UGANDA: Body of the late Ugandan leader Milton Obote returns home after 20 years exile in Zambia

Record ID: 421425

  • Title: UGANDA: Body of the late Ugandan leader Milton Obote returns home after 20 years exile in Zambia
  • Date: 19th October 2005
  • Summary: PEOPLE VIEWING BODY AT OBOTE'S FORMER RESIDENCE (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Uganda
  • Country: Uganda
  • Topics: Obituaries
  • Reuters ID: LVA487PA1IH8K9I29CJJMUZIASQG
  • Story Text: The body of Uganda's first post-independence leader Milton Obote arrived back in the country on Tuesday after his death in exile, which has exposed deep political divisions in the east African nation.
    Obote, 80, died of apparent kidney failure in a South African hospital on Oct. 10, more than two decades after being forced out of power for a second time by a military coup.
    Many Ugandans hail him for his fight to win independence from Britain in 1962. But others say his rule, particularly in its later years, was characterised by repression and army brutality that left thousands dead. A small crowd met Obote's body when it arrived on a charter flight at 12.45 p.m. (0945 GMT). Police in dark blue ceremonial uniform, one carrying a large portrait of the white-haired former president, met the twin-propeller plane at the terminal.
    Obote's coffin, draped in a Ugandan flag, was unloaded from the aircraft as baggage handlers in fluorescent yellow vests walked in formation behind it carrying bouquets of flowers.
    Thousands of Ugandans lined the route from the airport to the capital, some clapping as the convoy passed by, some jeering, and many just curious.
    "We appeal to the government to give our rights, the rights we are calling for are God given, whether they go where, UPC would always remain, the legacy of Obote will prevail," shouted one man in reference to Obote's Uganda People's Congress party.
    From a modest house in Lusaka, Zambia, Obote had remained a vocal critic of his successor, President Yoweri Museveni, who in turn blamed him for almost all Uganda's woes.
    But after giving in to public demands that the late made an apparent U-turn, saying he forgave his former boss. "We sat in cabinet and after a long discussion we agreed this was good for Uganda and we decided to accord him a state funeral," he said on Saturday in central Nakaseke district.
    Museveni was speaking by a mass grave for an estimated 3,000 villagers killed by Obote's troops in the early 1980s. He was being filmed by a U.S. Christian TV network for a documentary about how his guerrillas ended Obote's rule. Supporters of Obote have pointed to the hospitals and schools built by his government, while opponents accuse him of crippling the economy.
    Andrew Mwenda, a Ugandan political commentator who met Obote several times in Zambia, says Museveni's increasingly autocratic rule is making Ugandans reassess Obote's legacy. "Does Museveni's Uganda offer talented young Ugandans an opportunity to serve their country regardless of their tribe and political affiliation like the Obote government did to him?" he said.
    Obote's relatives say Museveni's change of heart on his old foe and rival African "Big Man" ruler is puzzling. Obote's corpse was being taken to his former residence in an affluent suburb of the capital Kampala on Tuesday for viewing. Some of the people who came to pay their respects are members of Museveni's cabinet and could not resist praising their boss.
    "I really genuinely believe that this is the last president of Uganda to die in exile because the Movement government has put in place conditions that will ensure that Ugandans will have no justification to live in exile, whether you are an ex-president," said Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the Internal Affairs Minister.
    On Wednesday, the coffin will be taken to the offices of his opposition party, the Uganda People's Congress, then to parliament on Thursday before a state funeral on Friday. Obote was first ousted in 1971 by his army chief Idi Amin while attending a Commonwealth conference in Singapore. Amin became one of Africa's most notorious dictators before being toppled in 1979. When he died in exile two years ago in Saudi Arabia, Museveni did not allow his body brought home.
    After Amin, Obote was returned to power in rigged elections in 1980. Guerrillas led by his former aide Museveni launched a bush war against him, and ill-disciplined troops killed thousands of suspected rebel "collaborators".
    Before Obote was forced out in July 1985, the worst atrocities took place around Nakaseke, north of Kampala in a swampy area known as the Luweero Triangle. Obote's coffin will miss the triangle as it is taken on a tour of eastern towns before being buried on Monday in his home village Akokoro, near the northern town of Lira.
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