Official rejects ICG report on northern crisis

Uganda has strongly denied allegations in a report by an international think-tank that the war in the northern region is being manipulated to bolster military capabilities to prop up President Yoweri Museveni's regime. The 41-page report, published by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) on 14 April, accused the president of using the war to maintain close personal links between himself, the government and the army, and of giving top government jobs to officers loyal to himself in order to "protect [his] own power base". A Ugandan official expressed fury over the report. "Rubbish is too good a word for this report. I have no vocabulary to describe it," the defence ministry spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN on Wednesday. He went on to describe the report as an "insult" to the president and the army. "These ones [ICG] are dealing in rumours," he said. "We have soldiers losing their lives, people dying and living in IDP [internally displaced persons] camps. Which kind of president deliberately allows this to happen? This is just wrong." According to the ICG, the conflict "provides a crisis environment that enables the government to justify measures that would be unacceptable in different circumstances, such as the continued presence of many former and current army personnel within its ranks". It added that "this close nexus between political and military considerations impedes sound policy". Saying that the government's aim to "combat terrorism" in the form of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group could be used to justify draconian actions by the security services, the report accused the government of "defining terrorism broadly" as "a potent tool to stifle criticism and intimidate opponents". The government, it added, was making dubious links between the LRA and political opponents in order to justify threatening would-be opposition parties. The report also touches on military spending. "The war in the north makes it easy to reject calls to reduce defence spending. Museveni frequently criticises donor requirements to hold defence expenditure at the current [Uganda] shs 300 billion (US $166 million) or 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product," it said. "In 2003, a 23-percent cut had to be made in the non-budgetary items of most ministries in order to cover increased defence spending," it added. The ICG said the president's frequent visits to the north to oversee military operations were " a sign [that] there are problems Museveni feels he must address personally, showing a lack of confidence in his commanders. It also indicates unwillingness to acknowledge the distinctions between strategic and tactical levels of command." Bantariza dismissed criticism of Museveni's involvement in military operations in the north. "Have any of these ICG [researchers] been a commander-in-chief of an army anywhere in the world?" he asked. "Museveni has been for 18 years, so he might know more than them."