Dear members of the European Parliament,
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.
Reference: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-9-2022-0321_EN.pdf