Uganda electorate have voted, in the past, and are to vote next year without different sets of policies presented to them and therefore, without choosing from different sets of policies. The votes and the elections have been and shall be unmitigated charade.
5. Every political Party is prohibited from carrying on any activities that may interfere with the Movement Political System for the time being in force.
1. The provision clearly states that after taking into account the previous provisions in the dictatorship's system of governance, there is already in existence what is called the Movement System which accepts no competition of ideas, policies and programmes for governance in the political arena. In other words, the Party of the dictatorship once known as the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and now simply as the Movement must not have competitors in the political arena.
2. The ideological position of the NRM or Movement since 1986, has been that despite or in spite of being the political Wing of the insurgent army which seized State power in 1986, itself is not a political Party but is the Government of Uganda which the ballot cannot remove because it is also the system of governance to which every citizen of Uganda belongs and subscribes. The dictatorship or the NRM or the Movement does not recognise and pours scorn to the fact that it has been and is in very serious conflicts with the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with the provisions in the Uganda Constitution which provide that: -
3. "Every person shall have the right to freedom of speech and expression"
4. "Every person shall have the right to freedom of thought and conscience"
5. "Every person shall have the right to freedom to assemble and to demonstrate together with others peacefully and unarmed and to petition."
6. "All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of political. life and shall enjoy equal protection of the law."
7. "A person shall not be discriminated against on the ground of political opinion"
8. "'Discrimination' means to give different treatment to different persons attributable only or mainly to their respective description by political opinion"
3. Having made the organs of the political Parties dysfunctional and banished the Parties from politics and from elections, the prescription by the dictatorship that the Parties are not to "carry on any activities that may interfere with the Movement political system for the time being in force", is a definitive description that Uganda has been and is a military cum one-Party dictatorship.
21. The system of governance in Uganda since 1986, now over 14 years, has been military cum one-Party dictatorship. The system is provided in the Constitution promulgated in 1995. It is also provided in the Constitution that the system be subjected to a referendum not later than June, 2000 and that has purportedly been done.
22. In a public Statement, the older democracies who had strongly supported the referendum held on the premises that Uganda's political Parties are no longer in politics and in elections and who had financed some aspects of the referendum, declared that the referendum was flawed. Instead of also declaring that they would not accept the results of a flawed referendum which was to entrench the dictatorship, the Statement stated that each Government was now to determine its policy towards Uganda. It was a cunning and perfidious way by which each of them has since accepted the results of a referendum which they, themselves, regarded as having been flawed.
23. The one leading factor which caused the referendum to be flawed was the banishment of the political Parties from politics and from elections. The Party of the dictatorship was therefore alone in the referendum, without a competitor, and the poll was exceedingly derisory.
24. While it is easy to see why and how a gang of people, led by a militarist by the name of Yoweri Museveni, should have raised an army with the objective of imposing a military dictatorship in Uganda, it is not easy to see why and how Governments in the European Union and in North America came to support, praise, heavily finance and should want to entrench the dictatorship while, at the same time, pursuing anti-dictatorship policy in much of Africa.
25. In Uganda, the dictatorship and Governments in Europe and in North America frown on the word "democratisation" but occasionally they even claim that the system imposed by the dictatorship is democracy. The Governments in Europe and in North America have a fall-back position; which is that it is not for them to determine Uganda's system of governance.
26. That fall-back position is hollow and borders onto deceit and it is the greatest quarrel of the UPC with the Governments in the older democracies in Europe and in North America. Neither the UPC nor any known political Party in Uganda has asked or is asking the Governments in the European Union and in North America to determine the system of governance for Uganda. Second, neither the UPC nor any known political Party in Uganda has asked or is asking Governments in Europe and in North America or for that matter, any Government at all to overthrow the Uganda dictatorship.
27. The UPC quarrel with the Governments in the European Union and in North America, is that they have become and are indistinguishably part of the Uganda dictatorship. They not only support, praise and finance every scheme and action of the dictatorship including genocide, massacres, devastations and despoliations, but also have gone out of their way to distort Uganda's recent history and to thereby demonise Uganda's political Parties and their leaders. The most demonised Party and its leader is the UPC.
28. The distortion of Uganda's recent history, is clearly meant to cleanse Museveni and his dictatorship but both are smeared with the blood of millions of innocent people in and out of Uganda, that even to think of cleansing them would amount to misprision of crimes against humanity.
29. The first politician in Uganda to emulate African soldiers who mount coups to reach the seat of government, is Museveni. At a time when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) is moving towards shunning all soldier-Presidents, it seems a most serious affront to the Africans that older democracies should be engaged in cleansing an Insurgent-President who has never gone through a free and fair competitive multiparty elections.
30. It is the very strong opinion of the UPC that the Governments in the European Union and in North America, know that Museveni is a callous militarist and vampire killer, is a dictator, is a very corrupt man and is an inveterate liar and trickster. The evidence for each of those qualities of his, is in abundance. For so many Governments in Europe and in North America to support such an infamous character must be based, in the opinion of the UPC, on something which one day will come to haunt Europe and North America.
31. This is not the fist time that Governments in Europe and in North America have come out strongly in support of a murderous and terror dictatorship in Uganda. In the 1970s and led by the British Government, very much as has been the case since 1986, the Governments in Europe and in North America strongly supported dictator Amin. He was even heartlessly given the pet name of "Gentle Giant" when his coup and rule from the very first day began and continued with murders of thousands of people.
32. There is a story that when Tanzania decided in January 1979 after Amin had invaded Tanzania to oust Amin, the British Government warned the late President of Tanzania, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. The warning is said to be that if by ousting Amin Tanzania was to restore Milton Obote as President of Uganda, the British Government would find ways and means to frustrate Tanzania's intention. There was, in fact, as I know it no such intention. However, Uganda is now again and has been for the past over 14 years, faced with another impostor President whom the British Government and the other Governments in Europe and in North America want to keep in office.

Political Parties Made Demons

33. The Governments in the European Union and in North America have a quiver full of poisonous arrows for the demonisation of Uganda's political Parties and their leaders; in particular, the UPC and its leader. The first arrow which has been shot is the rejection of the results of the 1980 elections which the UPC won on the alleged ground that Uganda never had a valid competitive multiparty elections in December 1980 because it was, to quote the current British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, "poorly organised." This is not even a subtle way of justifying and endorsing the launching of a civil war against the people, the Constitution, Parliament and the elected government by Museveni in February 1981 after he lost the elections held the previous December.
34. The Report of the Commonwealth Observer Group drawn from nine Commonwealth countries namely, Ghana (Chairman), Australia, Botswana, Canada, India, Barbados, Britain, Cyprus and Sierra Leone, does not say the elections was flawed because it was "poorly organised". No Government in Europe or in North America also rejected the results of the elections and to do so in the late 1990s after supporting the Museveni dictatorship for more than 10 (ten) years, is clearly an endeavour to exonerate and to conceal his crimes and to justify his dictatorship. The truth, however is in the Report of the Observer Group and it is as follows: -
    "We believe this has been a valid electoral exercise which should broadly reflect the freely expressed choice of the people of Uganda."
    "Surmounting all obstacles, the people of Uganda. like some great tidal wave, carried the electoral process to a worthy and valid conclusion."
35. The second poisonous arrow is about Uganda's political Parties. The poison is the disparagement that Uganda's political Parties are ethnically based. The truth is that although the 1995 Constitution lists 56 Uganda communities (ethnic groups), there were only 5 political Parties in Uganda in 1986 one of which was formed by Museveni in 1980. Out of the 56 ethnic groups, Uganda has never had, at any one time, more than 10 political Parties. The two oldest and largest parties namely, the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) and the Democratic Party (DP), for instance, had and still have members in each ethnic group. Also in the Parliamentary elections held in 1958, 1961, 1962 and 1980, the candidates of the UPC and DP received votes in every Constituency in which they stood.
36. The third poisonous arrow is the disparagement that Uganda's political Parties are religiously based. Even Museveni who formed a Party in 1980 but is now against the very concept of political Parties keeps on harping this disparagement which he knows is baseless and is a stratagem for having only the political Wing of his army in the political arena.
37. Uganda has three mainstream religions namely, Catholic, Protestant Church of Uganda and Muslim. The 5 Parties which existed in 1986, could not possibly each have been based exclusively on any one of the three mainstream religions. The three mainstream religions could not also possibly have provided a base for each of the 5 parties.
38. In the case of the UPC, it is a provision in the Constitution of the Party that membership is open to only citizens who do not "support tribalism and parochialism" which includes religious bias or prejudice. In the UPC internal elections, throughout its history, no member or group of members has or have ever complained of having lost any election on account of religion.
39. The fourth poisonous arrow is that Uganda's political Parties have, in the past, caused instability, disunity, and even promoted mass killings. This is a calumny which can be made against Uganda's political Parties by a mass killer, like Museveni, to whom the Parties are his Bette noirs but not by Governments. However and since Governments in Europe and in North America have formulated their support, praises and the financing of the Uganda dictatorship on the belief that the calumny is fact, the common cause between Museveni, the mass killer, and those Governments carry only one meaning and it is fearfully and shamefully that those Governments will not, short of a very violent rebellion, allow democracy to obtain in Uganda.
40. The UPC, has for long got three impressions from the disparagments of and the calumny against Uganda's political Parties by Governments in Europe and in North America in collaboration with Museveni, the mass killer. They are as follows: -
1. The atrocities committed under Idi Amin when all the political Parties were banned, are propagated as atrocities committed by the Parties or by the UPC government. The reasoning is to conceal the guilt of how Amin was installed and named a Gentle Giant.
2. The atrocities committed by Museveni's army in the Luwero Triangle between 1981 and 1984 in the war launched and viciously waged by Museveni, are propagated as atrocities committed by the Parties or by the UPC government. The reasoning is to obliterate Museveni's crimes against humanity.
3. The atrocities committed and which are still being committed under Museveni when the Parties are all in jail are, to the Governments in Europe and North America, even when Museveni admitted as having been committed by his personal army, atrocities committed by rebel armies and the political Parties who are even presented as having massacred their own kith and kin; and again Museveni and his army are totally exonerated.
41. The coin which emerges from the above has a frontispiece which shows that the Governments in the older democracies have a special hatred for Uganda's political Parties, particularly the UPC, and are not averse to place them on the scene of crime even where they could not possibly be.
42. The reverse side of the coin shows that the Governments in the older democracies have a special love for mass killers in Uganda such as Amin and Museveni. In the case of Amin, mass killings began on the very first day of his coup and never ended until he was overthrown. To conceal the fact, he was quickly given by the older democracies, the accolade of a Gentle Giant and was within five months of his coup in London where he met the Prime Minister and the Queen. Museveni has been given the same treatment and more by the older democracies.
43. Election times greatly accentuate strains within the body politic of a country. Had Uganda's political Parties been the cause of instability or used to promote mass killings, the evidence would have emerged during the 1980 elections. The Commonwealth Observer Group found no such evidence. Museveni and his private army could have provided the evidence but did not do so because that army was formed to discredit the outcome of democratic multiparty elections and not to prematurely frustrate the outcome.
44. By denouncing the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and in North America are, effectively, destroying the only organisations upon which democracy can be built in Uganda.
45. By demonising the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and in North America are, aiding and abetting the Uganda dictatorship to outlaw the concept of political Parties in Uganda.
46. By demonising the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and in North America are, publicising their co-operation with the Uganda dictatorship that the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights must not obtain in Uganda.
47. By demonising the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and in North America are, in collaboration with the Uganda dictatorship, suppressing the human rights and freedoms of the individual contained in the Uganda Constitution.
48. By demonising the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and in North America are, expressing satisfaction that the deployment and usage of the tax money of their citizens sent allegedly to the people of Uganda must not be debated outside the aegis of the dictatorship and must therefore be subventions for entrenching the dictatorship.
49. By demonising the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and in North America are, effectively, sending a message to all other political Parties in Africa that multiparty politics, and competitive elections are not acceptable to them.
50. By demonising the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and North America have, effectively, pledged their support for the Uganda dictatorship to invade and conquer African countries near and far and install the Uganda dictatorship system in those countries.
51. By demonising the political Parties in Uganda, the Governments in Europe and North America have, effectively, been for over 14 years inciting the people of Uganda to rise up in arms and make Uganda a Lake, not of water but of human blood.
52. The Lake, without a doubt shall be filled. The commanders to fill the Lake shall not be the political Parties who are all in jail and shackled there. The commanders shall be the people of Uganda who have been removed from the human race.
53. When the time comes for the people to fill the Lake with human blood, no interest of the Governments in Europe and in North America shall be spared.
54. The people of Uganda have suffered, for over 14 years, both mental and physical oppressions and much death. The older democracies simply supported, praised and financed every oppressive scheme. It may be in their interests that the people of Uganda be oppressed but it can never be in the interests of the people of Uganda that they be oppressed in their own country.

Patterns of Oppression

55. On the 16th of last month, September, Museveni went to my birthplace and where my blood relatives live. The arrangement made and effected in advance by the dictatorship, was for my only remaining brother who is older to receive and welcome Museveni. It was a mental torture, not only of my brother but also of all my relatives and friends. It was so because it was Museveni's soldiers who murdered my father, a blind man of 89 years in 1987, by cutting off his vomer. Again in 1989, it was Museveni's soldiers who tormented and murdered my mother.
56. At my birthplace, Museveni pretended to be a friend of the family. He was, in fact, mocking them. Since 1986, Museveni and his personal army have been treating the people of Uganda, even those who support his dictatorship, as conquered people. The army behaves as a foreign army which has conquered the country and at most times as soldiers of fortune.
57. There was famine at my place of birth two years ago. Adults - men and women - from every household were summoned to assemble at the place where Museveni recently addressed his rally and they were to go there with whatever containers they had to receive food rations. It was armed soldiers who came to the assembly point in lorries and jeeps. The soldiers off-loaded beans and as each bag of beans was off-loaded, two other bags containing sand and soil were also off-loaded. The bag of beans was then mixed with sand and soil. After all the bags of beans had been off-loaded and mixed with sand and soil, the people were then ordered, at gun point, to go to the mound on their knees to "receive food ration".
58. Earlier, there was also severe famine in Teso in the East. The minister of Agriculture was asked at a public meeting about what was being done about the severe famines. The response was that the people of Teso should eat grass!
59. In a multiparty situation, the mental torture of mixing beans with sand and soil and forcing people on their knees to scoop the dirt as food rations or the callous official ministerial response that the people suffering from severe famine should eat grass, would have been very serious political and elections issues. Under the dictatorship, however, politics and elections are the preserves of the Party which is the political Wing of the ruling army and the ballot cannot remove the "government" established by that army.
60. A representative of the British Government has stated, in Kampala this year, that the British Government understands the circumstances under which the system of governance in Uganda since 1986 was established. This was mental torture of citizens who are members and particularly leaders of the political Parties.
61. The system was and has never been adopted by the people of Uganda. The system - dictatorship - was provided in a Proclamation issued on 26 January, 1986 by an insurgent army by the name of the National Resistance Army (NRA). The system was strengthened from time to time by schemes which Governments in Europe and in North America strongly supported, praised and financed and which amounted to the mental torture of members and leaders of the political Parties because democracies were colluding with and entrenching dictatorship.
62. The system itself, is most oppressive and repressive. Under it, the human rights and freedoms of the citizen appertaining to politics, elections and governance have been suppressed. Under the system there have been, from 1986 to date - over 14 years now, wars of genocide, massacres, devastations and despoliations. Governments in Europe and in North America have, during the same period of over 14 years, blamed rebels for the wars and their concomitants.
63. The real cause of the holocaustic wars, is the system of governance which Governments in Europe and in North America have and still heartlessly support, praise, heavily finance and want to entrench.
64. Under the system, corruption has been instituted as a means of governance and of recruiting support.
65. Under the system, marriages are being broken by luring women into the ruling Party and then make them to desert their husbands.
66. Under the system, the Uganda tax payer finances the looting and genocidal adventures of the ruling army in neighbouring countries.
67. Under the system, abject poverty is ravaging in rural Uganda. Social Services such as Schools, colleges and health facilities are all in a very poor state.
68. The Proclamation of the NRA which established the system, specifically stated that the reasons for the take-over of "the powers of the Government of the Republic of Uganda", had been "given ¡K to the National Resistance Movement." The Proclamation though issued by the NRA was not signed by the head of the NRA but by: "Chairman, National Resistance Movement." This is concrete evidence that the system provided and provides for military cum one-Party dictatorship, not least because the National Resistance Movement (NRM) now known as the Movement was and is still the political Party (Wing) of the NRA.
69. The Proclamation was amended in 1989. The amendment provided for joint governance of Uganda by the NRA and the NRM. It said: "The National Resistance Movement Government shall be an interim Government¡K" Before that amendment, no such Government actually existed. What existed, which was a dupery, was called Broadbased (Coalition) Government in which the leaders of the Democratic Party (DP) and the leader of the Conservative Party (CP) were Cabinet ministers.
70. In the 1995 Constitution, it is provided that the NRM Government was "to continue in office until a new government is elected in accordance with this Constitution." The provision was oppressive because it was a chicanery for the entrenchment of the military cum one-Party dictatorship established in 1986 and strengthened in 1989.
71. The first Presidential and parliamentary elections under the 1995 Constitution held in 1996, were charades because the political Parties were prohibited from contesting them.
72. After the charades of 1996, parliament enacted the Movement Act in 1997. Under the provisions of the Act, public institutions such as Parliament and Lower Councils and even departments of the Government have been made Organs of the Movement, the political Wing of the ruling army.
73. The very oppressive situation created by the system has been most tormenting for leaders of the political Parties. The UPC has, amongst other things, gone to Court four times to seek for judgements which could restore the enjoyment and exercise of the human rights and freedoms of the individual. The latest UPC Petition is still in Court and judgement is expected soon.
74. In the matter of the first UPC Petition, the verdict of the Court, delivered in January 1994, was that the suppressions of the human rights and freedoms of the citizen contained in the then Constituent Assembly Elections Statute were "TEMPORARY". It was the first time a Court of law had declared that the Constitutionally provided enjoyment and exercise by the citizen of his/her human rights and freedoms can be switched on and off at the whims of the authorities, in this case, the dictatorship.
75. The heart of the second UPC Petition was that the suppressions of the enjoyment and exercise by the citizen of his/her human rights and freedoms which the Court had declared as temporary were still in existence and had operated in the 1996 elections. The UPC asked for a declaration to the effect that because the human rights and freedoms of the citizen were suppressed by the Electoral law, the 1996 elections were therefore null and void. The Court avoided and side-stepped the issue and ruled that it had no power to remove a President from office.
76. The third UPC Petition attacked the Referendum And Other Provisions Act (ROPA) of 1999 that it was unconstitutional on thirteen grounds. The gist of the UPC Petition was that the determination of the nature and level of the enjoyment and exercise of the human rights and freedoms of the individual provided in the Constitution is personal and therefore that the determination must not be surrendered to be determined by the votes of strangers, the electorate, as provided in the Act. The Petition asked the Court to interpret the provisions of the Constitution vis-a-vis the provisions of the Act. The Court threw out the Petition on the ground that asking the Court to interpret the Constitution which is provided as its duty, was speculative.
77. The fourth Petition is still in Court and it would be improper to say much about it. Suffice to say that the Petition is on the ground that the Referendum (Political Systems) Act enacted in June 2000 and under which the referendum was purportedly held on 29 June, is unconstitutional. That is because the Constitution provides for such a law to have been enacted not later than 2 July, 1999.
78. Participants as this Conference should not, because the UPC has denounced the results of the referendum, take the referendum as a settled issue but should compile the unsavoury aspects of the referendum for continued campaign against the dictatorship in Europe, in North America and in all countries. I give the Conference some of those unsavoury aspects.
1. It is the first time that a dictatorship has imposed and the older democracies have also accepted that the inalienable human rights and freedoms of the individual can be determined or amended or suppressed by the votes of the electorate.
2. In 1997, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary in propounding the ethical Foreign Policy of the British Government made human rights a central policy matter. He said: "If every country is a member of the international community, then it is reasonable to require every government to abide by the rules of membership. They are set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." On implementation, the British Government exempted the Uganda dictatorship from the policy. However, on the insistence of the UPC that the policy be made applicable to Uganda, the British Government has now formally and officially abandoned the policy.
3. In August 1998, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary wrote to the UPC President and said that it was the position of the British Government that the prohibitions (he called them restrictions) imposed on the political Parties be lifted a year ahead of the referendum. However, throughout 1999 and 2000 upto the purported referendum in June, agents of the British Government actively campaigned in vain for the UPC and the other political Parties to "participate", that is lend their names in support of the suppression of the human rights of the citizen and therefore for the entrenchment of the dictatorship. At one time, the British High Commissioner at a meeting with leaders of the UPC and having realised that his remiss to catch the big fish, the UPC, was impossible, described the UPC President as a worst mass killer than Idi Amin.
4. In 1999, the Donor 2000 Referendum Group was formed with the British High Commissioner as its first Chairman. The Group publicised benchmarks which were to enable them to accept or not accept the outcome of the referendum. The Group also financed some aspects of the referendum. They had so much trust in the dictatorship that they were sure that the outcome would be flawless.
5. After the purported referendum, the Group said, in a public Statement that the referendum was flawed but did not state that it was therefore null and void. Instead, the Public Statement perfidiously said that each Government was from there onwards to assess its policy to Uganda. It was a ruse because each Government in the Group has already accepted the outcome of the flawed referendum.
6. After the purported referendum, the British Government for one, after conveniently forgetting their 1998 position that restrictions on the political Parties be lifted a year ahead of the referendum and which were not lifted, are now blaming the UPC and other Parties for having not taken "an active part in the (referendum) campaign to ensure that (their point of view) was understood ... this represented a missed opportunity for a full debate on a key issue for the future of Uganda."
7. Thus the Parties, including the UPC, are being blamed for the failure of the British Government to get the dictatorship to lift the restrictions on the Parties so as to provide for a full debate between the dictatorship the parties "on a key issue for the future of Uganda." The UPC does not accept any blame. It is the British Government and the other Governments in the European Union and in North America who bear the blame for having supported, praised and financed a referendum to suppress the human rights of the citizen so as to entrench the dictatorship.
8. To the UPC, it was most glorious that the referendum was flawed.
79. There is one most important matter in the Statement issued by the Donor 2000 Referendum Group. It is that in the Group's views, "the Referendum campaign as a whole was not conducted on a level playing field as defined by the key indicators drawn up by the Group, and that even if it was not clear whether these shortcomings were on a scale significantly to influence the result of the Referendum the government (that is the dictatorship) NEED TO ADDRESS THE SHORTCOMINGS THAT HAD PRODUCED A FLAWED PROCESS." I have added the emphasis.
80. I ask the Conference to consider the meaning of the words I have emphasised. The Group is clearly passing the buck to the dictatorship to correct what made the Referendum to have been flawed. The one and the only fact which made the purported Referendum to have been flawed, was the position of the dictatorship strongly supported by the Donor Referendum Group that politics and elections including referenda be the preserves of one Party, the Party of the dictatorship.
81. The monopoly of politics and elections and therefore governance was imposed by the dictatorship and then strongly supported, praised, financed and strengthened by the Donor 2000 Referendum Group. The monopoly caused the referendum to be flawed. The monopoly always caused previous elections which the donor Group accepted as valid to have been conducted not on a level playing field and therefore caused all those elections to have been flawed. To correct the situation, the donor Group also need to do three things namely: -
1. Declare the Referendum to have been invalid.
2. Declare in advance not to finance and not to accept the results of next year's Presidential and Parliamentary elections if they are to be or are held when the monopoly is still in force.
3. Seriously consider imposing sanctions against the Uganda dictatorship. The donor Group imposed sanctions on Yugoslavia which was and still is a multiparty State but is averse to do the same to Uganda which is a dictatorship and has been fighting wars in and out of Uganda for over 14 years.
82. Under the Uganda dictatorship normality has ceased to exist.
1. The human rights and freedom of the citizen are suppressed causing oppression and much mental torture which are described as a system of governance which Governments in Europe and in North America have supported, praised and heavily financed.
2. Wars of genocide, massacres, devastations and despoliations have also been a system of governance. When the ruling army was plundering homes and rustling cattle in the East and North and thereby instigating rebellion, an officer of the ruling army publicly stated that the people then beingtormented were "biological substances fit only for extermination " Museveni was to confirm the truth of that Statement in June 1989 when he said that the dictatorship had adopted and implemented the policy to destroy the entire foodstuff in areas then inhabited by some six million people. At the end of the military operations, Museveni reported that every item of food had been destroyed. Also destroyed were homes, schools, health clinics. Co-operative Stores, water wells. He also reported that of the inhabitants, only 2.7 million were alive and being guarded by soldiers in makeshift camps. At the height of these military operations, a British minister was shown on Uganda television observing together with Museveni artillery and mortar bombardments of a village in Eastern Uganda. The loss of lives, the mental and physical suffering of millions of people caused by this system of governance can be stopped by the Governments in Europe and North America by withholding their aid to the dictatorship or else Uganda is bound to suffer a most horrendous rebellion.
3. In all its wars in and out of Uganda, the ruling army has never taken any adversary alive or wounded as prisoners of war. When it was announced that some tourists had been abducted from a National Park, the ruling army was said to have followed the abductors and killed all of them. It is believed in Uganda that the phenomenon particularly as the ruling army never loses a battle and its men never get killed, is staged massacres or incidents. The Kanungu cult killings fall into this phenomenon. How could so many people who, in a multiparty situation could not have died, did die when Internal Security personnel were in Kanungu?
4. Corruption is also a system of governance in Uganda under the dictatorship. After three years of muted comments by the opposition, Museveni publicly announced policy on corruption in 1989. He said that there were ministers and officials who wanted to be rich and to punish such persons would create problems because he needed them to work on peace and economic development. The UPC has formed the government of Uganda twice, and the head of those governments and his ministers have also been twice investigated for corruption. In 1971, the investigations were conducted by the British Scotland Yard officers. In 1986, the investigations were conducted by Committees appointed byMuseveni. Both investigations produced no evidence of corruption in the UPC governments of the 1960s and of early 1980s. Under the dictatorship, corruption starts at the very top. In 1987, for instance, the dictatorship carried out currency conversion. Thirty percent of the money then in circulation was levied as Development Tax. Although this huge sum of money was collected, it has never appeared in any Budget; it was pocketed by one man, the President. There are more cases of corruption by President Museveni. It is most tormenting for the people to have as President a very corrupt person who cannot be removed by the ballot because the system of elections and of governance does not give the ballot that power.
5. In developing countries, the emancipation of women has become a most welcome issue. In Uganda, because participation in politics can only be under the aegis of one Party which also has no structures such as Branches and does not hold its Conferences to debate policy, the women are losing out in the struggle for their emancipation. For awoman to succeed in politics and under the aegis of the political Party of the dictatorship, she must be well-known to or be a friend of either the high commanders of the ruling army or high officials of the political Party. This situation has created and is cementing a phenomenon where successful women tend to abandon their husbands even when both support the dictatorship. This system of governance is most tormenting to the husbands, the children and to families besides also being immoral.
83. The people of Uganda, constitute an integral part of the human race. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted for the entire human race but its provisions do not apply to Uganda. The provisions do not apply because the dictatorship has so ordained it and Governments in Europe and in North America have supported, praised and heavily financed what the dictatorship has ordained.
84. To Governments in Europe and in North America, the UPC has said and shall continue to say most loudly that IT IS IMMORAL FOR DEMOCRACIES TO SUPPORT, PRAISE AND FINANCE DICTATORSHIP.

Economy

85. The position of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) on the Uganda economy is one of three fundamentals upon which the Party was formed. They are: -
1. To struggle for the Independence of Uganda and when achieved to defend that Independence.
2. To build Uganda as one country where from Independence Day onwards every citizen except with his or her own consent, shall not be hindered in the enjoyment and exercise of his/her human rights and freedoms.
3. To fight relentlessly against Poverty, Ignorance and Disease.

The three fundamental are in the UPC Constitution and are therefore the fundamental Missions of the Party.

86. To the UPC, Uganda under the military cum one-Party dictatorship has no economic policy. In the view of the UPC, it is not possible to have an economic policy in whose implementation the people must be involved when the human rights and freedoms of the people are suppressed and institution such as Parliament and Lower Councils are made organs of the only one Party. Without the Voice of the people freely expressed, it is not possible to adopt and implement an economic policy and the dictatorship therefore has had no economic policy for the past over 14 years.
87. The dictatorship took over the country in 1986 without any economic policy. Compare and contrast that with the UPC government which came to office after the 1962 or 1980 elections. In both cases the UPC had economic policies which were published in the elections Manifestos of 1962 and 1980. After the 1962 elections, the UPC government published the first Five Years development Programme. Also after the 1980 elections, the UPC government published in 1981 the Recovery Programme which was revised in 1982. In the 1980 elections, Museveni's party did not publish a Manifesto and therefore had no economic policy known to the people of Uganda.
88. The first UPC government which came to office on 1st May 1962, vigorously, with the popular support of the people, implemented the Party's economic programmes. Economic activities and standard of living grew year after year. Trunk roads such as from Kampala to Gulu and to Lira and from Mbarara to Kabale were tarmacked. Many feeder roads were graded. Rail was extended from Soroti through Lira and Gulu to Pakwach where a concrete bridge was built. Ranches were established in Buganda, in Luwero and Masaka Districts and in Mbarara District in the West. There was a special pilot scheme where households were given soft loans to acquire two cows to produce milk for consumption and sale. The scheme became very successful in Buganda. The government provided and paid for the training of officials of the Co-operative Societies and Unions. The government constructed, equipped and staffed District Farm Schools in every District where farmers went for different courses.
89. In the social sector the government provided (without charge) boreholes in many places in every District and pipes at water wells. Dams were constructed in many Districts mainly to provide water for cattle but also to enable those with cattle not to go long distances to rivers is search of water for their cattle.
90. Home hygiene was strongly encouraged with annual prizes for the best village in an area. There was a programme to build a health clinic in every sub-county. Twenty-two rural Hospitals were built, equipped and staffed. Mulago Hospital was expanded in terms of hospital facilities, teaching facilities and student population. Hospitals built before Independence were expanded, equipped and staffed.
91. On education, the UPC government expanded facilities at Makerere University where new Halls of residence were built. A Development Programme for future Lecturers was instituted. The Library and the Laboratories were adequately funded annually and staff also paid adequate salaries. The student welfare was paramount and well catered for.
92. All colleges were expanded and new ones were built. Every college was well equipped and well staffed.
93. Every Junior or Senior School built before Independence, was expanded and a class of 30 students became 2 or 3 streams with 60 or 90 students. New dormitories were built as well as Libraries and Laboratories.
94. Depending on the availability of teachers, Primary Schools became a feature of every village during the years of the first UPC government.
90. The UPC was the only Party which published a Manifesto for the 1980 elections. The Uganda economy under Dictator Idi Amin had collapsed. After the elections in December 1980, the UPC produced in 1981 in a publication its elections promises on the economy. The publication was revised in 1982 and it attracted much support from the international community. The UPC government, with much popular support from the people, vigorously implemented the programmes and the projects in the Revised Recovery Programme.
91. The Budget Speech of July, 1985 reported a surplus since 1970 of $30 million US dollars and projected GDP for the 1985/86 to be at 5 per cent. The performance of the economy from 1981 to mid-1985 was praised year after year by the IMF and the World Bank. A military coup removed the UPC government at the end of July 1985.
92. After the coup, Uganda was under a gormless military Junta who spent 4 1/2 (four and half months) in a futile negotiation with Museveni for what was called a government of national unity. Museveni needed those months in order to raise a new army as the base of his dictatorship. He overthrew the Junta on 25 January 1986 but that being the anniversary of Amin's coup in 1971, the late Cardinal Nsubuga persuaded Museveni to postpone the announcement to the next day.
93. Museveni had viciously condemned the Revised Recovery Programme. On becoming President he pretended to be a Marxist who believes in command economy and in one-Party dictatorship. It was a pretence to get the Governments in Europe and North America to accept the military cum one-Party dictatorship in exchange for an economic policy acceptable to those Governments. It was a pretence because throughout 1986, 1987 and part of 1988 when he was negotiating with those Governments through a Minister in the British Government, his chief economic adviser was the late Tiny Rowland them Managing Director of Lonrho.
94. The Governments in Europe and in North America have, since late 1988, been praising Museveni for a very good economic policy and programmes. The praises should, in fact, be addressed to the UPC. In 1988, though under a new title, Museveni republished the Revised Recovery Programme in its entirety. The Governments in Europe and in North America have therefore been praising a thief and a plagiarist.
95. Since the Revised Recovery Programme was first published in 1982 and republished in 1988, no other document of a similar kind has been published. Although removed from politics and elections, a representative of one European Government has asked the UPC to publish a Manifesto. The UPC does not need to be urged to publish a Manifesto. Immediately members of the UPC regain the enjoyment and exercise of their human rights and freedoms, the Party's organs shall be elected and the Supreme Organ of the UPC shall publish a Manifesto. To publish a Manifesto now, would be to give ideas for the dictatorship to use.
96. When Museveni stole the economic policy and programmes of the UPC in 1988, implementations of the same have become a matter of propaganda. Whereas, for instance, there has been much publicity and much praises that the Uganda economy has been performing very well, the reality on the ground is that of abject poverty in rural Uganda and that it is deepening. Governments in Europe and in North America have, in fact, been praising the impoverishment of the people of Uganda. The impoverishment of the people is also now a system of governance.
97. In the social sector, established schools and Hospitals are all in dilapidated states. Fees in schools have been raised beyond the ability of the peasant farmer to pay and there are no drugs in Hospitals. The rich who can afford the School fees also have private tutors for their children and can also afford to buy medicine from private pharmacies. Denials of good education and good health facilities have also become part of the system of governance.
98. After destroying, through wars and unconcern, the base of the economy, the dictatorship has now produced a scheme to destroy quality education in Uganda. The scheme is being heavily financed by the British Government. Under the pretext of free primary education, the scheme herds 300 or more children under a tree and under a teacher who is poorly and rarely paid and who has no scholastic materials. Much of the funds for this scheme have been known to have gone to private Bank Accounts. Under this scheme, Museveni is destroying quality education so that the next generation shall be composed of massively ignorant people who will be easy for him or successor from his family to rule.
99. There is no economic development in Uganda precisely because the people, like the political Parties, are not wanted to have any voice and have been shut out from the management of the economy.
100. The mission of the UPC is to relentlessly fight against Poverty, Ignorance and Disease. The Party is now in chains. One day, the Party shall break the chains and resume its fight.

Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC)

101. The Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) is the only Party in Uganda which has formed the government of Uganda twice since Independence in 1962.
102. The first UPC government supervised various major economic development projects and provided and expanded social services such as education, health, drinking water and transportation. The projects were largely funded from the tax payers' money.
103. The second UPC government, raised Uganda's economy from the doldrums to which it had fallen to an upswing course from 1981 to July 1985.
104. A military coup financed by the then Managing Director of Lonrho, Tiny Rowland, overthrew the second UPC government in July, 1985.
105. The military Junta itself was overthrown in January, 1986 by the present military cum one-Party dictatorship.
106. The military cum one-Party dictatorship put the UPC in chains and made all its organs dysfunctional as from mid-March 1986.
107. It was imperative for the UPC to circumvent death by inaction which the dictatorship had imposed. The UPC did so through Article 4(10) of its Constitution. The provision of Article 4(10) is: -
108. "4(10).To do such other things that are necessary for the achievement of the Aims, Objectives and Aspirations of the Party."
108. Under Article 4(10) the UPC has established the Presidential Policy Commission (PPC) as the Executive organ of the Party and the Party Representative Council (PRC) as the Policy making organ of the Party.
109. Over the years the PPC, on behalf and in the name of the UPC has articulated and made it abundantly clear that the UPC shall wage a political struggle against the dictatorship from outside the organs of the dictatorship. To be in the organs of the dictatorship should not, must not and cannot be equated with the pre-Independence situation where it was possible for one to be in the Legislative Council (Legico) and still be able to campaign for Independence and where there was no law to the effect that every elections would not remove the Colonial government. Under the dictatorship, every elections is for the entrenchment of the one-Party cum military dictatorship.
110. For the UPC to be able to mount a sustainable campaign against the dictatorship in the face of the mid-March 1986 diktat the provisions of which were codified in Article 269 of the 1995 Constitution, the Party President proposed and it was agreed after consultations to invoke the provision of Article 4(10) of the Party Constitution for the Party President to establish the PPC. Again on the proposal of the Party president, the Lusaka Consultative Conference articulated what is now the PRC and requested the Party President to establish the PRC under Article 4(10) of the Party Constitution. Both the PPC and the PRC are improvisation organs which have been established to circumvent the provisions of Article 269 of the NRM Constitution and their antecedents. The External Bureaux are also improvisation organs of the Party established by Party members abroad in consultation with the Party President and they report to the Party President who also co-ordinates their campaigns and activities.
111. The situation where the force majeure imposed by the NRA/NRM dictatorship has prohibited the Party from electing its leaders and electing members of its Executives, Council and Conferences at all levels and frozen all those elected prior to the imposition of the force majeure in mid-March 1986 in their respective positions when the NRM/Movement has been and is recruiting or conscripting the very persons frozen in their respective positions, made a clear policy for the implementation of Article 4(10) of the Party Constitution imperative. That policy has been defined.
112. The core of the policy for the implementation of Article 4(10) is that what the Supreme Organ of the Party namely, the Annual Delegates Conference (ADC), has put in place which are the Party Constitution and the PP, remain the rallying point for the campaigns of Party members against the dictatorship. Consequently, no one who wants the Party Constitution to be amended outside the authority of the ADC and no one who does not accept the leadership of the PP can be a member of either the PPC or the PRC or in the Executive of a Bureau.
113. Some other policy positions have also been defined for members of the PPC and PRC to implement. These include the following: -
1. The UPC is not to contest Movement elections because it is debarred by Article 269 of the Republic Constitution and because it is a trap to conscription into the ranks of the Movement and any member of the Party who should contest such elections whether elected or not shall be giving credence to the elections to which the Party is debarred and shall therefore be regarded as an apostate.
2. In the alternative, the UPC shall not have any representative in Parliament or any lower council during the existence of the dictatorship.
3. The UPC shall not participate in any referendum to be purportedly held for the people to choose and adopt a system of governance because a multiparty, competitive and non-discriminatory system of governance which is accessible to all political Parties including the Movement and also accessible to every citizen is already in the Constitution and because any such referendum is a design to subject the nature and level of the enjoyment and exercise by the citizen of his/her God given human rights and freedoms to be determined by the votes of strangers which therefore makes the design and the referendum a profanity and an evil.
4. The UPC shall not be directly or indirectly associated with any "rebel" army raised against the dictatorship and any member or members of the Party who is or are in the leadership of any such army shall not be in the PPC or PRC or in the Executive of any Bureau.
114. It is precisely because the UPC and the other Parties are not militarists and do not have military Wings, that their members will one day rise up in arms to restore the freedom of their Parties to exist and to compete in peace.
115. I ask you participants in the Conference and members of the UPC World-wide never to lose hope. Take courage from the well-tested and valid empirical lesson in freedom struggle. Oppose, and oppose and oppose incessantly the oppressor without joining the oppressor or giving credence and credibility to the oppressor. That is how the founders of your Party managed to get your country to be an Independent State.
116. The military cum one Party dictatorship shall fall. The only question is when.
117. The struggle of the UPC is just. The people of Uganda have a cause to assert that fact of their humanity and shall do it.
118. Though the future is dark, remember that in Uganda, the night is darkest when dawn is about to come.

I wish you a successful Conference.
I send you this Message in the spirit of the Uganda Motto: For God and My Country

A. Milton Obote

President

Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC)

Lusaka, Zambia.
7 October, 2000.