Uganda offers asylum to Gaddafi

Uganda has become the first country to offer Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi refuge if he chooses exile.

President Yoweri Museveni said the country’s policy is to grant asylum seekers exile in the country.

That policy is in place in part because many Ugandans fled during the rule of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Mr Museveni, who won re-election in February, has been in power for 25 years in Uganda.

Another possible reason Uganda might accept Gaddafi is that President Museveni is, like Gaddafi, among the old guard of African leaders.

Mr Museveni had planned to travel to Libya in mid-March, but sent his foreign minister instead. Days later, Mr Museveni issued a nine-page statement denouncing the US and European military action for interfering in what he said was an internal matter.

He also praised Gaddafi, although he urged the Libyan leader to negotiate with the rebels.

“Whatever his faults, is a true nationalist,” Mr Museveni said of Gaddafi. “I prefer nationalists to puppets of foreign interests.”

One complicating factor to Gaddafi’s living in Uganda may be the International Criminal Court, whose chief prosecutor has said he will decide by May whether to seek an indictment against Gaddafi. Uganda is a signatory to the statute that created the court.

Muslims in Uganda may welcome Gaddafi as well. Muslim leader Hamuza Kaduga noted that Gaddafi paid for a large modern mosque in Kampala and has supported other projects.

Uganda currently has more than 20,000 refugees from Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and Rwanda.