From Uganda Corespondent Arinaitwe Rugyendo…

Late last week, I held a brief phone chat with Col. Felix Kulayige, the Spokesman of the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces (UPDF) over reports that our forces have deployed along the Congo and Sudan borders with Uganda.

This followed the confusion occasioned by the denials from the government of Uganda that nothing of the sort was happening at the border.  But Col. Kulayige said that what is happening is not ‘deployment’ but ‘monitoring’ of the border by our forces just in case something from across affected our own security.

Constitutionally of course, the UPDF is certainly doing its noble duty of protecting our borders. But what is that ‘something’ from across the border that the army is wary of? On Sunday, January 9, 2011, the African continent will witness a historic moment. A new nation, called South Sudan, is likely to be born as Sudanese head for the polls in a plebiscite to decide whether their country should remain united or break up into two nations as per the terms of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) of 2005.  But what is making everyone uncomfortable, including regional countries, is not the near fact that the country will split. It is rather the consequences of this split. Will the north accept the south to secede? If the South secedes, what will be the implications for regional countries such as Uganda?

Regional intelligence reports say, there are 70% chances of a likelihood of war or similar stalemate breaking out in Sudan between the North and South after the referendum which might affect the regional countries as well. This is the very reason why the Ugandan army has sought it wise to ‘monitor’ its border. But what are the facts to back this up?

In November last year, William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary told the United Nations Security Council members that it was necessary for the UN to concern itself with the referendum in Sudan  because it will seal the fate of southern Sudan with huge implications for the rest of Africa, and there are dangerous signs that the peace process is unraveling. Around the same period, several incidents involving planes from the North of the country attacking SPLA positions in the South were extensively reported. The incidents took place in the disputed border region of Abyei, where most of the country’s oil revenues are generated from. The North fears for a huge revenue loss if the region falls to the South. Thus, the chances that the two bombings have since shown that lines were being drawn in the sand by two great armies of the North and the South are high.

In the potentially explosive North-South Sudan referendum, the issue of the common border at Abyei, pitting the National Congress Party of President Bashir against First Vice President Salva Kir’s Sudanese Liberation Movement, is one to be watched closely. It is not lost to the South Sudan that the North has been gerrymandering the borders since 78% of the Sudan’s Oil is in Southern Sudan, yet all oil must be exported through the Northern Pipelines up to Port Sudan. Even though there has been a silent arms race between the two regions, this means that since the referendum is going ahead without resolving the issue of Abyei, then as both armies draw the line on this oil-rich region, regional countries will be sucked in as well.

This brings me to one concluding question! Should Uganda be concerned then? Yes. The North (Khartoum) used Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels to fight SPLA in return for arms to Kony to fight Uganda. Kony’s forces have been sighted in Darfur fighting along the Janjaweed against the Fur people. So, if the North decides to get beefy with the South, the return of Kony to Northern Uganda is not impossible. If Sudan goes to war, surely Kony as a must will return.

According to John Andruga, the spokesman of the Southern Sudan government, the Sunday referendum is a matter of life and death. The African Union and United Nations are supposed to be the guarantors of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement but Southern Sudan feels that the AU peace and security team do not have the teeth to compel the implementation of this CPA and in fact, on the agitation of Northern Sudan, there was talk in AU circles to push forward the referendum, but South Sudan was ready to fight for it with a ferocity of a wounded lion.

The South knows that if the vote went for the unity of Sudan, the Southern Sudanese will remain second class citizens, yet according to the Northern Sudanese pundits, the breakaway of Sothern Sudan to form its independent state will cause a perestroika-like copycat secessionist movements and separatism in all parts of Sudan. Yet again, if the referendum were to be pushed ahead, that would mean the CPA has collapsed and with the collapse of CPA, nothing binds the North and South and the only outcome will be War.

A war between the North and South means that Arab countries like Egypt will support Arab Sudan to safeguard the waters of River Nile, since most of the Nile River tributaries are in the South. Northern Sudan will revive their war hit-men like Kony and Uganda will be behind Southern Sudan to fight off Kony. The situation might be saved only if the leaders of the AU member states put aside their ‘Vuvuzela’ rhetoric and concentrate on the Sudan issue, or else risk an African Armageddon.

Bangladesh is a country that many know little about. Knee-jerk thoughts may include images of poverty and pollution and little else, but as always there is so much more. Every country has its story of pride and beginnings, every nation its forefathers and pioneers that helped forge an independent state for its citizens. More often than not, with independence comes heroic leadership and the blood of sacrifice – the proud nation of Bangladesh is no different. RELATIVITY OnLine’s newest contributor, Bangladeshi born Rezwan, comes to us from Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta and this month takes us inside the origins of his beloved country. In doing so, he reminds us all there is always more than meets the eye and that the multiplicity of perspective, if we let it, will take us to places we’ve never been before.

On December 16^th, 1971 out of the crucible of blood and sacrifice, Bangladesh was born. This day is celebrated with glory and joy supplementary to the Independence Day, which is the 26th March. Actually Independence Day marks the declaration of our Independence and start of a bloody and glorious War of Liberation against the occupied forces of Pakistan. The govt. of Independent Bangladesh was formed in April 1971. On Victory Day, nine month later the Pakistani forces surrendered to the allied forces of Bangladesh and India. The people of Bangladesh chose to be their own masters rather then the remaining slaves, and achieved liberty. Bangladesh emerged as a sovereign independent country, like it never was before in the more than 3000 years of recorded history of the Bengali speaking people truly, completely independent at last. They were inspired by nationalism and patriotic spirit, which can be represented by one question of a Bengali poet “Who wants to live without freedom?”

We must recall the heroic deeds of the founder, father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangabandhu), Ziaur Rahman, the freedom fighters, the freedom loving general people of the country (of all race and religion), Ms. Indira Gandhi, and the people of our neighbor India for their support. Our prayers are for those numerous lives lost in this war and their families who endured the pogrom like genocide (almost 3 million casualties including 3000 Indian Soldiers), devastation and rape by the Pakistani Army and their collaborators.

I would like to recall the contribution of people all over the world who lend a hand in help of the numerous refugees who were living in appalling conditions in the camps in India.

The values of the liberation war were secularism, democracy, liberal outlook and modernism and no religious bias. But after the independence government of every hues have been in power and failed to uphold the values of the liberation war. They also reinstated the anti-liberation parties like Jamaat-e-Islami and others who were indicted as collaborators of Pakistan forces. The biggest mistake of the peace-loving nation was to forgive those traitors, who now threaten to put a knife on our back. This is why we always go back to 1971 to remember our heroic deeds so that we can fight for keeping ourselves in the path laid by the values.

*Rezwan is the regional editor for Global Voices Online South Asia region.

A country’s independence day is always a time for celebration and reflection. In 1962 Uganda became and independent nation, free from British colonization. The theme for Uganda’s birthday celebration this year was unity. RELATIVTY OnLine’s Ugandan correspondent Arinaitwe Rugyendo takes inside the reason’s why unity is badly needed in the country known as the Pearl of Africa and reveals that despite the tremendous gains made, a country ravaged and left for dead by extension still has a long way to go. Straight and to the point, Rugyendo once again takes inside the heart of his country.

On 9^th October, 1962, Uganda was officially declared an independent state form Britain and an irreversible course of self-determination was set into motion.

This means that the country, just like the rest of Africa that was going independent, would determine its destiny economically, socially and politically.

Politically, Uganda has had the largest collection of presidents in Africa, with no meaningful democratic elections until 1996, when the first ever and truly democratic elections were held in the country ushering in a president who earlier ruled unconstitutionally for ten years. President Yoweri Museveni has since been winning successive elections, putting his total years he has been in power at 23 years!

But before Museveni presented himself before an electorate in 1996, the previous 20 years had had 8 presidents six of whom either grabbed power militarily or were helped to the throne by the invisible hand of the former colonial masters. One of the presidents, Prof. Yusuf Lule, actually ruled only for 68 days before being deposed by the military.

The other one, President Idi Amin, largely known to the rest of the world as the mass murderer who butchered his own people to retain power, had to be driven out forcefully by a combined force of Ugandan exiles and the Tanzanian army in 1979. He died in his comfortable flat in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where the Saudi King had offered him protection and security.

For decades, Uganda’s economy suffered from devastating economic policies and instability, leaving Uganda as one of the world’s poorest countries. Yet at the time of independence, Uganda had the same Gross Domestic Product as that of South Korea or even surpassed it. Today, the two countries are miles apart.

It is only at 47 years that the country has commenced economic reforms and growth has been robust. In 2008, Uganda recorded 7% growth despite the global downturn and regional instability.

Uganda has substantial natural resources, including fertile soils, regular rainfall, and sizable mineral deposits of copper and cobalt. The country has largely untapped reserves of both crude oil and natural gas.

Agriculture is the most important sector of the economy, employing over 80% of the work force, with coffee accounting for the bulk of export revenues. In the 1950s the British Colonial regime encouraged some 500,000 subsistence farmers to join co-operatives.

Since 1986, the government (with the support of foreign countries and international agencies) has acted to rehabilitate an economy devastated during the regime of Idi Amin and the subsequent civil war.

Inflation ran at 240% in 1987 and 42% in June 1992, and was 5.1% in 2003. It is now project at about 14%.

Between 1990 and 2001, the economy grew because of continued investment in the rehabilitation of infrastructure, improved incentives for production and exports, reduced inflation, gradually improved domestic security, and the return of exiled Indian-Ugandan entrepreneurs between 1990 and 2001.

So, this month, 9^th October, it will be that day once again on Uganda’s political calendar when the country will be celebrating 47 years of self-rule.

At this age, people have achieved so much and are beginning to settle down. The problem with Uganda is that as it settles down, some of the ills, such as underlying ethnic tensions continue to bedevil the country’s attempt to fully unify and achieve big-time development.

By 1986, Uganda had only 30 districts. 23 years later, these have multiplied to over 80 and we are still counting. And as long as any ethnic grouping, however small, asks for a district status in exchange for votes for the incumbent president, it will get one. This has of course exerted more pressure on the government as small district units become administratively difficult to run and maintain by the central government whose budget is partly funded by western donors.

On September 11, these tensions raised to the surface as security forces battled young rioters on the streets of Kampala City over the government’s move to block the king of one of the dominant ancient kingdoms that made up a republic called Uganda at independence from visiting a township in his area of ‘jurisdiction.’

Over 20 people were killed during the riots that rocked the city and its suburbs. Soon thereafter, about 1000 rioters were arrested for torching shops, private cars, burning up police stations and vandalizing business infrastructure. They have all since been charged with terrorism.

The Buganda Kingdom has been ethnically clamoring for ‘independence’ from Uganda in a move many Ugandans say is an attempt to disintegrate Uganda on ethnic grounds and one which is seriously retarding the country’s progress towards unity and federation with the rest of Africa.

Such moves are seen not only to appear to be internally generated, but also engineered by foreign countries who do not want to see Africa progress from unified position.

That is the characteristic that cuts across many countries of Africa- the lack of real independence. Because they are poor, they still have to depend on their former masters for handouts. Not even trends like digitization, liberalization, globalization and technological concentration have helped redress this situation.

The West still dictates to our military. The British and U.S embassies in Kampala-Uganda plus the residences of their respective ambassadors are heavily fortified and the link roads thereto completely blocked from public usage except themselves, their staff and their dogs.

No wonder during the celebrations to mark 47 years, all speeches will be delivered in English, half our budget will still be funded by foreigners and from mobile phones, to cars, to clothes to the fanfare and the military parade, everything of our lives will still reflect total foreign dominance!

The future of Africa-though promising… is still distantly bleak!