CDF WRONG TO PUNISH SOLDIERS FOR BEATING JOURNALISTS
By JK Quotes random thoughts
Having observed and lived through numerous riots and violent mass altercations in Uganda, I believe the CDF is mistaken to punish his soldiers for beating journalists who freely choose to be embedded with violent insurrectionists whose clearly stated objective is to topple an elected government.
In such riots there are two main sides of belligerents; on one side you have foreign funded and organised rioters/mobs/insurrectionists with a clearly stated aim of regime change who embed journalists in their forces and on the other hand you have government forces who took an oath to protect and defend the country and its laws and order.
The journalists who were assaulted were not independent and neutral, they were embedded in the insurrectionists groups to fight government.
I have witnessed so many riots in Uganda including *Mabira Forest riots of April 2007*,
*Kayunga riots of September 2009*,
*Kasubi tombs riots March 2010* plus the endless Besigye and Lukwago riots During this whole time there has never been a single riot in Rwanda yet their citizens are suffering more than Ugandans, why? The answer is *IMPUNITY*. There is no impunity or appeasement in Rwanda. Arresting those soldier’s who were doing their job in a complex environment will send the wrong message to both the soldiers that they are not protected and to the insurrectionists that impunity is allowed.
By embedding themselves with insurrectionists those journalists became legitimate targets for the soldiers to subdue by all means necessary.
Though started for different reasons these riots always exhibit similar characteristics:
1. They take place in the same area’s i.e. Kiseka Market, Kalerwe, Kamwokya, Wandegeya, Najjanankumbi etc. Not a single riot has ever happened in Bugolobi, Muyenga, Munyonyo Kasanga, Nalya, Naguru, Kololo.
2. They result into robbery and especially of women.
3. Ethnic hatred and bigoted chants come to the surface e.g. against Indians, Banyankole, Banyarwanda, Westerners, Basheshe etc.
4. There’s always a well coordinated media campaign including international media (BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera).
5. After the riots there is always chorused condemnation by Religious Leaders, Diplomatic community, Cultural leaders etc.
Government needs to understand that this is a war unlike other wars it has fought. The enemy is not obvious, the Strategy/tactics are not not conventional but it still remains a war. The battle space is not in the Mogadishu or Nzara mould, it’s on LCD tv screens and smartphones in the minds and hearts of youth who know nothing about Luwero triangle. The fighters and equipment to win this war won’t be Sukhois and Tanks or Commandos it will be brains which understand the terrain of propaganda and judicial systems which don’t promote impunity.