Sir, Uganda is rapidly sliding back into the political and social abyss of the 1970s under Idi Amin. The entire judiciary has gone on strike in protest against President Museveni’s persistent decision to order the rearrest of opposition party suspects who had been granted bail by the High Court and the Constitutional Court.

Yet the Queen, the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have confirmed their plans to attend the November 2007 Commonwealth in Uganda. Their attendance at the meeting, to be chaired by Mr Museveni, will amount to an endorsement by the British Government — despite the President’s attack on the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the protection of human rights, all supposed core values of the Commonwealth.

The UK has a history of supporting dictators in Uganda. In 1971 the Conservative Government under Edward Heath became the first in the world to recognise Idi Amin’s military coup. The dictator was invited to Buckingham Palace, where he had dinner with the Queen within seven days of his takeover. Amin returned to murder 500,000 Ugandans. This dinner with the Queen was left out of the award-winning film The Last King of Scotland, but there is no need for a sequel.

SAM AKAKI
International Envoy to the UK
and the EU, Uganda Forum
for Democratic Change

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