Ugandan judges and generals face off before polls

KAMPALA – Black-clad soldiers brandishing assault rifles spring from minibuses and fan out around Uganda’s High Court to re-arrest 14 suspects accused of treason with a top opposition leader.

The judge withdraws from the case, without saying why. Next, a general tells local radio the army will not accept orders from the courts, and says judges are helping terrorists and forgetting who appointed them in the first place.Two days later the replacement judge in the treason case also withdraws, citing insomnia, stress and high blood pressure.”I still love my dear life,” Judge John Bosco Katutsi told a packed courtroom.”I do not want to die a martyr.”Tensions between Uganda’s judges and the powerful army are at boiling point ahead of tomorrow’s presidential polls – pitting President Yoweri Museveni against opposition leader Kizza Besigye who is facing treason charges.Analysts say the risks of these tensions exploding are high.Many Ugandans expect the results of the most hotly disputed election in decades to be challenged in court – whoever wins.Such a challenge, analysts say, would be the ultimate test of the independence of the east African country’s judiciary.In a nation with bitter memories of bloodshed under dictators like Idi Amin and Milton Obote – who relied on force of arms and had little respect for the law – many see the freedom of the courts as key to progress and recovery.Katutsi did not mention the army when he withdrew from the Besigye case but the opposition said he was clearly intimidated by scathing comments this month from General David Tinyefuza, the president’s top security adviser and intelligence chief.”We have given (judges) power …Why are they always looking as if they are siding with the offenders?” he asked.MUSEVENI UNDER FIRE Tinyefuza was particularly angry that the Constitutional Court decided the military had no right to charge Besigye and his co-accused before a court martial.He has been unrepentant despite widespread criticism of his remarks.”It is the generals who liberated this country when judges were hiding under their beds,” he said last week.Retired general Museveni, who has brought relative peace and stability to Uganda since seizing power 20 years ago after a five-year guerrilla war, is favourite to win the poll but his image has taken a beating in recent months.Once a darling of Western donors, he has come under fire for what critics say is his increasingly autocratic rule.Western donors have already cut aid to the east African nation to protest Besigye’s prosecution.Besigye’s opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) says Museveni used Tinyefuza to order the November 16 raid on the High Court by soldiers from the ‘Black Mambas Urban Hit Squad’, a new military intelligence unit.Several Western diplomats were at the court at the time and were shocked.”I think it will be seen as a turning point,” said one senior Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity.”It was maybe the moment the veil lifted a little on the regime.”Judge James Ogoola, the chief of the High Court, called the raid “naked rape” and “a day of infamy” comparable only to the abduction and murder of the chief justice from the same building in 1972 under Amin’s rule.Uganda’s Law Society agreed.Ten days after Ogoola’s comments, around 100 lawyers went on strike, protesting in black robes at the court and calling on Attorney General Khiddu Makubuya – the government’s top legal adviser – to resign.’DESCENT INTO ANARCHY’ Under a hot sun, society president Moses Adriko climbed onto a bench under a mango tree and urged the state to show restraint and avoid a “descent into anarchy”.The crowd cheered.Analysts say the pressure on Uganda’s judiciary has been growing for years and will only mount further.”Since the 1990s, our courts have become a sort of parliament, being forced into making decisions that are perhaps better made in a political arena,” says veteran Ugandan political commentator Charles Onyango-Obbo.”It is not tenable for them to continue ruling against the government …It is very worrying for their independence.”Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki vowed earlier this month that no military threat could undermine the judiciary’s work.But the toughest battles may be ahead, with a government spokesman last week accusing both Odoki and Ogoola of grandstanding and making their politics abundantly clear.”Your legitimacy is eroding fast,” Robert Kabushenga, head of the government’s media centre, said in an open letter to the pair published in a state-owned newspaper.”It is the executive that has negotiated all the funding that has gone into improving facilities, pay and expanding of the courts,” wrote Kabushenga, a former lawyer.”What do we get in return? A slow justice system, crippled by a lethal combination of laziness and inertia.”- Nampa-Reuters * See also report on page 8.Next, a general tells local radio the army will not accept orders from the courts, and says judges are helping terrorists and forgetting who appointed them in the first place.Two days later the replacement judge in the treason case also withdraws, citing insomnia, stress and high blood pressure.”I still love my dear life,” Judge John Bosco Katutsi told a packed courtroom.”I do not want to die a martyr.”Tensions between Uganda’s judges and the powerful army are at boiling point ahead of tomorrow’s presidential polls – pitting President Yoweri Museveni against opposition leader Kizza Besigye who is facing treason charges.Analysts say the risks of these tensions exploding are high.Many Ugandans expect the results of the most hotly disputed election in decades to be challenged in court – whoever wins.Such a challenge, analysts say, would be the ultimate test of the independence of the east African country’s judiciary.In a nation with bitter memories of bloodshed under dictators like Idi Amin and Milton Obote – who relied on force of arms and had little respect for the law – many see the freedom of the courts as key to progress and recovery.Katutsi did not mention the army when he withdrew from the Besigye case but the opposition said he was clearly intimidated by scathing comments this month from General David Tinyefuza, the president’s top security adviser and intelligence chief.”We have given (judges) power …Why are they always looking as if they are siding with the offenders?” he asked. MUSEVENI UNDER FIRE Tinyefuza was particularly angry that the Constitutional Court decided the military had no right to charge Besigye and his co-accused before a court martial.He has been unrepentant despite widespread criticism of his remarks.”It is the generals who liberated this country when judges were hiding under their beds,” he said last week.Retired general Museveni, who has brought relative peace and stability to Uganda since seizing power 20 years ago after a five-year guerrilla war, is favourite to win the poll but his image has taken a beating in recent months.Once a darling of Western donors, he has come under fire for what critics say is his increasingly autocratic rule.Western donors have already cut aid to the east African nation to protest Besigye’s prosecution.Besigye’s opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) says Museveni used Tinyefuza to order the November 16 raid on the High Court by soldiers from the ‘Black Mambas Urban Hit Squad’, a new military intelligence unit.Several Western diplomats were at the court at the time and were shocked.”I think it will be seen as a turning point,” said one senior Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity.”It was maybe the moment the veil lifted a little on the regime.”Judge James Ogoola, the chief of the High Court, called the raid “naked rape” and “a day of infamy” comparable only to the abduction and murder of the chief justice from the same building in 1972 under Amin’s rule.Uganda’s Law Society agreed.Ten days after Ogoola’s comments, around 100 lawyers went on strike, protesting in black robes at the court and calling on Attorney General Khiddu Makubuya – the government’s top legal adviser – to resign.’DESCENT INTO ANARCHY’ Under a hot sun, society presiden
t Moses Adriko climbed onto a bench under a mango tree and urged the state to show restraint and avoid a “descent into anarchy”.The crowd cheered.Analysts say the pressure on Uganda’s judiciary has been growing for years and will only mount further.”Since the 1990s, our courts have become a sort of parliament, being forced into making decisions that are perhaps better made in a political arena,” says veteran Ugandan political commentator Charles Onyango-Obbo.”It is not tenable for them to continue ruling against the government …It is very worrying for their independence.”Chief Justice Benjamin Odoki vowed earlier this month that no military threat could undermine the judiciary’s work.But the toughest battles may be ahead, with a government spokesman last week accusing both Odoki and Ogoola of grandstanding and making their politics abundantly clear.”Your legitimacy is eroding fast,” Robert Kabushenga, head of the government’s media centre, said in an open letter to the pair published in a state-owned newspaper.”It is the executive that has negotiated all the funding that has gone into improving facilities, pay and expanding of the courts,” wrote Kabushenga, a former lawyer.”What do we get in return? A slow justice system, crippled by a lethal combination of laziness and inertia.”- Nampa-Reuters * See also report on page 8.