UGANDA: President Yoweri Museveni arrives today on a charm offensive, writes Deaglán de Bréadún, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
It used to be a familiar type in this country: a former guerrilla leader now presenting himself as a constitutional politician. President Yoweri Museveni came to power in Uganda in 1986 at the head of the National Resistance Army which overthrew the regime of Milton Obote.
Uganda achieved its independence from Britain in 1962. With an estimated population of 25 million, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Since coming to power, Museveni has won kudos for developing the mainly-agricultural economy with the help of the international community and its aid agencies.
But Uganda's involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as reports of corruption in the administration, have raised doubts about future progress.
Born in 1944, Lieut Gen Museveni is both chief of state and head of government. The only political organisation which operates without restrictions in Uganda is called, in another interesting Irish political echo, "The Movement". The President claims it is not a political party, but a mass organisation entitled to the loyalty of all Ugandans.
President Museveni is due in Ireland today and, although he may not admit it, the main reason for the visit is, by common consent, the criticisms of his regime by the Irish aid worker and head of the GOAL development agency, Mr John O'Shea who believes Ireland should halt its €30 million programme of aid to the Museveni government.
The President has invited Mr O'Shea to meet him this evening but it is understood the invitation has not been accepted. Last August, Mr O'Shea refused to meet a visiting delegation of senior Ugandan ministers. Earlier this year, Ireland reduced its direct funding to the Uganda Government by €10 million, which was diverted instead into a ring-fenced special poverty fund.
A journalist by profession and a skilled communicator, Mr O'Shea has used the media with considerable effect to put his case that, because of corruption in government and Uganda's involvement in the bloody Congolese war, Ireland should not be giving the Museveni regime a single cent. The issue has now been taken up by the British Tories, and UK, as well as Irish, aid to the Uganda Government is in jeopardy.
Small wonder, then, that President Museveni is due here today and that his schedule of "media encounters" includes a session on Today with Pat Kenny. There is reportedly a growing nervousness at the higher political levels in Ireland about aid to Uganda.
But Mr Museveni does not lack for Irish defenders, who are not confined to the Department of Foreign Affairs. Although they are critical of his regime, they nevertheless contrast it favourably with those of his predecessors, Milton Obote and the recently-deceased Idi Amin, whose names became bywords for mass murder and human rights abuses on the grand scale.
Museveni's "critical supporters" point to his success in reducing poverty from 56 per cent to 35 per cent of the population. The World Bank definition of poverty is an income below $1 per day.
They highlight his success in reducing the level of HIV-AIDS infection from 18 per cent to six per cent of the population, one of only two countries in sub-Saharan Africa (the other is Senegal) to reverse the trend. Further, he has increased the number of children receiving primary school education from 3.5 million to eight million in only four years.
But nobody is happy with the consequences of Uganda's involvement in the Congo war, which even supporters of the aid programme admit has "sullied" the country's reputation, leading to corruption in the military which has also been accused of human rights violations.
After the World Bank, Ireland and the Netherlands are the largest donors of aid to Uganda. Ireland has allocated almost €84 million in the last four years.
The decision to move €10 million into a protected area is believed to have been influenced by moves from the Museveni Government to increase military expenditure in the campaign against the internal rebellion of the Lord's Resistance Army.
One of the key questions for President Museveni today will be the likelihood that plans to introduce multi-party democracy in the 2006 elections will go ahead. His own plans for his political future are another significant issue. Allegations of corruption have even embraced the President's family circle. His defenders say he himself lives a frugal lifestyle, although his opponents dispute this.
Ireland has been following the model of the EU which used a controlled aid programme to promote development in this country. Advocates of this view say that, if you are too purist in your approach, the ordinary poor people in the recipient country will be the victims. Others say that the faults and failings of the Uganda government are such that direct aid is not a viable proposition.