By C.D Rauxen Zedriga

13^th Dec 2010

Dear Mr. Ofwono Opondo, I have been following your nice pieces in Uganda Correspondent.  But all of a sudden, I noticed you bailed out.  I thought you could have taken a holiday to get yourself fired up again but your article of November 29, 2010, made me think again. The following clarification is necessary.

NRM’s problems with people from the North and North East are well known to all except you. I am afraid your Japadhola clansmen will also follow suit this time.  I suspect your NRM employer has suspected that you do not add up to your job and so you decided to write about the North and North East which you clearly know little about.

Now listen to me.  I do not need a reply from you in any event but you are free to refute what you presume is not true. I also realize how heavy these issues are to elaboration in one short opinion article.  So I hope Uganda Correspondent serializes this letter until the message is delivered to my brother Ofwono Opondo from Tororo, the NRM Deputy Spokesperson.

The falsehoods of your article of November 29^th could be summed as follows: the presumptions you bring out to convince the North and North East of Uganda are old stories that are well known even in Eastern Uganda.

Secondly, the fact that you are a journalist who thrives on guess work makes you think that propaganda other than well researched work can hoodwink voters in the North and North East.  That is very hollow thinking.  If anything, it confirms that the NRM is a party which thrives on deceit and brown envelopes as spearheaded by the spin baron master briber himself.

Thirdly, you should know that Ugandans are not stupid.  They all know that the NRM will never undertake any genuine development projects in the north and north east with national resources.  Instead, if it must, it will only do so with foreign funds which, in typical NRM style, must be preceded by some sort of kickback.

As NRM Spokesman, I am surprised you still want to talk about WNBF and UPA as an agenda for 2011 campaign.  Unfortunately what you call WNBF or West Nile Bank Front actually never existed. What existed was West Bank Front which was part of the Uganda Peoples Democratic Army [UPDA] in which Gulu RDC Walter Ochora served as a key member until he surrendered to Museveni who quickly gave him amnesty and made him a high ranking officer in the present Uganda People’s Defence Force [UPDF]

Reviving the debate about of UPDA, as you did in your article, is in my view an attempt to arouse memories from people in the north and north east about what the Ochoras did while pretending to fight for the liberation of the very people they were maiming.

As for Uganda People’s Army [UPA], you have Musa Ecweru in your government.  He knows exactly what happened while he was in UPA; including the circumstances under which Museveni’s NRA committed the Mukura Massacre; a massacre that Museveni wants Ugandans to forget but has since failed.

Mr. Ofwono Opondo, if this is what you think peace in the two regions means, then please think again.  While some Ugandans may forgive, others will neither forgive nor forget what your party leaders did in those regions.  It seems to me that the time may be first approaching for the perpetrators of those atrocities to prepare to face the mighty hand of the law in either Uganda or at the ICC in The Hague.  They might do well to learn some lessons from Charles Tailor now.

Let’s now look at these quotes from your article:

“…When re-elected, NRM will consolidate peace, security and stability so far established by ensuring increased presence and effectiveness of law and order enforcement.”

“…NRM will multiply affirmative action already being taken to help communities in the North and North East “catch up” with the rest of the country in development.”

“…NUSAF and PRDP are multi-sectoral programmes that NRM will vigorously implement and monitor to ensure quality delivery, and stoppage of corruption.”

“…Already thousands of classrooms, teachers’ houses, science laboratories, nursery schools, boreholes, health units, roads, bridges have been built or earmarked for construction.”

I have to ask you if these are the kind of things the NRM Manifesto has to offer in the 2011–2016 period.  If so, then get the following views from the people you are talking about.

NRM has never conceived or provided peace in the North and North East as you seem to suggest.  If anything, it is actually during the 25 years of NRM rule that the North and North East have experienced persistent war, imposed poverty, and socio-economic deprivation.

Mr. Rauxen Zedriga’s article continues next week.  END. Please log into www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.