ugandanhistory

=Recent Ugandan History= (From Wikipedia)

On January 25, 1971, Obote's government was ousted in a military coup led by armed forces commander Idi Amin Dada. Amin declared himself 'president,' dissolved the parliament, and amended the constitution to give himself absolute power. Idi Amin's eight-year rule produced economic decline, social disintegration, and massive human rights violations. The Acholi and Langi ethnic groups were particular objects of Amin's political persecution because they had supported Obote and made up a large part of the army. In 1978, the International Commission of Jurists estimated that more than 100,000 Ugandans had been murdered during Amin's reign of terror; some authorities place the figure as high as 300,000--a statistic cited at the end of the 2006 movie The Last King of Scotland, which chronicled part of Amin's dictatorship.

In October 1978, Tanzanian armed forces repulsed an incursion of Amin's troops into Tanzanian territory. The Tanzanian army, backed by Ugandan exiles waged a war of liberation against Amin's troops and the Libyan soldiers sent to help him. On April 11, 1979, Kampala was captured, and Amin fled with his remaining forces.

After Amin's removal, the Uganda National Liberation Front formed an interim government with Yusuf Lule as president. This government adopted a ministerial system of administration and created a quasi-parliamentary organ known as the National Consultative Commission (NCC). The NCC and the Lule cabinet reflected widely differing political views. In June 1979, following a dispute over the extent of presidential powers, the NCC replaced Lule with Godfrey Binaisa. In a continuing dispute over the powers of the interim presidency, Binaisa was removed in May 1980. Thereafter, Uganda was ruled by a military commission chaired by Paulo Muwanga. The December 1980 elections returned the UPC to power under the leadership of <span class="wiki_link_ext">President Milton Obote, with Muwanga serving as vice president. Under Obote, the security forces had one of the world's worst human rights records. In their efforts to stamp out an insurgency led by <span class="wiki_link_ext">Yoweri Museveni 's <span class="wiki_link_ext">National Resistance Army (NRA), they laid waste to a substantial section of the country, especially in the Luwero area north of Kampala.

Obote ruled until <span class="wiki_link_ext">July 27, 1985, when an army brigade, composed mostly of ethnic Acholi troops and commanded by Lt. Gen. <span class="wiki_link_ext">Bazilio Olara-Okello , took Kampala and proclaimed a military government. Obote fled to exile in <span class="wiki_link_ext">Zambia. The new regime, headed by former defense force commander Gen. <span class="wiki_link_ext">Tito Okello (no relation to Lt. Gen. Olara-Okello), opened negotiations with Museveni's insurgent forces and pledged to improve respect for human rights, end tribal rivalry, and conduct free and fair elections. In the meantime, massive human rights violations continued as the Okello government carried out a brutal counterinsurgency in an attempt to destroy the NRA's support.

Negotiations between the Okello government and the NRA were conducted in <span class="wiki_link_ext">Nairobi in the fall of 1985, with Kenyan President <span class="wiki_link_ext">Daniel arap Moi seeking a cease-fire and a coalition government in Uganda. Although agreeing in late 1985 to a cease-fire, the NRA continued fighting, and seized Kampala and the country in late January 1986, forcing Okello's forces to flee north into <span class="wiki_link_ext">Sudan. Museveni's forces organized a government with Museveni as president. Since assuming power, the government dominated by the political grouping created by Museveni and his followers, the <span class="wiki_link_ext">National Resistance Movement In northern areas such as <span class="wiki_link_ext">Acholiland, there has been armed resistance against the government since 1986. <span class="wiki_link_ext">Acholi based rebel groups include the <span class="wiki_link_ext">Uganda People's Democratic Army and the <span class="wiki_link_ext">Holy Spirit Movement. Currently, the only remaining rebel group is the <span class="wiki_link_ext">Lord's Resistance Army headed by <span class="wiki_link_ext">Joseph Kony, which has carried out widespread abduction of children to serve as soldiers or sex slaves.

In 1996, Uganda was a key supporter of the overthrow of <span class="wiki_link_ext">Zairean President <span class="wiki_link_ext">Mobutu Sese Seko in the <span class="wiki_link_ext">First Congo War in favor of rebel leader <span class="wiki_link_ext">Laurent-Désiré Kabila. Between 1998 and 2003, the Ugandan army was involved in the <span class="wiki_link_ext">Second Congo War in the renamed <span class="wiki_link_ext">Democratic Republic of the Congo and the government continues to support rebel groups such as the <span class="wiki_link_ext">Movement for the Liberation of Congo and some factions of the <span class="wiki_link_ext">Rally for Congolese Democracy. In August 2005, Parliament voted to change the constitution to lift presidential term limits, allowing Museveni to run for a third term if he wishes to do so. In a <span class="wiki_link_ext">referendum in July, 2005, 92.5% supported restoring multiparty politics, thereby scrapping the no-party or "movement" system. <span class="wiki_link_ext">Kizza Besigye, Museveni's political rival, returned from exile in <span class="wiki_link_ext">October 2005 , and was a presidential candidate for the 2006 elections. In the same month, Milton Obote died in South Africa. Museveni won the February 2006 presidential electio<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">n. (NRM or the "Movement"), has largely put an end to the human rights abuses of earlier governments, initiated substantial political liberalization and general press freedom, and instituted broad economic reforms after consultation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, and donor governments.