Uganda’s Military Suspends Cooperation With Turkey
By Black Star News Photos: YouTube Screenshots|Wikimedia Commons Just a day after Uganda’s military chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba-chaired Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) staging a mass demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on September 18, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has suspended all military cooperation with Turkiye. Gen Muhoozi is Gen Yoweri Museveni’s only known son. Chief of Defense Forces Gen Muhoozi is also Museveni’s Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Operations. PLU descended on the Turkish Embassy demanding that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government hands over Ugandan dissident opposition activist and a Museveni’s government critic now resident in Turkey, Fred Kajubi Lumbuye. PLU’s post-protest statement said that if Turkey does not comply with their demands, the pressure group will wall-up the Embassy and cause its shut down. It is said Lumbuye has applied for asylum status in Turkey. He recently cried out on social media that his life was danger. In a September 19 statement released by the Acting Director Defence Public Information in the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Colonel Chris Magezi said: “The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has with immediate effect suspended all and any Defence and Military cooperation with the Republic of Turkiye.” According to the statement; “The measure will remain in force until outstanding issues of mutual defence and military cooperation between the two countries are resolved,” Col Magezi, said. The UPDF statement followed only minutes in the heels of Gen Muhoozi’s order which now criminalizes anything in Uganda which is pro-Turkey: “Being an apologist for Turkey in Uganda is a crime. We shall start arresting anyone who speaks for that country,” Gen Muhoozi roared on September 19. “The UPDF ought to give us more information otherwise we will be speculating. It is unthinkable that such an extreme measure would be taken for the sole purpose of forcing the extradition of one notorious opposition activist. So could Lumbuye be the ‘outstanding issue’ to be resolved for Uganda/Turkey military cooperation to resume?” asks lawyer and activist Anne Mugisha. She then quotes Article 208 (2) of the Constitution of Uganda: “The Uganda People’s Defence Forces shall be non-partisan, national in character, patriotic, professional, disciplined, productive and subordinate to the civilian authority…” Turkey has cooperated with Uganda in trade, Standard Gauge Railway works, Science and IT laboratories in local schools in Uganda, as well as military agreements.
Black News 
By Black Star News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots|Wikimedia Commons
Just a day after Uganda’s military chief Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba-chaired Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU) staging a mass demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on September 18, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has suspended all military cooperation with Turkiye. Gen Muhoozi is Gen Yoweri Museveni’s only known son. Chief of Defense Forces Gen Muhoozi is also Museveni’s Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Operations.
PLU descended on the Turkish Embassy demanding that Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government hands over Ugandan dissident opposition activist and a Museveni’s government critic now resident in Turkey, Fred Kajubi Lumbuye. PLU’s post-protest statement said that if Turkey does not comply with their demands, the pressure group will wall-up the Embassy and cause its shut down.
It is said Lumbuye has applied for asylum status in Turkey. He recently cried out on social media that his life was danger.
In a September 19 statement released by the Acting Director Defence Public Information in the Ministry of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Colonel Chris Magezi said: “The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) has with immediate effect suspended all and any Defence and Military cooperation with the Republic of Turkiye.”
According to the statement; “The measure will remain in force until outstanding issues of mutual defence and military cooperation between the two countries are resolved,” Col Magezi, said.
The UPDF statement followed only minutes in the heels of Gen Muhoozi’s order which now criminalizes anything in Uganda which is pro-Turkey: “Being an apologist for Turkey in Uganda is a crime. We shall start arresting anyone who speaks for that country,” Gen Muhoozi roared on September 19.
“The UPDF ought to give us more information otherwise we will be speculating. It is unthinkable that such an extreme measure would be taken for the sole purpose of forcing the extradition of one notorious opposition activist. So could Lumbuye be the ‘outstanding issue’ to be resolved for Uganda/Turkey military cooperation to resume?” asks lawyer and activist Anne Mugisha.
She then quotes Article 208 (2) of the Constitution of Uganda: “The Uganda People’s Defence Forces shall be non-partisan, national in character, patriotic, professional, disciplined, productive and subordinate to the civilian authority…”
Turkey has cooperated with Uganda in trade, Standard Gauge Railway works, Science and IT laboratories in local schools in Uganda, as well as military agreements.
