Opposition leader urges donors to tie aid to political reforms

//CORRECTED// Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye on Friday appealed to Western and donor countries to increase pressure on the government of President Yoweri Museveni by insisting on political reform as a precondition for further aid. "The donors should insist that the money they are paying is tied to political reforms," Besigye told a news conference in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. Western donors, he added, contributed more that 50 percent of the Ugandan budget. Besigye, who was on a one-day tour of the Netherlands, met about 500 Ugandans living there. His visit also included stops in Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Ellen Steen, adviser for the Bureau Beleidsvorming Ontwikkelingsamenwerking (BBO), the secretariat of the Dutch Uganda Platform, told IRIN on Friday: "We are currently proposing to the Dutch government that it takes into account the widening of the political space while granting financial aid." The Dutch Uganda Platform consists of the NGOs Kerkinactie, Hivos, Novib, ICCO, Pax Christi, Cordaid and SNV, she added. Steen said that in view of the current move to amend the 1995 constitution, which limits the number of presidential terms to two, the Dutch government was likely to revise its annual aid to Uganda, which is currently about US $25 million. Besigye has lived in exile in South Africa since August 2001. He fled Uganda after he had challenged Museveni in the March 2001 election, which Museveni won with 69.3 percent of the votes cast. Once a close aide to Museveni, Besigye openly criticised the Ugandan no-party system in 2000, describing is as a "corrupt and dictatorial" one. Since 2004, he has been de-facto head of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), which is part of the opposition alliance known as the Group of Six (G6). "Our focus is not on the preparation of the March 2006 presidential election but on changing the environment for a free and fair election," Besigye said, adding that the political environment would determine the position of his party regarding the election. "If we achieved considerable reforms within this period, then our party would definitely sit and decide on who the flag-bearer would be," he added. "It could be me or somebody else," he said, noting that the G6 would consider the possibility of backing one presidential candidate. Alluding to the constitutional-amendment process currently underway that could allow eliminate presidential term limits, Besigye told IRIN: "He [Museveni] is pushing people to be desperate, as they see no hope for peaceful change. I am sure it is going to encourage a resurgence of violence and conflict. "All our past leaders have been removed from office by force," he added. "So, we have a history of the use of force and none by the use of democratic means." Besigye denied allegations that he was behind the Redemption Army rebel organisation and condemned the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel movement in northern Uganda, calling it "a very atrocious force". Museveni took power in 1986 and banned political parties in Uganda. As leader of the National Resistance Movement, he has been credited with reversing the economic decline and fighting HIV/AIDS in Uganda. However, an ongoing campaign to open up space for political party activity and amend the constitution is seen by his opponents as a move to enable him stay longer in office.