Government spokesperson Ofwono Opondo has likened the European Union Commission Parliament to ICC and EU Court on Humans Rights. He says they are among institutions that have been highly discredited even by their own allies like the US whose national Security Advisor Ambassador John Bolton poured scorn on last week.
Opondo is currently responding to the resolutions reached at by members of the commission during a debate last week. On Friday, what has been branded as resolutions by EU Commission Parliament against Ugandan NRM Government for torturing position MPs has been circulating in both local and international mainstream media as well as social media.
But Opondo says that contrary to well known and well established diplomatic procedures, the Parliament discussed the August 13th events in Arua, but up until this day it has not furnished who made those statements on Uganda to the ministry of foreign affairs.
“We think it is calculated to undermine the progress we have made over the years. The Government of Uganda has seen resolution number 2018/2840 titled “arrest of parliamentarians in opposition in Uganda” passed on September 13, 2018 in the EU Commission Parliament which has been circulated. Although the government of Uganda has not formally been served, we would like to imagine that this resolution was passed at the instigation of what we generally believe are several NGOs operating in Europe and funding some of their entities in Uganda which petitioned these MPs” OO says.
He adds that the Ugandan government also believes that the traditional lobbyists opposed to Uganda’s choice of values against the sexual orientation taken by some groups in the West along with some new lawyers recruited recently in London and Washington DC, is partly the source of this resolution.
He claims that all members that rose to discus in the EU parliament on Friday had been coached on what to say.
“Both the nature of the debate that transpired, and the final resolution by the MPs on the floor of their parliament, showed all signs of active coaching including prepared short texts for each of the MPs to read first” the government spokesperson says.
According to Opondo, the Ugandan government and her people know very well the meaning of torture and do not need any lectures from EU on how to act about it.
“The people of Uganda and their government, therefore, would do well with respectful partnerships to promote the work done over very many years than the current sanctimonious lectures on rights most of which had been trampled upon even when the current pretenders at their defense were either looking on sheepishly or they were active participants in their violation” he adds.
The spokesperson told the press at the Uganda media centre this morning that if any of the Ugandan security elements is found guilty for wrongly apprehending any of the News reporters on duty or taking other actions intended to harm any of the reporters, Uganda will deal with the culprits “according to our laws.”
He explains that Uganda has well over 300 media houses and even actively promotes citizen journalism, but blames some reporters of getting paid and embedded with the violent elements simply to project their country as a hot bed of violence, something he claims will not be tolerated.
According to OO’s arguments today, Uganda is being harassed by the west due to her stand against homosexuality.
“Uganda witnessed with consternation during the debate on this resolution from some of the members on the floor of the EU parliament that the quarrel with our country is about the choice of values our citizens have elected to uphold. Couched in their usual terms, some of the MPs debating the motion indicated ‘Uganda does not promote sexual rights”, a reference to the people of Uganda’s stand against the active promotion of homosexuality especially among our youth made with financial support from some of the civil society groups that lobbied for this resolution” he argued.
He therefore concluded that Ugandan government will assume that EU Parliament members either acted out of ignorance of Uganda as a country or therefore picked rumors and unverified conversations on social media or the Honorable EU MPs are removing any veil of pretense.
Ofwono Opondo also clarified that there is no ban on foreign journalists who want to come here. “All we ask is please come with proper documentation” OO says.
