The Champions for an HIV-Free Generation (Champions) have asked president Museveni of the occupation Uganda government to be careful about the likely ramifincation of two contravesial NRM bills on AID and Homosexuality. Museveni’s NRM government is quietly pushing for passage of the two bills by Uganda’s rubberstamp parliament.  In a letter signed by Festus Mogae, the Champions chairman, the group tells Museveni that, if passed, the NRM laws, which include imprisonment for those convicted of homosexuality, would go against international human rights standards and best practices for combating AIDS.

The Champions for an HIV-Free Generation is a group of former African presidents and other influential personalities, have agreed to meet this challenge by advocating for a renewed and revitalized response from our regional leaders, with a focus on proven HIV prevention measures. It is chaired by Festus Mogae, former president of Botswana. Members include Desmond Tutu, Benjamin Mukapa and others. More details about the Champions are available on their website at www.hivfreechampions.org.

 The letter to the presdent of Uganda’s occupation government is reproduced below:

OFFICE OF THE CHAMPIONS SECRETARIAT

Festus G. Mogae
Chairperson
Telephone: + 267-3914071/3914082 Fax: + 267-3914097
Plot No. 115, Unit 4 Millenium Park Kgale Mews GABORONE
P/Bag 00318 GABORONE BOTSWANA

October 30, 2009

CFHIVG-PR-200910

 His Excellency, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni President of the Republic of Uganda
State House Nakasero
P.O. Box 24594
Kampala, Uganda

Your Excellency,

On behalf of the Champions for an HIV -Free Generation, I send you warmest greetings and best wishes.

We, the Champions for an HlV-Free Generation, are on a mission to exchange ideas and encourage stronger and more visionary leadership in response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in Sub Saharan Africa. Our mandate is to promote key policy, legal, cultural and behavioral practices, as well as messages that help accelerate the social outcomes needed to achieve an HIV-free generation.

The first is a draft Bill, the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009,” recently introduced by a private member’s motion in the Parliament of  the Republic of  Uganda. Among the most disturbing  provisions of the bill are: Incarceration for any person convicted  of  ”homosexuality”; a sentencing of death for anyone with HIV convicted  of  ”aggravated homosexuality”; incarceration for “promotion of homosexuality”; criminal penalties that apply to citizens and permanent residents living outside of Uganda; and declaring null and void any “international  legal instrument whose provisions are contradictory to the spirit and provisions enshrined in this Act:”

The second Bill that has come to our attention is the draft “‘HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill,” currently under debate in the Uganda Law Reform Commission. Many positive aspects of the bill exist, including provisions against discrimination of people with HIV and AIDS in schools and at places of work. However, one provision of the Bill stipulates incarceration for offenses related to the “breach of safe practices of HIV prevention.”

Your Excellency, we respectfully express our concern at the provisions referenced in these two Bills and fear that passage of such legislation, which deviates from international best practice and recommendations, could lead to increased stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS and the groups most vulnerable to the epidemic.

The 2001 UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) Declaration of Commitment on HIV and AIDS, adopted by all UN Member Stares, emphasized the importance of addressing the needs of those “at the greatest risk of, and most vulnerable to, new infection as indicated by such factors as … sexual practices.” At the 2006 High Level Meeting on AIDS, the Member States reiterated their commitment underlying the need for “full and active participation of vulnerable groups … and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against them … while respecting their privacy and confidentiality.” Furthermore, assessments conducted by UNAIDS for the General Assembly have confirmed that stigma, discrimination and criminalization faced by men who have sex with men are major barriers to the movement for universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

UNAIDS has recommended that governments respect, protect and fulfill the rights of men who have sex with men and address stigma and discrimination in society and in the workplace by amending laws prohibiting sexual acts between consenting adults in private, enforcing anti-discrimination, and promoting programmes for men who have sex with men who may be especially vulnerable to HIV infection.

With respect to the “HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill”, UNAIDS and other international best practices recommend against HIV -specific criminal laws, laws directly mandating disclosure of HIV status, and other laws which are counterproductive to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support efforts, or which violate the human rights of people living with HIV. Inappropriate or overly­ broad application of criminal law to HIV transmission creates a real risk of increasing stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV, thus driving them further away from HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.

Your Excellency, the Champions for an HIV-Free Generation believe that positive action by both government and individual leaders of stature, like yourself, can help create environments that promote HIV prevention efforts and behaviour change. We humbly ask that you take action to halt the harmful provisions in the draft Bills cited in this letter, and by doing so, preserve the rights of all Ugandans.

Yours Sincerely

Mr. Festus G. Mogae

Chairman of the Champions for an HIV-Free Generation and Former President of  the Republic of Botswana

Copied To:
(a) The Champions: Their Excellencies: Kenneth Kaunda, Joaquim  Chissano and Benjamin Mkapa; His Grace, Desmond Tutu; Dr. Speciosa Wandira; Justice Edwin Cameron; Prof. Miriam Were and Ms. Liya Kebede

(b) Chairman, Uganda Law Reform Commission

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Boston, USA: Mengo Victim of Unconstitutional Acts

We Won’t Tolerate Mengo’s Unconstitutional Behavior
http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/293/694329

Says Museveni
A RESPONSE

by Aloysius M. Lugira

Last Wednesday identified with 09.09.09 became a September day, which in Ganda Africism reflects eventful numerical situation. It was on that day that many of us in the Diaspora became aware of the intensity of riots that raged in Buganda in protest of the marginalization of a peoples’ heritage. His Majesty the Kabaka of Buganda Ronald Muwenda Mutebi was being blocked from attending to a function in his kingdom because a Uganda army Captain, against members of his family, had declared himself to be the cultural leader of Kayunga. This as of today, September 12, 2009, has led Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia to record that: “In September 2009, declared its secession from the traditional Kingdom of Buganda. The King attempted to visit but was banned by the Ugandan government, provoking riots in Kampala”.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buganda

It is against this background that President Yoweri Museveni, on September 10 , 2009, at Entebbe State House chose to address the Buganda Parliamentary Caucus with the heading of: “We won’t tolerate Mengo’s unconstitutional behavior”.

President Musevei’s address to the Buganda Parliamentary Caucus is made up of forty paragraphs some of which are as short as two lines. The contents of the address non-chronologically include unconstitutional events of the terrorism which was perpetrated against Buganda in 1966. He then, without elaboration, mentions that he was a youth-winger of the Democratic Party, the party according to his words he considers to principled. To verify this one may be advised to check with Mzee Boniface Byanyima to know the whole truth about. The fact is that Museveni has estranged himself from his erstwhile benefactor..

Whatever President Museveni may be intending to mean by unconstitutional behavior his colonialist dictatorial stances are not likely to endear him to the people who would have otherwise cared to care. Insisting on addressing the Kabaka in the colonialist superiority complex form of “His Highness Kabaka Mutebi” instead of His Majesty the Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi creates an indignation that does not allow smoothness to prevail. Keeping inconsistently harping and derogatorily sneering at the understanding of the importance of the Kabakaship by the late Dr. Andrew Lutaakome Kayiira to many Baganda becomes nauseating. When in your address regarding monarchies you say: “We said that we were fighting for the freedom of Ugandans; once the Ugandans had got their freedom, they would decide on what to do.” In his Uganda Freedom Movement, that is exactly what the late Kayiira was about. He wanted Ugandans to have freedom and the freedom of having their Kabaka whose kingdom was unconstitutionally desecrated. Mr. President save us the inconvenience of suspecting you as being supportive of the unconstitutional events of 1966 in Uganda. It should certainly not be illogical to demand reparation from the Government of Uganda for those constitutionally criminal perpetrations against Buganda.

During the late 1950s speaking in Mbale the late President Milton Obote announced that his mission was to wipe Buganda off the map. Presumably according to your own words when you deserted what you have referred to as a principled party you landed into UPC with a leading position as a General Service Operative. According to what you have written in your Graduating Paper at the University of Dar-es-Salaam, it sounds logical that you are in for the destruction of Buganda.

The terrorism you have devised in the30th paragraph of your address is a case in point not only of “unconstitutional behavior,” but also of unconstitutional acts against

Baganda. In your own words you say: “On the issue of the Land bill we had to launch our own counter-campaign of sensitization and forming the bibanja associations. These associations have empowered and emboldened the bibanja-owners. Now that the bibanja members are empowered, some of them have started taking the law into their own hands, if we take the recent examples of lynching landlords in some areas of Kayunga.

Ugandans please, read and read this paragraph again. Should such terrorism be tolerated?

.

Boston, USA: Obsequious Dance For A Death Culture Captain In Kayunga Mr. President?

Fellow Ugandans,

Our inability to protect the Kabaka or the president for that matter in kayunga, sounds more and more like the Benazir Bhutto, case, where the state could not protect her in certain areas of Pakistan, we all know where that ended.

Kayunga is not a war torn area and should be accessible to all Ugandans including the president and the King of Buganda, even those who unfortunately lost their lives  trying to go there.

General Museveni, should reign in one of his rogue captains, responsible for creating a beligerent culture a climate of banditry and perhaps responsible for some gruesome murders that have occurred in Kayunga.

What if the Kabaka refused say General Tinyenfunza or Otafire from coming through Kampala or Entebbe or Nakivubo how reasonable would that wish be?

what does this Kayunga man hold against our president-to make him a siloed King and grant him such foreign wishes?

Now we have spilled blood unnecessarily and Gwanga mujje calls are sounding in every township. This denial of movement to a sitting King is not going down the throats of Baganda well, and should not be the hill that defines the death of NRM in Buganda.

If I were an advisor to the president, I would ask him not to go out on a limb for an indefensible rogue captain, given all the murders presently witnessed in Kayunga. He as president has to draw the right line in Bugerere.

Tendo Kaluma

Concerned Ugandan Boston

Members of the Olara Otunnu led Campaign for Democracy and Justice in Uganda (CDJ) have explained that the participation of the 4 well known American Baganda is because, during “Ttabamiruka 07 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the Kabaka of Buganda urged Baganda to work for the acquisition of good governance, we need in Uganda, through seeking alliances and friendship with other ethnicities in Uganda.”

The CDJ document, sent to Buganda Post by Professor Aloysious Lugira, was responding to the posting by Buganda Post contributor, Bijugo Lumu, titled “UPC’s Olara Otunnu Enters ‘Mukago’ With America Baganda”.

The CDJ statement is shown below, without any editing.

Campaign for Democracy and Justice in Uganda
CDJ

CDJ is an organization which belongs to the members of this association. On July 15, 2009 on the Buganda Post website an article written by Chris Bijugo Lumu was published. It was in reaction to a CDJ Press Release dated July 11, 2009, which appeared on the occasion of President Barack’s Accra/Ghana speech. Seeming as if Mr. Chris Bijugo Lumu was reacting out of some sort of hunch, a feeling or suspicion not based on facts, gave his article the title of “UPC’s Olara Otunnu Enters ‘Mukago’ With America Baganda”. He continued on with such allegations that “Olara Otunnu..secured a deal (“mukago”) with respected foreign based Baganda to promote his presidential candidacy”, among other statements.

It is unfortunate that Mr.Lumu chose to comment on the CDJ Press Release July 11, 2009 the way he did. His comments betray the impressions that he did not give a thourough reading of the document. Or if it could have been the case that he was not clear about what he read, he was never bothered to consult the indicated contacts at the end of the Press Release.

Mr. Lumu should do proud to Buganda if he would care to take some refresher courses on the vital Social Anthropology of Buganda. To establish omukago does not mean to “secure a deal” with the sense of okuliira mu kavuyo as his context seem to be implying. CDJ is not about entering mukago as may be reflected in the unfortunate doings of the nineteen sixties. Here we are about associating for the sake of contributing to the return of political sanity in Uganda.

Mr. Lumu emphasizes that “Olara Otunnu, secured a deal with respected foreign based Baganda to promote his presidential candidacy”. In the Press Release it is made categorically clear that “CDJ will not support any parties or candidates in the forthcoming electoral contests. Its preoccupation is to mount a vigorous campaign for genuinely free and fair elections, with a level playing field for all.” http://www.bugandapost.com/main/archives/436
The CDJ is not composed of only the five interim office bearers of the Association. There are many other Ugandans of a variety of backgrounds who are members of CDJ. The four Baganda who on an interim basis are at the head of the organization are there with full knowledge of the intentions of CDJ. Mr. Lumu points out that “CDJ leadership is clearly dominated by Baganda who are known to put Buganda and Kabaka first”. It is true.But these Baganda are there not to dominate, but to serve, with the view in mind of building for the future. In his Keynote speech at Ttabamiruka 07 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the Kabaka of Buganda urged Baganda to work for the acquisition of good governance, we need in Uganda, through seeking alliances and friendship with other ethnicities in Uganda. http://www.ttabamiruka07.com

Signed by:
Mr. Olara A. Otunnu (Interim Chairman)
Mr. James Ssemakula (Interim Deputy Chairman)
Mr. John Mayanja (Interim President)
Mr. Mubiru Musoke (Interim Treasurer)
Professor Aloysius M.M. Lugira (Interim Secretary)
For further information, contact:
Professor Aloysius M.M. Lugira
Tel: 617-552-3539 or 781-439-3875
E-mail: lugira.cdj@gmail.com or lugira@bc.edu

Update: Tuesday July 22, 2008

The Uganda Government is under extreme pressure to release the detainees. Margaret Sekaggya the Director of the Humans Rights Commission has made a presentation to a parliamentary committee stating that they have had access to the detainees and that 2 are in poor health needing immediate access to their doctors and Betty Namboze needs immediate access to her 1 year old child who is still breast feeding. She further states that the unpredictable and constant movement of the detainees to prisons to the farthest corners of Uganda is deliberate psychological torture and must stop immediately. She says the act parading the detainees in front of so-called rebels in these locations for identification without access to their lawyers is questionable behaviour for a government that claims to have restored the rule of law.. A significant group of parliamentarians are seeking the 111 signatures needed to force parliament to sit while in recess to debate the matter as it is escalating and positions are hardening on both sides. The Acholi parliamentary group has issued a statement demanding the immediate and unconditional release of the detainees as it could lead to “a collision” between Mengo and the Central Government. They further demand that a Council of Elders comprised of eminent Ugandans be established to mediate between the two parties.

Nkoba Z’ambogo, a nationwide network of Baganda youth has issued a statement demanding the release of the detainees by the end of business today or they will take to the streets tomorrow. The Buganda Cabinet has just started (2:30pm) a second sitting to discuss the matter taking into considerations all recent developments. They are expected to make a statement by 5pm. The situation is deteriorating as off the record statements from key individuals are circulating that Central Government is demanding the removal of key youthful Ministers and outspoken Baganda from the Buganda Government and Central Broadcasting Station (CBS- Buganda’s flagship station) as a pre-condition for the release of the detainees. This is, if true, tantamount to kidnap for ransom and discredits the Nation and the regime immeasurably. Just in: A legal team led by Lawyer and MP Erias Lukwago have filed a petition for the release of the detainees under the Police Act which stipulates that a prisoner must be produced within 48 hrs after arrest.

Buganda Emergency Response Committee