Government to withdraw €2m in aid from Uganda

THE Government is to withdraw €2 million in aid from Uganda over the failure of the country’s leadership to implement political reform.

The move, which will reduce Ireland’s aid budget to the East African nation to €30m this year, follows continued concern that Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, is preparing to change the constitution to allow him stand for a third term.

Continued intimidation and harassment of opposition parties in the lead up to Uganda’s first multi-party elections early next year is also a matter of increasing concern among the international donor community.

However, despite international pressure and the withdrawal by Britain of £5m in aid funding two weeks ago, President Museveni has not shown any sign of implementing promised political change.

Last month Ugandan opposition party the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) called on donors to suspend foreign aid to the country citing what it described as “a lack of democracy” as the reason.

President Yoweri Museveni came to power through a military coup in 1986 and banned political parties on the grounds that they had, in the past, divided the population along ethnic and religious lines.

A referendum is planned to decide whether to allow multi-party democracy ahead of elections in 2006. However, critics believe that President Museveni is intent on becoming Uganda’s president for life.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Development Minister Conor Lenihan said the Government was increasingly concerned at the failure of President Museveni to progress with “promised political reform in the country”.

In particular, Mr Lenihan said he was unhappy with the lack of any guarantee that President Museveni will not seek an unconstitutional third term in office.

“We are also unhappy with the failure to progress quickly enough to introduce a viable multi-party system. We are concerned about the intimidation and controls put on the opposition,” he said.

Mr Lenihan, who is considering the issue in a series of meetings with partner countries, including the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, said any aid sanctions should not be regarded as punishment but rather “as a signal that we want to see reform and we want to see change”. Apart from political reform Mr Lenihan said the Government was satisfied with the significant progress Uganda had made with other issues such as tackling AIDS, poverty and illiteracy.

However, repeated media campaigns by Goal’s John O’Shea have called on the Government to abandon its bilateral aid package.