Museveni’s war on Al-Shabaab is a red-herring
By Abbey K. Semuwemba – 2nd–8th Aug 2010
The Author
I don’t agree with those who support the government’s position to wage a full scale war on Al-Shabaab Militants. History has shown that the war on terror, if that is what we intend to fight, is not won that way. The attack on Al-Shabaab Militants is certainly not the heart of the matter.
I disagree with president Museveni’s war drums because I believe he is not focusing on the problem of terrorism. It seems he has an agenda that has not been presented to Ugandans succinctly. I suspect that one of the reasons why the government is war mongering is to get people to think of war instead of domestic issues. Most leaders do so to deflect attention from their inadequacies. I really don’t understand our need to go to war with Al-Shabab despite the recent bombs in Kampala. For a start, we simply don’t have resources to fight such wars.
Museveni should not fall into the trap that former US president George Bush fell into after the Sept 11th attacks on New York. In the aftermath of these attacks, Bush told the world that the war on terror will be worn only to turn around later in an interview with Matt Lauer of the Today Show to say that, “I don’t think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world”. Of course, some of us had already seen that a war against terror cannot be won by bombing and waging several wars.
Religious connotations of terrorism
The insinuation or perception that all Muslims are terrorists is quite simply wrong. There are over a billion Muslims in the world and about 9 million in Uganda. If they all supported Kampala’s 7/11 bombings, we would have a problem on our hands. It is therefore wrong to refer to Al-Shabaab as “Muslim combatants’’ and “Jihadists’’.
They are “terrorists” and “terrorism” is simply a tactic of war. Even today’s Western democracies used terrorism as a war tactic in the past. Weren’t the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki acts of terrorism? In my opinion, the solution lies in developing a counter-terrorism policy that does not play into the hands of extremists who take advantage of the fact that Islam has no central scripture interpretation authority like the Vatican for example with the result being that there are often conflicting interpretations of some verses in the Koran
What is FDC’s & IPC’s stand on terrorism?
Now that we know the NRM’s position on fighting Al-Shabaab’s terrorism, we would like to know FDC’s stand on this since we have been reading conflicting reports from the party officials ever since the bombings on 11th July. Is it really asking too much for the second largest political party in Uganda to put forth some official statement of position on terrorism and how to deal with it? IPC should also have an official position on this instead of newspapers quoting Dr Besigye and Lukyamuzi as having different views on the issue.
The perception among some Ugandans is that FDC and the rest of the opposition would simply shut down the war on terror and commit to a policy of appeasement. So I call upon the opposition to break that perception and show us that there are other people besides president Museveni who are committed to addressing the problem of terrorism in Uganda and Africa in general.
The solution to terrorism
I consider terrorists to be like common criminals. As such, the way to get rid of them [we’ll never get rid of evil] is to simply limit them through detective work. One defeats terrorism by undermining the conditions that breed terrorists. Economic inequality, crushing poverty, shattered educational infrastructures, rampant violence and a total lack of hope are the soil in which suicide bombers germinate. Until one gets rid of those conditions, there will always be terrorism. Somalia is fertile with such conditions. So a simple act of war with it will never make Ugandans safer. We should do a more thorough assessment before we think of war with Al-Shahab militants otherwise we may breed more problems for our people.
Mr. Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba is a Ugandan living in the United Kingdom
