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Museveni Blasts Colonial Powers

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
October 9, 2004
Posted to the web October 11, 2004

By Steven Candia And Joyce Namutebi
Kampala
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has blamed colonialists for the conflicts, which have
plagued Africa such as in Darfur in Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).
He was closing an international seminar on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW)
at Speke Resort Munyonyo yesterday.
Museveni said small arms would not find market if there were no unresolved
issues. He said it was not enough to address the issue of small arms without
addressing the reasons for their demand.
He said there should also be mechanisms to ensure that manufacturers do not
sell arms to unauthorised people. The seminar was attended by about 100
civilians, security officers from Africa, international experts and European
and US government officials.
Museveni listed causes that generate demand for small arms as undemocratic
power, group marginalisation, impunity, under-development and ordinary crime.
He said undemocratic power was a hangover from colonial times. He said that for
much of the 1800s and 1900s, no arrangements were made for democratic
governance in Africa.
He said the British took over Uganda in 1894 but no elections were held until
1961. "I hear the British these days are preaching democracy around the world,"
he said.
"If you look at the conflict in Southern Sudan, this is the problem. It was
supposed to be an Afro-Arabic country but people in Khartoum decided to make it
Arabic," he said.
Museveni accused Belgium for the conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi. He said the
Hutu and Tutsis had lived amicably for long until the Belgians manipulated them
against each other.

   

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