Kibedi's Open Letter To Amin

KIBEDI'S OPEN LETTER TO AMIN.

Ever since I resigned from the office of Foreign Minister in you Government in April 1973, you have not ceased to broadcast slanders, calumnies and other fabrications about me.  Hitherto i have not bothered to answer back, because I found it unnecessary to deny statements whose falsehood was obvious even to a three-year old Ugandan.  Furthermore, I wanted to give you plenty of time to wallow in the mire of your own lies, contradictions and other inconsistencies, the more so to expose your true character to the people of Uganda and to the world at large.

I consider that you have had your say, and it is now my turn to speak.  The time is further opportune because the matter which was the central cause of my resignation, namely the large-scale liquidation of innocent people in Uganda  since your assumption of power, is once more at the center of world attention.  The International Commission of Jurists has recently issued a critical report on it, to which you have taken vehement exception, and you have also appointed a judicial commission to "inquire" into the "disappearances".

As a person conversant with the truth relating to these and other issues arising from your misrule, I will now make my contribution.  I will speak in clear and unambiguous language for the sake of present and future generations of our motherland:

THE "DISAPPEARANCES"

1. The expression "disappearance" is a euphemism - the for Uganda's innocent dead - the thousands of people who, since the inception of your misrule, have been liquidated for personal, political or factional reasons, entirely outside the processes of law.  The victims are said to have "disappeared" because after their murders their bodies are clandestinely disposed of or mutilated beyond recognition, never to be recovered by their relatives.  The expression is not at all related to the thousands of Ugandans who, as a result of your misrule, have been obliged to live in political exile in many parts of the world.  You are not going to deceive or confuse anybody by suggesting that the exiles have also "disappeared".

2.  The International news media has often accused you of being responsible for the massacre of innocent people in Uganda.  Ugandans themselves, whether in or out of the country, have long taken it for granted that you are the mastermind behind the "disappearances".  A number of people who previously held high office in your Government have resigned such positions and gone into exile in protest against the reign of terror that you have unleashed in our country.

3.   I want to confirm here and now that indeed you are personally responsible for liquidation of all the people who have "disappeared" in Uganda ever since you came to power.  People have "disappeared" either because you have specifically ordered their liquidation as individual or as a group, or because they have  fallen victim to the murderous ravages of lawless elements who have thrived in the country as a result of your deliberate refusal to restrain the criminal activities of such elements, or to place any sort of discipline over them.  You have in effect placed such thugs completely above the law, since they know that they can kill, maim and loot with impunity.

To be continued