Registration: 270€ (£227, $297) The registration only becomes final once the full payment is received
NO CASH PAYMENTS AT THE DOOR ALLOWED
Thu 30 June
Arrival day
19.00 “Freedom of Expression” night at Pakhuis de Zwijger.
Ugandan writers & artists will go into discussion with Ugandans & Dutch about the importance of this Freedom.
Hosts: Erik van der Zande & Nico Schoonderwoerd
Featuring: Kakwenza Rukirabashaija Nubian Li Johnson Ssentamu Mathias Mpuuga
Fri, 1 July
Demonstration day
8.00 Departure from Amsterdam
9.30 The Hague (International Court of Justice) 11.00 NIMD (organisers IPOD)
14.00 Brussels (European Union)
Bus Transport: 50€ ( £42, $54) if you’re not going by car
19.00 Coordinators meeting at Grand Hotel
Sat, 2 July
Discussion day
Rhone Events, Rhoneweg 12, Amsterdam 9.00 Key notes: His Excellency Robert Kyagulanyi, Kakwenza Rukirabashija
Speakers:
Dr. Lina Zedriga, Robert Amsterdam, David Lewis Rubongoya, Nubian Li, Alex Waiswa, Honourable Mathias Mpuuga, Honourable Muwada Nkunyingi, and many more
The registration only becomes final once the full payment is received.
Participants that require a visa will be sent a visa recommendation after full payment has been received. There’s a refund policy of 50% in case the visa is denied, to be paid back after the conference.
Fine print:
Prices in pounds and dollars are indicative, your payment company may charge differently.
All indicated times are indicative and subject to change
Attendance of speakers dependent on Covid situation, visa issuance, & other circumstances.
Organisational Committee
Chair: Susan Nabuti
Finance: Nico Schoonderwoerd
Active Members: Evelyn Nakibuuka (Minnesota), David Steel (UK), Nature Muyanja, Erik van der Zanden, Kenneth Mujuni (Belgium), Thimaud de Driesen, Yasmine Mayanja, Stephen Lutwama, Barbara Batesaki, Henry Kawuma (Belgium), Lina Zedriga (Uganda).
Refusal of NUP to German Foreign Office Conference
Good morning!
Yesterday we, the Uganda opposition, were refused access to participate in this important conference about Strenghening Democratic Institutions in Africa, organised by the German Foreign Office. We find this strange as 45 million Ugandans are (unfortunately) very experienced with flawed institutions. We have not seen any representatives of other African opposition movements either. This is why our banner says:
Don’t talk ABOUT US without INCLUDING US
With us is also Dr. Nico Schoonderwoerd, EU ambassador for the National Unity Platform, which represent 60% of the Ugandan population. In his book Rigged he provides evidence of the election rigging and excessive violence by dictator Museveni. We have copies with us.
The Ugandan dictator Museveni has been in power for 36 years. He took part in wars in Congo, Rwanda, Sudan which resulted in the deaths of about 7 million Africans. He’s the African Hitler. Thousands of people have disappeared. Hundred thousands of girls have been raped. Writer Kakwenza, who was heavily tortured by the son of dictator Museveni, found exile in Germany, but many Ugandans still suffer and are tortured in safe houses. All of this leads to hardly any critism by the G7 countries. The Ugandan dictator could not stay in power without the financial and military support of them. Is this viewpoint not allowed in this conference?
The reason why we are demonstrating is that we would like to talk to you. So feel free to approach us. If you dont have time now, you can do it later.
NUP EU ambassador
Dr. Nico Schoonderwoerd
nico@klup.nl
+31-6-15955880
Twitter: klup
We thank you very much for your motion for a resolution RC-B9-0409/2022 of Thursday 15 September 2022 in which you address the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans and Tanzanians without proper compensation, and of the gross human rights violations in the name of the EACOP project.
Also in February 2021 you had a powerful resolution condemning the violence by the Ugandan government, asking for an audit into the (rigged) elections results, and requesting Magnitsky sanctions against human rights violators.
Your motion has reminded the world of the atrocities in our beautiful country. In Uganda everyone, and especially political activists, suffer under the dictatorship of Yoweri Museveni. Whether you are fighting for democracy and honest elections, or whether you fight for the environment of Uganda and against climate change.
The Ugandan government propaganda machine has come out to condemn your motion for a resolution. The deputy speaker of the Ugandan parliament Thomas Tayebwa (who is on video torturing an electricity company employee) pretends to be speaking on behalf of the Ugandan people, but he only speaks on behalf of corrupt NRM MPs, who used violence and bribes financed by IMF & Worldbank loans to secure their seat in parliament.
All these propagandists fail to answer the issues you raise in your motion. Tayebwa speaks about the sovereignty of Uganda, but it is the government of Museveni that squanders the resources of Uganda by only having 15% of the shares in the EACOP project. Even the profits of that 15% will mostly go into the pockets of the dictator or be used to buy more weapons to suppress the Ugandan people.
In your motion you are asking Total and the Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities to come up with an alternative, preferably using sustainable energy. It’s important to understand that dictatorships have no interest in the well-being of their people. They don’t suffer from the dramatic effects of climate change and their homes will not be destroyed for building this pipeline. Just like they don’t suffer from the present famine in Karamoja, they really don’t care about human life. They will therefore ignore your request.
This is why you have to urge the European Commission and European nations to stop supporting the dictatorship financially and militarily.
Greetings from the NUPUSA, Inc., leadership team on behalf of the East African diaspora, especially the Ugandan diaspora in the United States and worldwide.
We are writing to inform you that your recent visit with dictator Museveni of Uganda who is responsible for deaths of millions of Africans in East and Central Africa horrified us. Museveni is an illegitimate ruler, who has perpetuated himself in power for over thirty-six years by rigging elections and suppressing the opposition while his patrons — the United States and Europe — turn a blind eye. In January 2021, Uganda held its latest Presidential elections. Although Museveni’s handpicked partisan electoral commission announced him the winner, independent tallies indicated that Ugandans had overwhelmingly rejected the tyrant in favor of Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, also known as Bobi Wine, but per usual, Museveni rigged the results.
Museveni is one of Africa’s worst neo-colonial dictators, serving the interests of the United States, Europe, China and Russia at the expense of ordinary Africans. For instance, Museveni is exacerbating armed conflict in the Democratic of the Congo through proxies, while simultaneously facilitating the plunder of its vast mineral resources by shadowy Europeans. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0664
When Akon and Kanye West consorted with Museveni in 2021, the diaspora furiously shamed them via social media and the press. You are fortunate that we have decided to approach you differently. We chose to engage you with information that avails you a rationale to immediately discontinue your association with Museveni and his officials including your host, Uganda’s Agriculture Minister, Frank Tumwebaze. Your reputation and image are too precious to get caught up in their criminality and shenanigans.
We urge you to disassociate yourself from Museveni due to a litany of crimes he has committed including gross human rights abuses, plunder of African resources, anti-black utterances, and perpetuation of modern-day slavery through a “labor externalization” policy.
Museveni has committed many atrocities since shooting himself to power in 1986. The atrocities include mass murder in Northern Uganda and a particularly gruesome massacre in the Kasese region of Uganda. Museveni atrocities in Northern Uganda were narrated by survivors and participating military generals in the documentary titled: “A brilliant Genocide:”
Atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2010/oct/01/uganda-un-war-crimes-congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo filed and subsequently won a case against Uganda in the International court of Justice due to Museveni’s atrocities and plunder of the country’s resources:
Museveni lauded, Peter Elwelu, the general who commanded the massacre for a job well-done and expeditiously promoted him. Emboldened, the general unapologetically boasted of his actions:
Imagine a situation in which Americans are shot, abducted or incarcerated indefinitely for supporting either Biden or Trump during elections. That is precisely what Museveni has been doing in Uganda for over twenty-six years – he did not allow for elections at all until 1996, his tenth year in power. The violence against the opposition has escalated each election cycle since. The period before, during and after the January 2021 elections, Museveni orchestrated the worst election related violence in the history of Uganda. The Ugandan army abducted and killed hundreds of Ugandans. Thousands of opposition party members, including elected officials, are still languishing in prison without trial.
Human Rights Watch and several international media, including the New York Times documented the abuses:
In November 2020, Museveni arrested Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu (“Bobi Wine”) his main opponent in the then upcoming January 2021 elections. When Ugandans protested, Museveni unleashed his military, killing over two hundred people over a course of two-days, though the regime only acknowledged fifty-four deaths. Worse, Museveni characteristically hailed the military for its murderous actions.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported some of the November 2020 killings in a documentary titled: “Three Killings in Kampala:” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7d2AvLEPyA
Plunder of Land and Resources
In addition to facilitating the plunder of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s resources, Museveni is forcibly evicting Ugandan citizens in favor of foreign “investors.”
Museveni is now cynically looking on as inhabitants (the Karamojong) starve to death due to a severe drought in the semi-arid region even though the rest of Uganda has a food surplus.
Starvation in Karamoja: https://ugandaradionetwork.com/story/relief-food-delays-irk-karamoja-leaders
The September 1994 Atlantic magazine quoted Museveni saying: “I have never blamed the
whites for colonizing Africa; I have never blamed these whites for taking slaves. If you are
stupid, you should be taken a slave.”
Museveni also referred to African chiefs many of whom tried to resist colonialism and slavery as
“idiots” while giving a speech to European diplomats. Evidently, Museveni is a disgraceful neocolonial dictator, whom no right-thinking African, or person of African descent should associate
with. Incidentally, Museveni is a conman per excellence. He mesmerizes Africans when he talks
of Pan-Africanism while practicing neo-colonialism and fragmenting Africans through divisive
and exclusionary ethnic politics and policies.
Modern Day slavery
It is not surprising therefore that Museveni is knowingly superintending over modern-day
slavery. Despite ruling Uganda for over thirty-six years, Museveni has not created employment
for Ugandan youth, whose true unemployment rate is over 80%. Instead, he promotes a “labor
externalization” policy which ‘exports’ Ugandans through labor export companies many of
which are owned by his regime officials and their associates. But the policy amounts to modernday slavery. A 2019 report noted that in some regions of Uganda girls were being sold on open
market for as low as $14, and then exported to the middle east, where they are re-sold.
https://www.ozy.com/around-the-world/modern-day-slavery-the-public-markets-sellingyoung-girls-for-14/94386/
Even the girls who leave voluntarily suffer the same fate. They are promised goods jobs by the
labor export companies, but when they get to the Middle East their passports are confiscated.
They are then forced into domestic labor, working very long hours with little or no pay. Many
are also sexually abused and tortured by their ‘employers.’
https://afjn.org/labor-export-or-human-trafficking-tackling-the-labor-laws-in-uganda/
Worse, labor externalization in Uganda is closely interlinked with an organ harvesting syndicate
allegedly involving Museveni’s own family:
For those and other reasons, we request that you publicly disentangle yourself from Museveni
and his officials. Incidentally, your announcement of a new drone technology for Uganda
unwittingly stirred up horror images in Ugandans’ minds because vans which Museveni’s
military uses to abduct innocent Ugandans off the streets and forcibly disappear them are
known as drones.
Like your character “DJay” in your seminal 2005 film, “Hustle & Flow,” Ugandans are essentially
hustling to survive very tough conditions. Many youths are engaged in the creative arts
including music, drama and film. But like your character Glen Holland in your 1995 film “Mr.
Holland’s Opus”, they are short-changed because Museveni — like Principal Wolters in the film –
prioritizes funding Science and Math over the Arts.
The situation in Uganda is very volatile and complicated. It does not neatly fit into a formula like
your concept of “Terryology.” It can severely impact your reputation and career by your mere
association with the principal actor, Museveni, and his associates.
We are looking forward to your response to our appeal. Our next course of action, no later than
one month from now, will be determined by what you choose to do.
Sincerely,
Joseph Senyonjo, Board Member, NUPUSA, Inc
On behalf of NUPUSA, Inc’s leadership team
Bobi Wine will address the Dutch parliament about the human rights situation in Uganda. The Netherlands are a big (financial) support of the Museveni regime, and therefore it’s importance the Dutch lawmakers are informed how their taxpayers money is squandered on an African dictator.
12.00 Meet at Dutch Parliament
13.00 – 14.00 Wttewaall van Stoetwegenzaal of Dutch parliament
The representative of NUP and a representative from HRW will speak for 15 minutes, after which the Dutch MPs have 45 minutes to ask questions.
After the meeting we’ll continue for demonstrations at 3 countries that import slavery workers from Uganda and send them back in coffins.
15.00 Demonstration at Saudi embassy
15.40 Demonstration at Qatar embassy
16.20 UAE embassy
Then we will walk to the embassy of the country that support the dictatorship with spy technology & weapons.
16.45 Israel embassy
To finalize this first day, we’ll go to the International Criminal Court.
17.30-19.00 ICC celebration of the dictator’s birthday
The president has changed his birthday to stay in power. We want to commemorate the Ugandan suffering by signing for the dictator
“Happy incarceration to you, incarceration dictator, incarceration to you”
15 September 2022
On Thursday we’ll be travelling to Brussels to pick-up comrade Kakwenza at European Commission.
At 12.00 we’ll offer a petition to the European commission
At 15.00 we have scheduled to demonstrate at the Ugandan embassy and sign our “Happy Incarceration” song another time for Mirjam Blaak, the embassador of Uganda to the Benelux and to the European Union.
The National Unity Platform is happy for the interest that you have shown in Uganda and for your investments into the failed Ugandan health sector.
However, by participating in a propaganda show by the Ugandan dictatorship you allow for the suffering of the Ugandan people to be extended.
It’s the present dictatorship that Mrs Jones shook hands with that wasted the health sector of Uganda to an extent that the dictator and his friends go abroad for healthcare treatment. It’s this dictatorship that is responsible for 1 in 20 babies dying.
In 1940, the Rotary convention formulated the following powerful message:
“where freedom, justice, truth, sanctity of the pledged word, and respect for human rights do not exist, Rotary cannot live nor its ideal prevail.”
In Uganda there’s no freedom, no justice, no truth and no respect for human rights. Why have you diverted from your strong stance on human rights?
Mrs Jones met with prime minister Nabbanja, who is known to be behind the violent rigging of elections in Uganda and was caught on camera bribing voters. Also she met with Janet Museveni, the wife of the dictator who is responsible for the death of 6 million lives in Uganda, Congo, Rwanda & South-Sudan.
We are not saying you should withdraw your charity from Uganda. However, any activity should be in agreement with a thorough human rights policy, should never have a negative impact on the people of Uganda, and should be made together with the people of Uganda and not with the dictatorship.
The National Unity Platform represents 60% of the Ugandans (see report ‘Rigged’ on last elections) and would like to discuss this subject further with you.
Spent wednesday night on Dubai streets with Stranded Ugandans sleeping daily in open spaces,grass & streets mostly at Baniyas square & Union metro station,Deira,UAE.Several of these are uganda youths ,mostly girls and women plus several males.Majority claim they were defrauded by Uganda External recruitment companies ,falsely promised jobs and dropped on streets of Dubai & UAE with short visas which many times expire before getting jobs.Each day of expired visa attract heavy fines and renewing require equally payment. These youths have no coin even for personal survival. its a tragedy. Some of these are stranded maids & claim they were chased by agents after arrival in UAE deceived of jobs and the same agents confiscate passports demanding huge ransom to release passports.Uganda based external recruitment companies have not assisted these stranded ugandans either.Many stranded young girls with no alternative hope resort to prostitution as only way of survival, with no document,no work,no house,no job,no money & neither has Uganda Government assisted much.The Uganda embassy claim it lacks adequate resources to continuously rescue & bail out thousands of stranded ugandans. Revealed that many times it rely on well wishers, pro bono and even for those in detention the embassy claimed to largely rely on among others UAE government seasonal offers for stranded noncitizens plus seasonal UAE pardon which is mostly granted in Ramadhan and Eid times. Embassy claim they lack funding to offer full legal support to the detained. I learnt several arrive or are trafficked &delivered to UAE by Uganda recruitment companies on short visit visas with promises that they get jobs while in UAE.I listened to several touching stories of young ugandans mostly youths and girls suffering,homeless and with lost hope. Even those who want to secure new passports & reapply for work permits or return cant afford application fees of 250,000/- and cant even afford transport to Uganda Embassy in Abu dhabi. The Uganda Consulate allegedly established in Dubai had a lot of issues l will mention another time. I learnt that Uganda Embassy established one reception centre for the stranded but it cant handle even a quarter of the accomodations & feeding needs of the thousands of Ugandan youth stranded in UAE.I noted from testimonies that some of the stranded Ugandans want assistance to return home and some want assistance to normalize their legal status with a possibility of securing alternative employment. Those insisting to remain amidst being stranded on streets claim they have no hope of alternative survival back home in uganda. Some claim to have left uganda after selling even the little they had to meet charges of external labor recruitment companies and air tickets. The sense of frustration and loss of hope among thousands of uganda youths is real ,they have been left helpless and hopeless. They live without certainty of tomorrow. They carry their bags daily and some claim all clothes and belonging were confiscated by former bosses.I found many spending part of their night in small groups praying with hope of mighty intervention in their frustrations. I want to join them in saying Amen. There is one special lady l found awake sitting on chair at Union Metro Station who told me she stays awake to offer protection to her many ugandans sleeping in the open space and she in turn sleep during day. I recalled that amidst all challenges ,some one some where sacrifice for others to survive.This was a touching inspiration.We shall keep trying what we can in pursuing options but this obviously need you and me and/or us as people.
The bad fact-checking is not limited to Uganda. Also in Kenya their factchecking is of poor quality. One problem that Pesacheck has is they dont understand humor.
We ask Deutsche Welle & Code 4 Africa, who financially sponsor Pesacheck, if it was their intention to fact-check jokes.
Joke 1: Kibuye roundabout
Frank Gashumba is making fun of the terrible state of the Ugandan infrastructure. Many projects are unfinished. There’s so much corruption that the costs are enormous. That’s why Gashumba posted this photo of a roundabout in China. Pesacheck says it’s false. It’s clearly a joke.
Joke 2: UDA flag on the moon (9 August 2022)
Chepkerio Mtetezi posted this photo of UDA, the political party of William Ruto, planting a flag on the moon.
Joke 3: Uganda’s Entebbe International Airport has not been renamed to HUEN (28 February 2022)
Of course it has not really been renamed like this. This joke puts attention to the growing economic power of the Chinese and their loan to Entebbe airport gives them so much power, they could even make this name change if they really wanted! Pesacheck didn’t understand that.
Joke 4: Photo of Cristiano Ronaldo wearing Uganda’s People Power Movement colours is doctored (27 October 2020)
Although the National Resistance Movement (NRM) claims to be a democratic organisation, in the 36 years that it has been in power in Uganda it has never transferred power to another party. NRM leader Museveni made clear during recent elections that it’s not the people of Uganda who decide: “NRM has the last word“
NRM came to power, still known as the NRA (National Resistance Army), by the sword, killing thousands of Ugandans. When the NRM was in power, it was determined to stay in power and only pressure from donor countries made it adapt multiparty democracy. However, according to factcheckers site Pesacheck none of the organised elections were free & fair. Organising zombie elections was the perfect compromise for the NRM to stay in power while keeping donor countries happy.
Also within the NRM itself no opposition to the leadership of Yoweri Museveni is accepted. Now that Museveni gets older he wants his son Muhoozi Kainerugaba to take over. His former NRA fighters were not happy about that and in 2013 General David Sejusa wrote an article in the Daily Monitor describing the project of launching Muhoozi to power and coining the term ‘Project Muhoozi’. The office of the Daily Monitor was blocked for days and General Sejusa had to flee the country.
The Ugandan constitution did not allow for anyone to serve more than two terms, so Museveni intimidated parliament and changed the constitution. Later, he ran into the ‘age limit’, and also that article was lifted from the constitution. Again, he used violence, intimidation and bribery. MP Betty Nambooze was tortured inside parliament and still has to use a wheelchair.
Important positions in the government are not given on the basis of qualifications and elections, but are given to friends & family. His wife Janet is the minister of Education, his son Muhoozi leads the army.
In-fighting is necessary to become part of the group. NRM primary elections are decided by intimidation, bribery and violence, such as in Isingiro that saw a violent struggle between Stephen Kangwagye and Dr. Mpeirwe.
Violence,Torture and Corruption
The non-democratic, corrupt and violent nature of the NRM is also shown by the many crimes that key members of NRM have been involved in.
NRM president Museveni and former NRM foreign minister Sam Kutesa have accepted 500.000 USD bribes from Chinese investor Ho according to American department of Justice.
NRM president Museveni commented on the torture of Bobi Wine that he was ‘appropriately beaten‘. The torture was likely ordered by Museveni.
NRM commander of the land forces Muhoozi, the son of Museveni, had Ugandan writer Kakwenza picked up from his house and tortured after Kakwenza posted tweets about Muhoozi and Museveni..
NRM deputy speaker of parliament Tayebwa has tortured an employee of the UMEME electricity company and was caught on video.
NRM speaker of parliament Anita Among mocked torture survivor Francis Zaake after he competed in a sport competition.
NRM prime minister gave out bribes in the by-election of Kayunga according to dozens of locals interviewed by BBS.
At every level the NRM is a violent and criminal organisation. The book ‘Rigged’ about the 2021 Ugandan elections documents this very well.
During his national address on 23 May 2022, Yoweri Museveni also spoke about the diaspora.
Uganda generated a big diaspora. Mainly because of our stagnant history Many people ran away during the time of Amin, UPC. They went abroad during the time of (..) & Obote They stayed there, they have had children, they have a big group there. But sometimes they get all sorts of… Good political ideas but also bad political ideas So the ESO officer should monitor them, should link up with them and diffuse… the negative and encourage the positive. That should be part of his mandate.
On this website we find data to which countries Ugandans have emigrated: https://migrants-refugees.va/country-profile/uganda/
If you look around the diaspora community in countries like US, UK, Germany & Netherlands you see that most are first generation immigrants in the age group 20-45. They left Uganda when Museveni was already president.
The remark by Museveni, saying that people in majority fled to the diaspora under his predecessors, is nonsense.
