By M. Suleman

26^th Nov 2012: History repeats itself. The whole drama in DRC is a repeat of what happened in Uganda, Rwanda and DRC in the recent past.

When Museveni launched his guerrilla war against the Obote II government, he begun with a handful of men, duped people into negotiations, infiltrated, then launched a simple take over.

The same was done in Rwanda in 1994 and in DRC in 1997.  Same tactics, same rhetoric, same objectives, same efficient brutality!  M23 is using the same war script that Museveni and Kagame have used to capture state power.

In 1980, after miserably losing the presidential election, Museveni run to the bush – claiming that the elections had been rigged.  The main opposition party at the time, the Democratic Party (DP), acted honourably to avoid bloodshed in the country.

The Obote government wasn’t too bothered by Museveni’s guerrilla campaign, largely because it had well trained soldiers and expected to round Museveni’s rebels up swiftly.  But it wasn’t to be.  Museveni launched daring military attacks on both military and civilian targets, all of which left Luwero Triangle awash with blood.

Obote refused to negotiate with Museveni on four grounds: a) That Museveni had no constituency in Uganda and therefore represented nobody.  B) That his NRA forces were made up of refugees from Rwanda.  c) That Museveni himself was not a Ugandan. d) That Museveni had no sensible agenda for the development of the country.

By the time Gen. Tito Okello overthrew Obote’s government in 1985, the national army was already fatigued by war.  So, in a desperate attempt to get the support of Southern and Central Uganda, Tito Okello declared a truce and called on all fighting forces to negotiate – hence the Nairobi peace talks, or Nairobi Peace Jokes as they came to be known!

Museveni’s modus operandi was simple: He pretended to be engaged in peace negotiations while recruiting children to fight for him at the same time.  Secondly, he infiltrated urban centres and launched a campaign of terror to maximize resentment against government forces.

As soon as he felt ready, he abandoned the peace talks and launched an offensive against government soldiers who had laid down their arms to observe the ceasefire.  Unsurprisingly, Museveni triumphed – and the rest is history.

The Rwandese refugees who helped Museveni come to power now wanted Museveni to help them fight their way back to their country and take over governance.  Soon, with Museveni’s help, the Rwandese refugees constituted themselves under the (RPF/RPA) and launched an armed struggle against President Habyarimana’s government.

Habyarimana eventually accepted to negotiate with the RPF/RPA.  Like Museveni’s NRM/NRA, RPF/RPA pretended to be negotiating with Habyarimana while recruiting and preparing for war at the same time.  When they were ready, they pulled the trigger and Habyarimana was killed.  The rest is history.

Museveni and Kagame then passed the same war script to Laurent Kabila who was fighting to overthrow Mubutu’s government in Zaire (now DRC).  Soon they were in Kinshasa. When Kabila demanded that NRA/RPF leave his country, they simply ran to eastern DRC and launched an armed struggle to overthrow him.

Only the combined force of Angola, Zimbabwe & Co saved Kabila – but not before he was forced to sign a peace deal that would see NRA/RPA integrated into the Congolese army.  But these were aliens – so they never fitted.  They soon started disappearing and resurfacing under different rebel group names.

Now they have resurfaced again as M23 which is coming up with bogus accusations against President Joseph Kabila: That he rigged the elections, that he underpaid the NRA/RPA (that was now operating under the name CNDP) forced upon him, etc.

Museveni’s NRA and Kagame’s RPA, the M23 also used the period of calm ushered in by the 2009 ceasefire to recruit, infiltrate, and attack Goma.  Now their eyes are set on Kinshasa.  History is tragically repeating itself. END: Login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories mid-week for our updates

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