Obote II – History Repeats

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 17^th 2015)

The Return

The Chairman of the Presidential Commission of Uganda Paulo Muwanga declared Milton Obote the victor of the election of December 1980. The decision was rejected by among Ugandaʼs current President Yoweri Museveni. His supporters conducted a five year guerrilla war as a result.

Muwanga had played a part in the fight to achieve independence. He had also contributed greatly to bringing down the bestial régime Idi Amin, but so had many others, among them Museveni and Obote, although the latter benefited greatly from the support and assistance of his friend the then Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere.

Muwanga was an important figure in Ugandaʼs post-colonial development, but it is not just his controversial role in the 1980 election that tarnishes his reputation. Having been the Chairman of Presidential Commission that declared Obote the winner, Muwanga became Oboteʼs Vice President. He therefore bears some responsibility for the atrocities which contributed to Oboteʼs downfall.

Independence

The burgeoning cost of the Tanzanian intervention that had brought down Amin came at a high price. The Ugandan government could not afford to pay, so Nyerere withdrew Tanzanian forces. The new government, which included Muwanga had to survive on its own. And it had to deal with a guerrilla war, led by Yoweri Museveni.

Many died in the Luwera Triangle, especially from the Baganda tribe, which largely supported Museveni. There is no question that torture and other atrocities occurred during Oboteʼs second term. Muwanga was accused of complicity in several abuses. The brutality of Oboteʼs second term came at a heavy price. Obote was once again overthrown, but foreign issues played a part, especially those of Sudan.

Sudanʼs Influence

The pervasive problem of Sudanʼs issues. The Anyanya – precursor of South Sudanʼs independence fought a rebellion against Sudan from 1955 to 1972. The rebellion developed into war in 1969. The Anyanya was led by Aggrey Jaden from 1964 -69.

Jaden had rejected an agreement in 1965 with one of the architects of Sudanʼs independence from Britain, Ismail al-Azhari, because there were no international observers. Al-Azhari was no supporter of South-Sudanese rights and had used force to suppress it. Jaden, fearing for his life moved to Nairobi.

Gordon Muortat Mayen succeeded him and this coincided with a change in government in the northern dominated government. Gafaar Nimeiry led a coup dʼétat in Khartoum that ousted al-Azhari in May 1969. Months later al-Azhari died and Jaden was in exile. Open war followed. Mayen was ousted by Joseph Lagu in 1971. Lagu had been part of Sudanʼs army since 1960.

That training would come in useful for the Anyanya later, as would his political nous. The Anyanya were supplied with weapons by Israel but through Lagu. This monopoly of the supply of weapons meant that Anyanya fighters depended on him to be able to fight. He was then able to demand loyalty to him in return for weapons.

That meant that the fighters had little choice but to pledge loyalty to Lagu and his coup against Mayen. Lagu became the leader of the Anyanya and before long it was consigned to history to the disgust of among others Jaden. Within a year of Laguʼs coup the war was over. Nimeiry and Lagu signed the Addis-Ababa Agreement that brought the war to an end.

South Sudan Problem

Jaden was the first to denounce the deal, which ignored self-determination for the South and had settled for far less than the demands that led to the war. He returned to Sudan in 1978 and was vindicated in 1983 when Nimeiry reneged on the Addis-Ababa agreement and tried to impose Sharia Law on the country.

Meanwhile, Lagu had rejoined the Sudanese military and helped incorporate the Anyanya fighters into the Sudanese military.

Consequences

The South was granted some autonomy and Lagu was appointed Nimeiryʼs Vice President, remaining in that position until the coup that ousted Nimeiry in 1985. Among those incorporated into Sudanʼs army was Laguʼs protégé John Garang joined the Sudanese military as part of the settlement, rising to the rank of Colonel. He would later make that experience work in his favour.

Nimeiryʼs decision to renege on the limited commitment in the Addis-Ababa Agreement reignited the war with the added problem of South Sudanese who had been incorporated into the military sympathising with the Sudan Peopleʼs Liberation Army (SPLA). The SPLA wanted an end to Nimeiryʼs régime, which had started off as a ʻsocialistʼ one.

Garang would rise to lead the SPLA. They had support from Libya, Uganda and Ethiopia in the early stages. Garang would later follow the example of Lagu, reaching agreement with Sudanʼs leader Omar al-Bashir to become Vice-President in 2005. He died later that year in a helicopter crash after an unannounced visit to his friend, Ugandaʼs President, Yoweri Museveni.