President Museveni Shaking hands with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon during the side-lines of the High Level Thematic Debate at United Nations General Headquarters in New York on Monday May 4, 2015. PPU Photo
President Yoweri Museveni with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (right) and the President of the United Nations General Assembly Sam Kutesa on the side-lines of the High Level Thematic Debate at United Nations General Headquarters in New York on Monday May 4, 2015. PPU Photo
The United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon has appealed to President Yoweri Museveni to help avert the deteriorating situation in Burundi and restore peace in the central African country. He also urged the Ugandan leader to try and bring the two warring factions in the South Sudan conflict to negotiate conclusive peace agreements for the country.
Ban Ki Moon and President Museveni met on the sidelines of the UN High Level Thematic Debate on UN cooperation with Regional and Sub-Regional Organisations in the maintenance of global peace and security for development. The two leaders also discussed regional issues covering Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo -DRC.
The Secretary General thanked President Museveni for delivering the key note address and commended him and other regional leaders for their efforts that brought peace to Burundi. He also thanked President Museveni for his efforts in stabilizing Somalia under AMISOM.
In response President Museveni told the Secretary General that the Al Shabaab in Somalia has largely been defeated in towns but still roam the rural areas and called for more deployments in order to contain them.
The meeting was also attended by the UN General Assembly President Sam Kutesa, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Mr Okello Oryem and Uganda’s Ambassador to the to the United Nations Dr. Richard Nduhura.
Later, President Museveni held a bilateral meeting with the Tanzanian leader Jakaya Kikwete in New York and the two discussed matters of mutual interest.
The President Museveni also held discussions with the Swedish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Mr. Annika Soder, focusing mainly on who the situation in Somalia.
John Kikonyogo says working with Sejjusa would be against the party’s principals
Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) has distanced it’s self from working with General David Sejusa so long as he is still in the army. This was revealed today at the party’s head offices in Najanankumbi.
Speaking at the press release, the FDC National spokesperson, John Kikonyogo said that working with Sejjusa would be against the party’s principals that strongly barr army officers from participating in politics.
Kikonyogo said that the party is against the army participating in politics and FDC agreeing to talk to General Sejjusa would be in contradiction to the party’s core principals. “We want Nyakairima out of cabinet and allowing Gen.Sejjusa wouldn’t look good, it would be eating our own words,” said Kikonyogo.
The party spokesperson revealed that no one was barred from talking to Gen. Sejjusa on personal terms. He disclosed that for the FDC to meet the General for talks, he must first retire from the army. ”We don’t have any problem with it, let him get out of the army so that he participates in politics freely,” urged Kikonyogo. “No one has been stopped from talking to Gen. Sejjusa on personal terms but as a party we cannot.”
It was disclosed by the party spokesperson that the FDC party had instructed the Leader of Opposition in Parliament , Hon. Wafula Oguttu to follow up on the retirement requests by army officers. “We have to take those army officers who want to retire to be allowed. Why should someone be kept in the army against his will?” asked Kikonyogo.
About the current opposition5 pressure groups, Kikonyogo said that the FDC party was in support of their activities since they are pushing for various reforms in the country. “We are in terms with them (pressure groups) because they are putting pressure on government, we have no problem with that.”
Kikonyogo also revealed that the FDC party was not happy with the Electoral Commision for the way they have handled the voter registration exercise . The spokesperson said that time for verifying the contents of the register was not enough and that the EC should have extended the time.” They should have retained the 2006 register. They are using a register which was not rightly compiled,” Kikonyogo said. “By extracting data from the identity card register, they are forcing people who didn’t want to vote to be included. The 2006 register should not be discarded.’
These remarks were made after political analysts claimed that FDC was afraid of working with the General. General David Sejjusa has been visiting different political parties to discuss ways on how to form a single political force that would oust the NRM government out of power.
The princess follows a long line of royals named Charlotte
The princess follows a long line of royals named Charlotte
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have named their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, Kensington Palace has said.
The fourth in line to the throne will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge.
She was born on Saturday in the Lindo Wing of London’s St Mary’s Hospital weighing 8lbs 3oz (3.7kg).
The Queen and other senior royals were told of the baby’s name before the announcement was made public.
The BBC’s royal correspondent Peter Hunt said that a Kensington Palace official, when asked about the couple’s choice of name, said: “We’ll let the names speak for themselves.”
Charlotte, the feminine form of Charles, has a long royal pedigree and became popular in the 18th Century when it was the name of George III’s queen.
The King bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a family home close to St James’s Palace – it became known as the Queen’s House and is now Buckingham Palace.
Charles is the name of two former kings and of the Prince of Wales, the princess’s grandfather.
Charlotte also has more recent connections for the royal couple.
On the duchess’s side, it is the middle name of her sister Pippa Middleton and on the duke’s it is the name of his cousin Charlotte Spencer, Earl Spencer’s youngest daughter.
The earl tweeted: “Perfect names. My 2-year old Charlotte Diana will be thrilled at cousinly name-sharing.”
Elizabeth is 39th in the list but Diana is not in the top 100.
The duke and duchess and their daughter have been at home in Kensington Palace since leaving hospital on Saturday evening.
It is understood they will remain there for the time being before travelling to their country home, Anmer Hall, on the Queen’s Sandringham estate, in Norfolk.
Royal historian Hugo Vickers said the choice of Charlotte as a name seemed to be based on taste rather than history.
“I don’t think she is burdened by any history associated with it and to be honest I think they just chose the name because they liked it, which is what they do and what we respect about them.
“We historians can always find someone called Charlotte but I think basically they just liked the name.”
Historian Dr Judith Rowbotham, of the University of Plymouth, said: “None of the Charlottes in the history of the British royal family have been lacking in character and personality, so one hopes that this one lives up to that name.”
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By Peter Hunt, BBC royal correspondent
Hard facts and royal pregnancies, labours and births are not natural bedfellows.
They represent a moment where the very personal, a couple celebrating the arrival of a daughter, collide with the very public – the father is a future king.
So, we don’t know why William and Kate chose Charlotte as the first name of the fourth in line to the throne.
It conveniently has links to the Middletons, the present Windsors and past royals.
Elizabeth and Diana are more obvious choices.
Prince William has spoken of how, as he becomes older, his grandmother has become an even more important part of his life.
And it was inevitable that he would honour his mother and inevitable that he wouldn’t “burden” his daughter with Diana as a first name.
As William said when he gave his fiancee his mother’s engagement ring, it’s a way of keeping her “close to it all”.
Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated the duke and duchess on their new arrival and said he had “always liked the name Charlotte”.
“It’s a lovely name, and it must be such a precious time for this young couple,” he said.
Earlier in the day gun salutes took place in London to mark the birth.
Soldiers from The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery rode out in a procession from Wellington Barracks, near Buckingham Palace, to sound 41 shots in Hyde Park .
At the same time, the Honourable Artillery Company left their Armoury House barracks in the City of London to fire a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said on Sunday: “The duke and duchess are hugely grateful for the messages of congratulations they have received from people all over the world.
“It means a great deal to them that so many people have celebrated the arrival of their new daughter.”
The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall spent more than an hour with their new granddaughter. The duchess’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and sister Pippa also met the princess.
Prince Harry, who narrowly missed the princess’s birth after returning to Australia to finish his secondment to the country’s military, said his new niece was “absolutely beautiful” and he could not wait to meet her.
Some of the residents who attended the voter registration exercise
Some of the residents who attended the voter registration exercise
The Electoral Commission this evening succumbs to public pressure and extends the voter registration exercise to May 11. This is the second time the election body extends the exercise which ended today.
Many registration centres around the country today were jammed with prospective voters as they lined up to beat the deadline of May 4.
The EC warned that the extension will affect the election process and cause delays. The election body will not give any further extension for the exercise.
President Museveni says the international community and the UN should respect regional processes to enable Africans solve their own problems.
Speaking at The High Level Thematic Debate On “Strengthening Cooperation Between The United Nations And Regional And Sub-Regional Orgnisations,” Museveni said, “The international community, including the UN, can only support and should, therefore, respect regional processes.”
You are all aware of the long period it takes the UN to deploy in a crisis situation. The process from initial consultations, to a “zero” draft resolution, through several rounds of negotiations on actual drafts to a final resolution authorizing any form of action, can take agonizingly long to come through.
That is if one or more of the Permanent Members with veto power does not use it to block the process. Some crises situations are such that an immediate and robust response is required.”
He argued that this can best be done by countries in the region.
He cited a situation that occurred in December 2013 in South Sudan saying “the UN Security Council is still debating the issue up to now!!!!”
He added that if we in the region had not acted quickly, the region could possibly have had another genocide.
“The neighbouring countries could have stopped the genocide of Rwanda in 1994. We could not do it because the UN was obstructing us.” SEE ADDRESS IN FULL
A Ugandan born, Mr Yahaya Kiyingi is closing in, in the race to become a representative of Camberwell and Peckham in the House of Commons in United Kingdom.
Mr Yahaya Kiyingi
Kiyingi, 23, is a force to reckon with as a parliamentary candidate for Camberwell and Peckham, one of the most diverse constituencies represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He faces stiff competition from Harriet Harman of the Labour Party who has represented the constituency for 30 years.
Yahaya was born in Uganda and his family moved over to Britain when he was 5 years old. He has developed numerous projects in his community which include being vice-chairman of a local charity, running and editing his own local magazine and radio show, working with the local council on special committees, organising various community events and serving on the local party executive. He has a love for literature, and runs a local book club with the aim to bring people in his communities together. Yahaya is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives.
He was brought up in inner city London, attended local schools and went to university to read Law at the University of Southampton. He works in marketing.
He joined the Lib Dems when he was 16, quickly winning a reputation for articulating the plight of young people. “Only the Liberal Democrats offer real opportunities for a fair and just future for all people of from all backgrounds, but especially the young,” he says. Yahaya loves the “diversity, friendly people and sense of real community in Camberwell & Peckham”.
A Voter at a polling station verifies her identity to vote
Hundreds of prospective voters today flocked voters registration centres to register ahead of the 2016 general elections. The verification exercise ends today 4 May.
Many Kampalans flocked various registration centers to cross-check register data after the Electoral Commission (EC) announced 4 May as the deadline date. On 29 April the Electoral Commission announced that it had extended the verification period to 4 May since many voters had not checked out their data.
According to the number of people at various centres today, it showed that many people had not registered and verified data. In Najjanakumbi, over 100 people lined up to check out the register at Namuli Church zone Voting Centre.
The EC official at the centre who wished to remain anonymous revealed that many people had been sent back home since time had run out. “I am not even sure these people lining up will cross check and verify their data;’ said the official.
Most voters at the centre complained and urged EC to give them more time since it’s them to blame for the delay. “We find it hard tracking these people they shift all the time, they should extend the exercise for one month,” said Busulwa Vincent a resident of Najanankmbi. The official said EC was not to blame but the people. “The verification exercise started on April 7, but they didn’t turn up.” The same sentiments are shared by Mbabazi Margret, the Chief Supervisor at Nooku Zone, Kisenyi 3 parish voting centre.
Many residents flocked voters registration centers to verify their registration identities ahead of the 2016 general elections.
Ms Mbabazi says that in the past month, few people verified the Voter’s Register and that during early April they would get about 10 to 15 people. “After EC announced it won’t extend the deadline, it’s when they are coming in big numbers, we have been verifying since early April but it’s now that they are coming.”
Some of the voters at Kikoni Zone C voting centre, said that the National Identity Card Registration exercise and National Voters’ Register Verification exercise confused them. “I was only told by a friend that I needed to check the voter’s register to verify my data, I didn’t mind at first because I thought they had my correct data from the Identication card register,” said Meele Nabankema.
“They didn’t sensitize us so much and am sure many people have not cross checked their information,” Kakande Gilbert a Boda Boda rider said.
Although there are a number of people that haven’t verified their data in the National Voters’ Register, the EC commission in a Press Release published on 29 April confirmed that there would not be any extensions after the 4 May deadline. Many election officials at the various verification centers have considered the exercise a success. They claim many people verified their information compared to those that did not.
The updated National Voter’s Register will be displayed for one month staring 20 June to 20 July.
The Electoral Commission this evening succumbs to public pressure and extends the voter registration exercise to May 11. This is the second time the election body extends the exercise which ended today.
Many registration centres around the country today were jammed with prospective voters as they lined up to beat the deadline of May 4.
The EC warned that the extension will affect the election process and cause delays. The election body will not give any further extension for the exercise.
A Ugandan born, Mr Yahaya Kiyingi is closing in, in the race to become a representative of Camberwell and Peckham in the House of Commons in United Kingdom.
Kiyingi, 23, is a force to reckon with as a parliamentary candidate for Camberwell and Peckham, one of the most diverse constituencies represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. He faces stiff competition from Harriet Harman of the Labour Party who has represented the constituency for 30 years.
Yahaya was born in Uganda and his family moved over to Britain when he was 5 years old. He has developed numerous projects in his community which include being vice-chairman of a local charity, running and editing his own local magazine and radio show, working with the local council on special committees, organising various community events and serving on the local party executive. He has a love for literature, and runs a local book club with the aim to bring people in his communities together. Yahaya is passionate about making a difference in people’s lives.
He was brought up in inner city London, attended local schools and went to university to read Law at the University of Southampton. He works in marketing.
He joined the Lib Dems when he was 16, quickly winning a reputation for articulating the plight of young people. “Only the Liberal Democrats offer real opportunities for a fair and just future for all people of from all backgrounds, but especially the young,” he says. Yahaya loves the “diversity, friendly people and sense of real community in Camberwell & Peckham”.
Your Excellency, the President of the UN General Assembly,
Your Excellency, the Secretary–General of the United Nations,
Your Excellencies Heads of State and Government,
Your Excellencies, Heads of Regional and Sub-Regional Organizations,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
This year, 2015, marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. When the UN was created, many of our countries did not exist as independent countries. In Africa, Ethiopia and Liberia were the only sovereign countries on the continent. While there have been some modest reforms in the UN since its creation in 1945, most of the fundamental structures that were created after World War II by the victorious powers, such as the powers conferred upon the Permanent Five countries in the Security Council, remain unchanged.
Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations provides for cooperation between the UN and Regional Organizations. Despite this, it reserves the right for the UN Security Council to authorize enforcement action. However, the crucial decisions of international peace and security, within the Security Council, are mostly taken by the veto-wielding members. This is a big mistake and has already caused alot of harm to Africa, like in the case of Libya where Africa’s opinion was ignored; hence, the present massive human haemorrhage in that area. If the Security Council members that took military action in Libya had listened to the voice of Africa, the present chaos in Libya, Nigeria, Mali, the people who are dying in the Mediterranean sea from the African shores trying to get to Europe, could have been avoided. In fact, Gaddaffi’s Libya used to employ many workers from Africa.
In any case, it was very presumptuous for the five permanent members to claim that they are responsible for global security. Out of the global human population that is now 7 billion people, the 5 permanent members represent only about 1.9 billion people. How and why should they monopolize the “responsibility” for global security? This is a structural deficiency in the architecture for global security.
To talk about strengthening cooperation, between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations, one has got to start by re-examining the structures of the whole UN itself and change some of the old fashioned ones to conform with the current realities. Uganda strongly believes that for genuine cooperation to occur between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations, reform of the UN in general, Security Council in particular, is imperative. This, in the long run, will help us, collectively, to prevent the use of the UN for national or group interests of the powerful members to undermine the efforts of regional organizations and of peace in the world.
In the meantime and as we strive to reform the UN into a modern and relevant organization that serves all its members based on sovereign equality as embedded in its Charter, the starting point for cooperation is that we need to reaffirm the Principle of Complementarity envisaged in Chapter VIII of the Charter as the basis for building and strengthening cooperation between the UN and regional and sub-regional organizations.
The United Nations should, therefore, respect processes that are undertaken by the regional organizations especially in areas of conflict resolution. While we abhor impunity, the UN approach that usually, superficially and without proper contextualization, emphasizes justice in instances of conflict resolution at the expense of long term peace, is manifestly self-defeating. In this regard, the UN should not just blindly pursue the option of placing sanctions on individuals or referring them to the ICC without holding consultations with the regions affected as this often undermines the very process of resolving the conflict in question. On the other hand, where the UN has worked in consonance with regional or sub-regional organizations, there have been tangible positive results as is the case in Somalia and Burundi. Many of the conflicts are results of distortions and mistakes of long duration, endogenously and exogenously authored and perpetuated. Therefore, last minute high-handed interventions without a thorough understanding of the dynamics of the situation are wrong and injurious to the hapless populations of the concerned areas.
President Museveni Delivering Keynote Address
Secondly, we need to harmonize our understanding of what complementarity entails. This, in our opinion, means the recognition that both the UN and regional organizations have various strengths and weaknesses and hence the need to complement rather than supplement each other’s roles in the areas of conflict prevention, mediation, resolution, peacekeeping and peace-building.
Thirdly, from Uganda’s and, indeed Africa’s, perspective, complementarity also entails sharing the burden of maintaining international peace and security, consultative decision-making and respect for regional processes, as well as division of labor based on comparative advantage.
Mr. President,
Many on the African continent and elsewhere have come around to agreeing with what Uganda and other African patriots have been advocating for, for long: African solutions for African problems. The international community, including the UN, can only support and should, therefore, respect regional processes. You are all aware of the long period it takes the UN to deploy in a crisis situation. The process from initial consultations, to a “zero” draft resolution, through several rounds of negotiations on actual drafts to a final resolution authorizing any form of action, can take agonizingly long to come through. That is if one or more of the Permanent Members with veto power does not use it to block the process. Some crises situations are such that an immediate and robust response is required. This can best be done by countries in the region. Such a situation occurred in December 2013 in South Sudan and the UN Security Council is still debating the issue up to now!!!! If we in the region had not acted when we did quickly, the region could possibly have had another genocide. The neighbouring countries could have stopped the genocide of Rwanda in 1994. We could not do it because the UN was obstructing us.
Uganda, therefore, strongly supports the establishment of the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC) which is an African owned initiative for rapid military intervention as and when the need arises, to quickly respond to crisis situations on the African continent. We believe, support to this mechanism will strengthen the international community’s resolve to deal with crises that threaten international and regional peace and security.
In situations where actual deployment by the UN has been taken as in Eastern DRC, the mandate of the mission is often so restricted that you end up with a “sitting duck” mission with troops in a “peace-keeping” role with no peace to keep. What we need in Africa is support from international community in terms of funding and equipment so that we can do the job ourselves. It is true that due to the phenomenon of colonialism and neo-colonialism in Africa, many of our countries still face challenges of ensuring peace for their nationals because they do not build capacity. Therefore, in cases where the national army and security forces fail to guarantee peace, the region can step in and only be supported by the international community, including the United Nations. I refer to this arrangement as the Trinity; that is to say the internal stakeholders, the region and the international community.
Where this has happened as in DRC with the internationally supported Intervention Brigade from contiguous African States, the results have been positive to some extent. Support for an African rapid response force would go a long way in strengthening cooperation between the UN, regional and sub-regional organizations.
Mr. President,
I have already referred to the support to the regions by the UN. The major challenge in addressing regional and sub-regional issues whether in peace and security, humanitarian response or regional integration and economic development, is inadequate resources. Most of the African countries have instituted reforms which have seen the region as a whole registering some of the fastest economic growth.
However, in the long run, we shall need partnerships with the international community, including the UN, to develop our own capacities. To demonstrate our resolve to address these challenges, Uganda strongly supports the African Union’s commitment to increase the proportion of the cost of AU peace operations covered by its Member States. This is in addition to contributing about 45% of the UN’s uniformed peacekeepers.
On the other hand, since the UN has the duty to support regional organizations as provided for in the Charter, Uganda supports the use of UN assessed contributions to support regional-led peace operations, based on the fact that the UNSC retains the primacy for the maintenance of international peace and security. This is because Uganda believes that the use of funding mechanisms like Trust Funds, while helpful in the short run, are unreliable and unpredictable since they are based on voluntary contributions.
We also believe that strengthening cooperation between the UN and Regional and Sub-regional Organizations, will greatly benefit the implementation of Post-2015 Development Agenda. On account of the leverage they have with their respective constituent member countries, regional and sub-regional organizations provide useful fora for policy coordination and harmonization on various ongoing important multilateral processes, including the Post 2015 Development Agenda, climate change, the WTO Doha Round, among others. They are also central in coordinating the implementation of the outcomes from these multilateral processes at their appropriate levels.
Regional and sub-regional organizations are at the centre of promoting cooperation and integration in areas such as trade and investment, infrastructure development, critical sectors including agriculture, energy, water, security, etc. as well as fostering private sector partnerships.
I cannot end my comments without making two final points. One point is the question of ideological disorientation. This entails the misdiagnosis of social, political or economic issues and acting on the basis of the misdiagnosis, especially with the use of force ─ regular or irregular.
In the past, that ideological disorientation manifested itself in the form of imperialism and colonialism. They caused so much damage to societies and peoples. The colonized peoples rose up and, after great sacrifices, defeated the overt aspects of imperialism and colonialism. Today, one of the forms of ideological disorientation is sectarianism of religion, tribe or, even, clans and chauvinism of gender and, sometimes, of race. This ideology of sectarianism and chauvinism is a pseudo ─ ideology that tries to promote the issue of identity in such a manner that it eclipses the very people’s legitimate interests of economic exchange, interaction and shared prosperity. Most of the time, they even mis-define identity on opportunistic and an irrational basis where the actors wish to remain “big fishes in small ponds” as one of our leaders once said. Many of the conflicts in the world are authored, promoted and fueled by this ideological disorientation. We cannot only deal with the consequences but not look at the causes. Some parts of the international community have been able to blacklist what they call anti-Semitism. Why can’t something be done about sectarianism and chauvinism? How can we hobnob with sectarianisms and chauvinists and then talk about global peace when these pseudo ─ ideologies are the causes of the very conflicts we are talking about?
President Museveni with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
The second point is the discipline and, indeed, orientation of the international forces, the regional forces or the local forces the UN system uses or relies on to keep or enforce peace. Uganda had become a failed State by the 1970s and 1980s. we were only able to rescue it by assaulting ideological disorientation mentioned above and dealing most harshly with indisciplined soldiers that loot people’s property, rape and defile women, take sex-slaves or commit homicide. If the UN system, the regional forces or those acting under us are not able to handle the question of discipline, we shall become part of the problem and not part of the solution.
I thank you.
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni
PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA
