Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni has explained the country’s position on military base politics, revealing why he rejected US and British military bases despite proposals to establish the same in the impoverished East African nation.
President Museveni revealed that Uganda declined to host US and British military bases. He also refused to sign Status of Forces Agreements (SOFAs) with Western powers.
In his view, Museveni believed that the Ugandan government that he leads has capacity to defend itself.
“We were very confident [in our capacity to defend ourselves as a nation],” Museveni said of Uganda’s defence capabilities recently.
“That is why for instance, the Americans came here and the British in these western countries and they said, ‘we want to help you build your army.’ We said, ‘but we have already built the army.’ That’s how we defeated the government.”
Some offers, the president further noted, had come in the early years of the National Resistance Army (NRA) takeover of government. Yet Museveni insisted that Uganda did not need military bases.
“So, that is why you find that we don’t have foreign bases here, foreign armies here based in Uganda because we didn’t need them,” he said.
“We said, ‘foreign armies, what? We can defend ourselves. We don’t need anything from anybody.”
He also noted that there were disagreements on how foreign soldiers should be punished and under which jurisdiction that should happen if they commit crimes on Ugandan soil.
“There’s what they call SOFA. SOFA means status of forces agreement. If foreign forces are in Uganda, how should they be handled?” Museveni explained. “The Americans and the British brought their SOFA to me, ‘When our forces are here, if they make a mistake, they should not be tried here, they should be tried in the US.’ Why?
“Then I said, ‘okay, can we make it reciprocal so that if our own people are in the US they make a mistake, they are brought back here. No, no, no, no… What if he kills a Ugandan or r@pes a Ugandan girl? There is no way we can say that you take him away to be tried somewhere else. There’s no way.”
In the midst of the Middle East crisis where Iran is targeting military bases run by the US after Washington and Israel hit Tehran with strikes, the vulnerability of nations hosting super powers’ military bases has been exposed.
Meanwhile, you can see the names of 43 Ugandan university students who were stuck in Iran but have since endured 42 hours on a bus to cross to Turkey and are expected to return home soon Here.
The relations between Uganda and the US have worsened in recent years, with top US politicians calling on President Trump to punish Museveni and his son Muhoozi, including in the areas of security cooperation, as reported Here and There.
