More Moral Uplift for Africa
The Vicar of Downing Street, who has been trying to improve the minds of the benighted fuzzy-wuzzies, seems to have come a bit of a cropper.
The leader of the opposition in Uganda, Kizza Besigye, has been arrested on charges of terrorism, and a military court has ordered him to be held in custody until another hearing in a month's time. Besigye's supporters think that the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for twenty years, is trying to stop Besigye from standing as a candidate next March. Tony, who knows all about detaining people without trial at the whim of military courts, has made clear his concerns. "It is one of the basic principles of the Commonwealth that there should be proper respect for the proper functioning of democracy," he said; "and, therefore, what has been happening in Uganda has caused us a great deal of concern."
Unfortunately, President Museveni has an unfair advantage, namely a sense of humour: "Nobody is going to stop Besigye standing for election but there's also the question of the wrong actions he is alleged to be involved in," he said. He added: "I hope no one in the international community is arguing that anyone is above the law."
Of course, Tony knows perfectly well that he and the senior partner in the Holy Alliance, George Bush, are well above any laws made by man, and just a tad or two above the Sixth Commandment; but one does not admit that sort of thing in front of the children. It might give them ideas.
Still heaping coals, Museveni went on to mention some of Britain's previous contributions to democracy in Uganda: "The British came to Uganda to establish a colonial administration in 1890 and left in 1962 and in all that time, 70 years, we had elections only twice, one in 1961 and one in 1962. The one in 1961 was badly organised. There was no democracy for all the time the British were in Uganda."
He might also have mentioned that there was precious little democracy for some time after we left. As Mark Curtis has made clear, British support for Sir Cyril Taylor's comrade in the King's African Rifles, Idi Amin, was enthusiastic from the start and remained so during the eighteen months of butchery from January 1971 to June 1972. "We cannot tell him to stop murdering people," observed the High Commissioner in Kampala, Richard Slater. Only when Amin started frothing at the mouth about "imperialists" and deporting British passport holders did the British prime minister, Edward Heath, send a lachrymose note of farewell:
"The British government have gone out of their way to try to be friendly and cooperate with Uganda ever since your administration took over. We were and are very anxious to help you in all the economic and security problems which face your country. I have hoped that our personal relations could be close."
When Heath died, the Vicar of Downing Street eulogised him as "a man of great integrity and beliefs". Imagine that.
The leader of the opposition in Uganda, Kizza Besigye, has been arrested on charges of terrorism, and a military court has ordered him to be held in custody until another hearing in a month's time. Besigye's supporters think that the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power for twenty years, is trying to stop Besigye from standing as a candidate next March. Tony, who knows all about detaining people without trial at the whim of military courts, has made clear his concerns. "It is one of the basic principles of the Commonwealth that there should be proper respect for the proper functioning of democracy," he said; "and, therefore, what has been happening in Uganda has caused us a great deal of concern."
Unfortunately, President Museveni has an unfair advantage, namely a sense of humour: "Nobody is going to stop Besigye standing for election but there's also the question of the wrong actions he is alleged to be involved in," he said. He added: "I hope no one in the international community is arguing that anyone is above the law."
Of course, Tony knows perfectly well that he and the senior partner in the Holy Alliance, George Bush, are well above any laws made by man, and just a tad or two above the Sixth Commandment; but one does not admit that sort of thing in front of the children. It might give them ideas.
Still heaping coals, Museveni went on to mention some of Britain's previous contributions to democracy in Uganda: "The British came to Uganda to establish a colonial administration in 1890 and left in 1962 and in all that time, 70 years, we had elections only twice, one in 1961 and one in 1962. The one in 1961 was badly organised. There was no democracy for all the time the British were in Uganda."
He might also have mentioned that there was precious little democracy for some time after we left. As Mark Curtis has made clear, British support for Sir Cyril Taylor's comrade in the King's African Rifles, Idi Amin, was enthusiastic from the start and remained so during the eighteen months of butchery from January 1971 to June 1972. "We cannot tell him to stop murdering people," observed the High Commissioner in Kampala, Richard Slater. Only when Amin started frothing at the mouth about "imperialists" and deporting British passport holders did the British prime minister, Edward Heath, send a lachrymose note of farewell:
"The British government have gone out of their way to try to be friendly and cooperate with Uganda ever since your administration took over. We were and are very anxious to help you in all the economic and security problems which face your country. I have hoped that our personal relations could be close."
When Heath died, the Vicar of Downing Street eulogised him as "a man of great integrity and beliefs". Imagine that.
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