“Send us your Gucci, not your guns”
On 19th January Robert Kyagulanyi was invited by the Italian Parliament Commission on Human Rights to explain about the atrocities that are taking place in Uganda.
The session was opened by chairwoman Laura Boldrini and she gave a short introduction. Then this video was played showing the events of the last years and outlining the military & financial aid by western countries.
In this Italian parliament session everything in Italian was translated into English, and anything English into Italian, accept for the video that was presented. This is the reason why Nico Schoonderwoerd, who manages the NUP relations in Europe, provided a short summary.
After this summary our President Bobi Wine took the floor. We have a draft version of his speech which can be found at the bottom of the article. You can watch both the summary and the President’s speech here:
Then Masuudi took the floor. Masuudi tells the story of how on 18 November 2020 he was stopped by police for wearing a red People Power T-shirt. Before he was able to answer, he was shot in the mouth. He ran away and he was shot in the shoulder again. In hospital he was told “If we ever see you in the newspaper again, we will kill you”. That’s why he had to flee Uganda. He spoke in Luganda, but an Italian comrade provided the translation into Italian for the national viewers.
After this Ugandan introduction time was reserved for questions by Italian MPs. One of them asked whether NUP has contacted the
Human Rights Programme for Global Parliamentary Organization – IPU. They take action for colleague MPs that are tortured like Ssegirinya and Sewanyana.
Finally we share with you the draft version of Bobi Wine’s speech.
My party, the National Unity Platform, is a liberal progressive party. We believe in equality and Rule of Law. We believe in freedom and social justice. All of this is absent in Uganda.
One year and four days ago, presidential elections were held in Uganda. They were more like a military operation than an election.
As you saw in the movie shown earlier, independent surveys had predicted that I had 60% of the support of Ugandans. But EU observer delegation was denied visa to enter Uganda and my own observers were chased away so Museveni’s party could commit their fraud with minimal disturbance. The Electoral Commission, of which all members have been appointed by the dictator himself, announced Museveni as the winner. All opposition parties have stated these elections were rigged. US state department & EU parliament protested saying the elections where “Neither Free nor Fair”. But the EU commission was silent and the Italian ambassador Massimiliano Mazzanti was even the first to congratulate the dictator.
The EU parliament resolution condemning the fraud was passed with a 90% majority of the votes. Ugandans are very happy to have so much support from European citizens, but it’s unfortunate that even the European democratic process is far from perfect. We think that the Italian parliament is able to pass such a resolution with even a bigger majority. It will force the European commission to listen to the wishes of European people.
As you have seen in the movie, Human Rights are consistently violated by the dictator. Just this weekend, Human Rights Watch published its annual report on Uganda.
Let me quote:
“Security forces arbitrarily arrested and beat opposition supporters and journalists, killed protesters, and disrupted opposition rallies.”
“military police beat at least 10 journalists covering opposition presidential candidate, Robert Kyagulanyi, as he delivered a petition to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Kampala over the abuses against his supporters”
“Security forces conducted a spate of abductions and arrests of opposition supporters, government critics, and other people”
Again, this is from the Human Right Watch report.
PWhen Benito Mussolini founded fascism he was a journalist. He knew how to manipulate, to control and to attack information. The fascist MinCulPop sent ‘veline’ messages to the press, and likewise Museveni provides clear instructions for journalists.
It has worried us a great deal that the Ugandan government’s dis-information is regarded as credible by the European delegation. We come to this conclusion because it can be found in the response of the Italian government to the questions by Laura Boldrini.
The first piece of disinformation is that the 14 January elections were ‘largely peaceful’. This is false. Our agents were chased away from polling stations with machetes & guns, many ending up in hospital. Please read the Human Rights Watch report.
The second piece of disinformation concerns the demonstration that took place after I was arrested in Luuka. Over a 100 Ugandans, and even an unborn triplet, died. Most deaths were not even demonstrating, but randomly shot at as shown in a BBC documentary. To date No investigation has taking place into these documented random killings and no one has been been held accountable for the killings despite the amount of evidence, but the Italian government talks about ‘positive developments’.
We have noticed that the relationship between the Italian representatives and the dictatorship are extremely friendly. Why does the Italian ambassador have dinner in the officers club of the SFC, the most feared and violent security service in Uganda who are torturing the writer Kakwenza and two of my MPs, Segirinya and Sewanyana at this very moment?
Dear Italian amici, you know from the past how it is to be ruled by a dictator. You have suffered under the authoritarian rule of Benito Mussolini for 21 years. Ugandans are suffering under the dictatorship of Yoweri Museveni for over 35 years now. Instead of recovering from almost a century of British colonialism, our country became one of the poorest countries of the world, although Uganda is rich of natural resources and very fertile.
The idea that dictatorship brings more stability than democracy is false, you have seen how the nazi’s & fascists were happy to start the Second World War. Recently Museveni invaded Congo, without even asking the parliament for permission.
So why is it that for Africa the lie of the benevolent dictator is still alive? Why does European television never show African demonstrations for democracy, but only hungry children? Please realize that your journalists are creating a very biased view of Africa, trying to confirm European prejudices. It may sound harsh, but the western post-colonialistic approach to Africa is racist.
If there’s one dictator in the world that is ready to be taken down, it’s Museveni. He’s totally dependent on military & financial support from the West. But with our barebear hands it’s difficult to stop the Italian bullets. Sell us your Gucci, not your Guns.
If you look up the definition of fascism, you find six conditions, like Absolute Power of the State, Rule by a dictator, and Militarism. These conditions are all met by the Museveni government; we request the EU and Italian government to impose Magnitsky sanctions against human rights violators and stop the financial and military support for an African fascist dictator.