[allAfrica.com] [Africare_Memorial_Dinner] Arrow Boys Are UPDF Reserves The Monitor (Kampala) OPINION September 8, 2003 Posted to the web September 8, 2003 By Yoweri Museveni Kampala The small standing army has defeated Kony...Maybe the only question to ask is, why he has not been eliminated? It is tragic to read about the puerile lies and misinformation by the editor of The Monitor in his editorial of September 5, 2003. The Monitor is very worried about the people's uprising against their ally - [Joseph] Kony. The Monitor and those that have, for long, been the enemies of democracy, principled unity of the people and social transformation are very worried about the people's uprising. Their lies go as follows: * By the people taking up arms, it means that "UPDF has failed to do their constitutional duty of defending the people"; * By the people taking up arms to defend their families, their peace and their development, it means that "the society is being militarised"; * "If Kony has not been defeated by the UPDF, what chances do the armed civilians have? They will simply be massacred by the rebels". What a wonderful "engineer" of lies for sinister motives The Monitor is? Let us deal with the lies one by one: * "The UPDF has failed; that is why the people are taking up arms to defend themselves." What, then, is UPDF? The Monitor does not know that it is the Uganda People's Defence Forces. It is a defence force comprising of the people of Uganda. Right from the beginning, we enunciated the line of democratising the gun. This was in order to prevent the dictatorships that used to use narrow tribal armies. Indeed, Article 3(4) of the 1995 Constitution makes it mandatory for all able- bodied Ugandans to master military science in order to defend the sovereignty of Uganda and the Constitution. Kony and his allies - including The Monitor - have for long been violating both. They are traitors, who work with external sinister forces to kill our people, infect children with Aids, and disrupt development programmes. In so doing, they also violate the Constitution. The Kony bandits with their internal and their external allies should expect the legitimate fury of the overwhelming majority of the people of Uganda. The people of Uganda have more than the legitimate cause to fight Kony and his internal and external backers. In order to remind The Monitor, there is no distinction between UPDF and the people. Surely, Monitor remembers that in 1991, we opted for a small standing army that would be a nucleus of a vast National Defence Force. A small standing army comprised of officers, NCOs and technical teams, as well as a very large militia force. When there are no security threats, we only maintain the small standing army, Police and intelligence services. When there are security threats, then, we call up a militia force to expand the capacity of the national defence. In the last 17 years, we have trained two million fighters through mchakamchaka. Therefore, the Arrow groups, the Anti-Stock Theft Unit (ASTU) of Karamoja, the LDUs in all parts of the country, are all part of the vast national defence capacity. Therefore, those who have been making trouble should have known the ultimate consequences of their treason. We have been reluctant to activate this vast potential in order not to squander resources. This is why, in spite of being in conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sudan, etc, mainly combating terrorists sponsored by some regional states, we have maintained a peacetime budget at only 2 percent of GDP. However, those that are associated with treason and terrorism should know the ultimate consequences of their actions. If ever we need to go to a wartime budget, it will be done. Therefore, the activation of the militia groups, who are the reserves of the UPDF, should not be surprising except to those blinded by greed and evil mindedness like The Monitor. If you fly over Acholi and, now some parts of Teso and Lango, you see numerous brand new buildings for schools, health centres, etc. with shining mabaati (iron sheets). People's personal homes in areas like Teso are, for the first time, being built in permanent materials. It is the idea of interfering with these wonderful developments and also interfering with the children's schooling timetable that drives the population mad. Therefore, UPDF has not failed in their duty. On account of persistent terrorist activities, UPDF is calling up reserves. Fortunately, on account of huge anger against the traitors, there is massive over-subscription in terms of volunteers. This is mainly because of the great development programmes that have opened people's eyes. We are training selected numbers from these militias. The traitors will be overwhelmed by the might of the united people of Uganda. "Are the people being militarised"? Not at all. Most of the people have been living peacefully at home. It is the crimes of the traitors that are provoking us into a response. Since The Monitor worships certain foreign examples, they ought to know that many countries in the developed world have this system of militias. Switzerland, Sweden, UK (Territorial Army), USA (National Guards), Israel, etc. At one time China had a militia force of 200 million men and women. Monitor, what is wrong with Uganda also having a National Reserve Force? If Kony had not been "defeated" by the small standing army, how will the army, expanded with reserves, manage to "defeat" him? This is not a serious question to ask! The small standing army has defeated Kony. That is why he has never captured a single trading centre. That is why he has no liberated territory - there is no any part of Uganda that is a no go area for the Government army. He has tried to attack Gulu town, Kitgum town, and Soroti town. All these times the small standing army easily defeated him. May be, the only question to ask, is why he has not been eliminated? One reason is because of the support by some regional elements. However, the other reason is not mobilising enough people and not spending adequately on defence. Mobilising the reserve militias (Arrow groups, Rhino, the vigilantes in Karamoja, the LDUs, etc.) is, partly, addressing the question of mobilisation. The armed militias will not be "massacred" by Kony. Kony has been "massacring" unarmed civilians - the bus at Katine, the civilians in the outskirts of Soroti town, Namukora, Atiak, etc. The solution of "massacres" is for the National Defence system to mobilise - call up more manpower and buy better equipment. The people who are mobilised and armed cannot be "massacred" as The Monitor and their allies are saying. A few may be killed in action. However, massacres never happen where the people are empowered with the gun. It is only the innocent, unarmed that are massacred. The standing army, which The Monitor remembers, was reduced in size in 1991 from 100,000 to 40,000, has defended the strategic centres of the country: towns, trading centers, airports, bridges, etc. and all the borders of Uganda. That is why the terrorists of Kony, in spite of the wishes of their supporters, do not have a liberated territory and much less a zone of administrative control, in spite of their 17 year-old-terrorism, much of it spent hiding in the Sudan. If you may compare with the National Resistance Army (NRA), that had no border with any country, we had a liberated territory by 1982 and by 1985, we had a rival administration covering half of the country. Why have all the terrorist groups supported by the Sudan and other reactionaries in the region, Kony inclusive, never created such control over any part of Uganda's territory? It is because of the strength of UPDF, in spite of its reduced size and certain internal weaknesses notwithstanding. Yet Kony received massive infusion of weapons - rifles, anti-tank weapons, mines, etc. If the Konys and their supporters were sensible, they would have given up in the face of this strength of the UPDF and the wananchi of Uganda, especially given the fact that they were given amnesty for their numerous crimes. However, Kony and his backers, being bankrupt, cannot read the strategic picture. When they fail in denting the control of UPDF, they launch massive massacres against the population. Of course, this creates problems for the reduced UPDF and a weak Police Force, which Maj. Gen. Katumba Wamala is trying to shape up. When people are massacred, they flee into the Internally Displaced People's camps. Then the army must divide itself up to guard the IDPCs. Since the IDPCs must be fed, it means that the army must secure the roads and protect the convoys of food. They must also protect the ordinary road users. Yet, at the same time, they must ensure that the countryside, now emptied of people, is manned by zonal forces in order to deny the bandits using it as a base. The Konys and their criminal backers imagine that the UPDF will have no answers for such challenges. However, we have long prepared for such challenges. That is why, last year, we trained a very large number of officer cadets. Around these, and those trained earlier, we can, if necessary, build a very large army. The technical units - tank crews, artillery, pilots, etc., were trained long ago. What, therefore, is needed is for us to raise more infantry to flood the countryside and, assisted by the standing army, wipe out the bandits so that the people go back to their homes and peace is restored. This is what happened in Kasese. Hence, the need for the Arrow boys, the vigilantes, the LDUs (different names but same content) - a massive reserve around a small professional army. Why have we not called this massive reserve before? There are two answers to this question: first of all, reluctance on our side to spend more money on the army so that we could do other things; secondly, the misguided pressure from donors. More mobilization means more money spent on defence. However, under-spending on defence also had its advantages: the money saved built a large number of schools, heath centres, boreholes, rural roads, etc. It is this development that has actually mobilised the people in Lango and Teso. They cannot countenance any criminal idiot disturbing their development on account of greed for power outside the Constitution. I salute the Ugandan people in Teso, Lango, Acholi and Karamoja, not to forget other parts of Uganda, for rising up against the terrorist criminals and their traitor allies. In particular, I salute the work done by the UPDF and Movement cadres in defending people, their reduced numbers since 1991 and some internal weaknesses notwithstanding. The author is President of the Republic of Uganda.   =============================================================================   Copyright © 2003 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). =============================================================================