Wednesday 11 November 2009

How Dictators Are Blessed By the Curse of Terror

by Nicholas Sengoba
The Monitor

November 3, 2009 Markacadeey
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In case you missed it, late last week, part of Kampala's Central Business District was closed off courtesy of a suspected bomb, planted in a building.

This came soon after security agencies had warned that a militant Somali group called Al Shabaab had vowed to attack Uganda. For the record, Uganda provides the bulk of peacekeepers in Somalia who the militants view as the stumbling block on their way to capturing power and establishing an Islamist government.

I called a journalist friend who is usually in the know on security matters. He laughed and cynically said that what we were witnessing was the usual ploy by people who wanted to cause panic and make money out of it. Said he, 'that is what we call credit crunch security. Now that Joseph Kony has run away, there are no more justifications for operational funds. Al Shabaab and the war on terror will provide the next excuse for making free money in the name of maintaining security!'

Indeed for all the theatrics of mean looking bomb experts and security agents in dark glasses, police cars with sirens demonstrating urgency and emergency, the whole thing turned up to be a costly glorified hoax. It is such incidences that should leave the ordinary citizen concerned not just for their money but for their lives as well.

The world has changed ever since the war on terror was announced after 9/11. In acts of self defence but more akin to vengeance, the so-called guardians of sanity and civil liberties -the West- have acted very high-handedly killing and torturing suspected terrorist.

That is where cynical dictators in Africa have picked up the baton. In almost every African country, leaders have over utilised the war on terror with the quiet acquiesce of the West. A soft approach has been adopted towards those viewed as allies in this war. The leader of a country like Uganda that has sacrificed its citizens in Somalia may get away with flawed elections without the fear of sanctions for bad governance.

The same applies to misuse of public funds. A few years ago the UK government saw no problem when a lot of tax payer's money in Tanzanian was spent procuring a radar system from a British company for defensive purposes against 'terror threats.' The purchase was kept in the dark by corrupt officials under the excuse that transparency would expose security details to terrorists. The system turned out to be useless.

A lot of legislation allowing governments to infringe on privacy and basic human freedoms is either in the pipeline or is being enforced as laws to curb 'the spread of terrorism.' Uganda and Zimbabwe with long serving leaders, who have a history of rigged elections and intolerance to an ever growing opposition, were the first on the continent to moot the idea of legalising phone tapping by security agencies that may also open and read 'suspected mail' that compromises national security. There are laws making it criminal for the media to give audience to suspected terrorists.

Governments may now forcefully take over the property of citizens under the pretext that these properties are strategic in the fight against terrorism. In other instances businesses have been closed down and bank accounts frozen because of suspicion that they are generating funds for terrorists.

Citizens can be stopped from travelling citing intelligence reports of terrorism. Apparently many of these measures are intended for opponents of the government to cow them into submission.

And we have not yet talked about denying suspected terrorists bail or detaining them for more than the stipulated 48 hours before being presented in court. This means that an opponent of the State may be kept away by simply being branded a terrorist.

That is why as we move closer to the election of 2011, it is important that the lips of public officials are read closely when they talk about terrorism. They could be trying their luck at reaping blessings out of a curse.

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