President Yoweri Museveni has criticized western intervention in developing countries saying it interferes with their development and that of local leaders. He made the remarks at the opening in Tehran, Iran, of a two-day Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit.
“At this very moment, the former imperialist countries are exhibiting new ambitions of re-establishing hegemony over the Third Word – Africa, the Middle East, etc. There are plans of new military bases around the globe. Military bases to fight whom and why?” Museveni said.
“The recent phenomenon by some Western countries of “bombing for democracy”, “no-fly zones”, etc., is a mistake and it interferes with the development of the affected countries. If there is, indeed, oppression in a given country, the genuine freedom fighters will emerge and liberate that country.”
President Museveni mentioned a number of revolutions – Iran, the Arab Spring revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, and the French Revolution of 1789 –that he said were not sponsored by anyone. “Genuine revolutions do not need sponsorship from outside, “ Mr Museveni said.
A total of 29 heads of state or government on Thursday are attending the summit, which accounts for around a quarter of the 120 members represented at the meet, and which Iranian officials are hailing as evidence of their country's important status in the world.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon is attending the summit as an observer. The NAM brings together many developing nations and accounts for two-thirds of the UN's 193-nation membership.
Below is the President’s speech in full.
Your Excellency Dr.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran;
Mr. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations;
Heads of State and Government;
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.
By 1900, the whole of Africa, except for Ethiopia, was under colonialism. India, Indonesia, Indo-China, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, the Middle East and the Caribbean were also under colonialism. China was a semi-colony being predated on by European imperialism.
The colonization of Africa was because of our internal weaknesses – small chiefdoms and kingdoms or segmentary societies. This was in spite of the fact that the entire continent of Africa, eleven million square miles of land area, is occupied by only four language groups:
• the Niger-Congo group of languages (including the Bantu dialects);
• the Nilo-Saharan (including the Cushitic languages like the Nubian and the Somali);
• the Afro-Asiatic languages (Arabic, Tigrinya and Amharic); and
• the small Khoisan languages of Southern Africa (the so-called bushmen).
Therefore, Africa is not as disparate as it is made out to be by the foreigners and the local traitors as well as reactionaries. Moreover, the four language groups have linkages among themselves. Nevertheless, political integration was limited and this is where the problem was. Africans are similar or linked but they were not governed together for much of the time. Trade, however, took place from the coast to the interior. It is this low level of political integration that enabled the colonialists to conquer Africa. This is why we, the pan-Africanists, work for African political and economic integration.
Colonialism brought about serious distortions and human haemorrhage in the form of slave trade, massacres, genocide and the killing of indigenous industries. The other colonized peoples also suffered greatly under colonialism – although that colonialism took different forms. By the 1960s, European colonialism had been ejected from Asia, the Caribbean, Africa, etc. European imperialism was defeated because of three factors:
• the resistance of the colonized peoples;
• the emergence of the socialist camp in the USSR (1917), China (1949) and in other countries; and
• the inter-imperialist wars of 1914-18 and 1939-45 which had greatly weakened the imperialist countries to our advantage.
After the Second World War, the imperialist countries tried to re-impose or maintain their colonialism in Indo-China, India, Africa, etc. They were defeated by the anti-colonial forces supported by the socialist countries and other peace-loving peoples in the West (Western Europe, the USA, Canada, etc). There were outright military victories for the nationalist forces in Indo-China, Mozambique, Angola or negotiated retreats like in Kenya. The cleverer imperialists granted independence without the need for a military fight. This was the case in India and many countries in Africa.
In the case of Africa, the colonial distortions disabled the young countries from taking off. Colonial sergeants, now wielding batons of “Field Marshals” at the head of a few battalions, grabbed power from the independence civilians, wreaked havoc on our countries and population, off-loading on us their bestial colonial character and ignorance – a consequence of very low educational levels of the colonial times. We had to wage new struggles and new wars to get rid of these colonial sergeants – some of them (e.g. Mobutu) only 15 years ago.
Africa is beginning to move in all spheres – democracy, education, regional integration, health (that is why population has grown), some aspects of the infrastructure (e.g. mobile telephones, internet, etc) and some aspects of economic production (agriculture, tourism, industry, mining, etc.). Meanwhile, our partners in Asia, partly because of a much higher degree of political and economic integration, have made more strides, especially in China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, etc. Brazil in South America is also emerging as a great industrial power.
Yet, at this very moment, the former imperialist countries are exhibiting new ambitions of re-establishing hegemony over the Third Word – Africa, the Middle East, etc. There are plans of new military bases around the globe. Military bases to fight whom and why?
The recent phenomenon by some Western countries of “bombing for democracy”, “no-fly zones”, etc., is a mistake and it interferes with the development of the affected countries. If there is, indeed, oppression in a given country, the genuine freedom fighters will emerge and liberate that country. I participated in two liberation wars in Uganda against two different regimes (i.e. 1971-79 and 1981-86). In the first war, we had support from our brothers the Tanzanians. After that war, we could not solve any political problems because even our own brothers, the Tanzanians, could not understand our internal issues. They were overwhelmed by opportunists and charlatans from within Uganda and they ended up making mistakes. In the second war, we were by ourselves and genuine freedom fighters came to the forefront. We did not only liberate Uganda, but also we built capacity that has even benefited the region.
There was a revolution here, in Iran. Who sponsored it to remove the very powerful government of the Shah? Recently, there were revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt. Who sponsored them? Who sponsored the French revolution in 1789? Who sponsored the Russian revolution in 1917? Genuine revolutions do not need sponsorship from outside. Certainly, not “bombings” and no-fly zones.
The universal awakening of the human race is unstoppable. Many of us are beginning to use electricity, to drive cars, to stay in good and permanent houses built from cement and steel bars (mitayimbwa) and to eat better food. This universal human advance has meant that the prices of steel, of oil, of copper, of food, etc., have gone up. This is good for Africa. It may not be good for those who are used to living a life of luxury at the expense of others. Some years ago, we tried to develop our iron-ore deposits but we could not get investors to do so. Why?
It was because, I was told, there was a ‘glut’ of steel in the world. Why was there that ‘glut’ of steel? It was because the users (consumers) were few (i.e. Western Europe, North America and Japan). What is the situation now? So many millions of people in China, India, Brazil, South America, Africa, other parts of Asia have got out of poverty. Therefore, the price of steel had jumped from US$ 200 per tonne around late 1980s and early 1990s to US$ 1,200 around 2009. This is good news for Uganda. If it is not good news for those who have been living well at the expense of others, they must learn how to earn an honest living, through hard work and fair trade. If they think that they will rely on the old vices of grabbing other peoples’ resources by war and aggression, then, they must be resisted ferociously. Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, the Caribbean and the progressive countries of Europe such as Russia have all the means to resist renewed hegemonic efforts by the declining former imperialist powers
This is exactly what we did in the anti-colonial phase. Besides, we know that even within the former imperialist countries, there are progressive forces that can have a balanced relationship with us. These progressive tendencies in the former imperialist countries will, however, only be encouraged if the adventurist schemes of the aggressors are defeated.
There is, however, one problem in the anti-imperialist camp apart from the absence of a common action. It is the problem of chauvinism and sectarianism: this religious sect against that religious sect; this tribe against that tribe; etc. This was the weakness of Africa in the past. We defeated colonialism wherever this problem was overcome – Mozambique, Tanzania, ANC of South Africa, Uganda in the anti-fascist wars within Uganda, etc. Mao Tse Tung exhorted the Chinese that imperialism was the main enemy and that all national forces had to combine to defeat this principal enemy.
He said:
The oppressed peoples and nations must not pin their hopes for liberation on the “sensibleness” of imperialism and its lackeys. They will only triumph by strengthening their unity and persevering in their struggle.
Here in the Middle East, there is the question of Israel and Palestine. The progressive forces in Uganda believe that the correct solution for that problem is the two State solution – a Palestinian State living side by side with Israel in peace and mutual recognition. I do not see any other solution because I know it from the Bible that Jews and other Canaanites lived in that Palestine as far back as 1550 BC when Abraham came from UR (Tell el-Mukayyar), which I am told, is somewhere in the present day Iraq. The Jews were dispersed by the Romans in AD 70, having earlier been enslaved by the Persians in the year 1700 BC and Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC. Both Arabs and Jews belong to that area.
As I told His Excellency President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – our host, when I was here last time, the Bible does give us some useful information about this area, the Middle East. You remember, I told you about the Persians and Medians, who are mostly mentioned in the Book of Daniel in the Bible. Group chauvinism should be pushed aside so that we get lasting solutions to these endless problems. The tribes in Africa are a bit better on this score of mutual respect and tolerance. Moslems talk of ‘haram’ meaning something that is forbidden. I once told General Omar Bashir of Sudan that my list of ‘haram’ is much longer than his. According to my tribe, fish, chicken, pork, mutton, etc, are all ‘haram’ (ebihagaro). The difference with African tribes, however, is that each group minds its own business and never seeks to impose its culture on the neighbouring tribes. Consequently, our neighbouring tribes, who eat fish, would always come and, with our permission and support, catch mud-fish (eshonzi) in the swamp in our land. Chauvinism and ego-centrism irrationally perpetuate endless problems and endanger world peace. It is advisable that the respective human groups concentrate on common interests (trade, sharing of technology, etc) for mutual benefit and general human advancement and ignore the idiosyncrasies of the respective groups.
I thank all of you very much.
30th August 2012 - Tehran
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