Uganda’s men and women in uniform have been reminded that, like their counterparts in other countries, their responsibility is to defend the nation against external invasion and to prevent abuse of citizens’ rights and freedoms by their governments. Demonstrations take place to draw to the attention of authorities that something is wrong and needs fixing. Demonstrations are not about overthrowing governments. Governments get overthrown when they refuse to pay attention to the needs of all the people. For example, in Ethiopia the early 1970s were marked by economic hard times and famine which the government ignored and covered up. People were unemployed and hungry. In 1974 they demonstrated not because they wanted to overthrow the regime. They wanted relief. The government did not respond appropriately. Instead demonstrators were attacked by police. Ultimately, security forces including the military which had remained neutral realized that the government had no intention of helping its citizens. The military joined in and presented its demands which too were not addressed, leading to a bloodless coup in 1974. From time immemorial, security forces have protected citizens when attacked by external and internal forces as the case studies below demonstrate with regard to internal forces.
The demonstrations that took place first in Paris in mid-1789 were about rising poverty, unemployment, hunger and skyrocketing prices particularly of bread, the staple food for Parisians. They wanted the government to help reduce the price of bread and get them jobs presumably through public works. The government ignored the call for help. Instead the king continued business as usual including hunting and even dismissed a moderate finance minister who probably was advising him to do something about the demonstrators. The demonstrators feared that with the caring minister gone conditions might get worse. Consequently, more Parisians joined the demonstration. The king assembled troops to disperse demonstrators. The troops disobeyed the order. The king then called on foreign troops to act (French army employed foreign troops to the tune of 25 percent). On hearing the impending attack, demonstrators collected arms and with support of French army deserters attacked the Bastille prison on July 14 to get gunpowder. The situation got worse. In October some 7000 desperate and angry Parisian women walked 12 miles to the king’s palace at Versailles to demand a reduction in the price of bread. Demonstrators wanted relief, not to undermine the government, and the security forces understood their suffering, sympathized with them and would not fire at them.
Demonstrations in Russia in 1905 and 1917 present different responses by security forces. In 1905 working class Russians gathered in the square at the king’s palace in St. Petersburg and demonstrated to draw the king’s attention to their demands. All they wanted was an improvement in wages and working conditions. They were met with brutality and many demonstrators were killed and many more injured. Presumably because they learned from their mistake in 1905, security forces behaved differently in 1917. In that year, demonstrations initially by women were held in the same square as in 1905, this time demanding bread and an end to the war. The king who was preoccupied with the war he was not managing well did not pay attention. He regarded the demonstration as a simple matter to be taken care of by the police. He ordered them to disperse the crowd and proceeded to the war front. Instead more demonstrators from nearby factories joined demonstrators swelling the numbers that the police could or did not want to handle. Demonstrations spread to other towns and the countryside and the peasants joined in demanding land. The king then ordered the army to act. It refused to fire. Instead many soldiers joined the demonstrators in part because they too were hungry. These developments raised the political temperature. To diffuse the situation the king adjourned the session of parliament (Duma). The legislators refused to go. Nicholas II who had vowed to rule with undiminished absolute power would not accommodate demonstrators. Meanwhile Lenin and his Red Army were following developments. Lenin knew that Russians wanted peace and not war. They wanted food and land. He changed the campaign slogan and promised Russians that he would deliver “peace, bread and land” if they supported him to capture power. Russians listened and liked what Lenin was saying and supported him. Nicholas II’s uncaring attitude and rigidity forced security forces to protect and/or join demonstrators in demanding attention to their problems.
When Joseph Stalin began his agricultural collectivization program there was stiff resistance. Farmers demonstrated against it. Stalin then ordered the Red Army to suppress resistance and force submission. Many soldiers refused for a variety of reasons. One of them was that these soldiers had grown up on farms and understood why peasants resisted collectivization. They sympathized with and would not shoot protestors.
Other examples when and where soldiers refused to fire at demonstrators include in the final stages of the Iranian 1979 revolution when they declared neutrality. In Tunisia and Egypt security forces stayed neutral during the 2011 Arab Spring Revolutions.
The illustrations above serve two major purposes. First, they show that when demonstrations take place, the purpose is to draw to the attention of authorities that something is wrong and needs correcting. The right thing to do by the authorities is to listen and hear the complaints and find a way of resolving them. Using force is not the answer. More often than not it makes matters worse, leading to unintended outcomes as what happened in the cases of Haile Selassie, Louis XVI and Nicholas II. Second, relying on security forces to shelter uncaring behavior of government does not always work. In the case of Haile Selassie, Louis XVI, Nicholas II and Stalin, security forces refused to obey instructions and sympathized with demonstrators.
Although NRM government and some external supporters are in denial, Uganda is right now caught up in many problems. The economy is growing much slower than expected and NRM and external advisers seem incapable of doing better (UDU prepared alternative development plan accessible at www.udugandans.org which government hasn’t commented on), unemployment especially of youth is rising, diseases including those that had been contained or eliminated are spreading with a vengeance, hunger is affecting over ten million Ugandans when the country is exporting huge amounts of food traditionally produced for home consumption, maternal mortality is out of control, moral values are on the decline and political and economic corruption have yet to be addressed.
Uganda security forces need to understand that demonstrations that have taken place including those in 2009 are legitimate and are about correcting these imperfections in the country. Security forces must understand them that way. They must not be confused as NRM government would want us to believe that they are designed to overthrow the government. The walk-to-work was a response to rising food and fuel prices which the government has refused to address leaving the task to market forces and trickle down mechanism which does not deliver. Ugandans are expressing their inalienable rights and freedoms unarmed. They should be protected, not killed or beaten up or tear gassed and jailed. You, Uganda men and women in uniform, are also suffering like those on the streets demanding relief. Do what your counterparts did in France, Russia and Ethiopia. Join the suffering masses and put pressure on the government to act appropriately. Church leaders should not be attacked when they speak on behalf of their powerless and voiceless flock. Women should not be attacked when they demonstrate about rising prices including of food. Students should not be attacked when they demonstrate about deteriorating conditions in their schools and universities. Youth should not be attacked when they demonstrate about rising unemployment. Your job as soldier and police is to guarantee the safety and security of Ugandans and prevent external and/or internal forces from infringing on rights and freedoms of Ugandans. Do the right thing and we shall appreciate your efforts and applaud you.