[cjmewett]

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adsman -- Have you read We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, about the Rwandan genocide? The latter portion of the book deals with Congo war and specifically Museveni's involvement in a number of regional conflicts.

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Never heard of it. I've just added it to my amazon cart, thanks for that. Yeah, President Museveni was in the Congo big time. Minerals and timber. He's a strange chap. When I was there he enjoyed a golden boy reputation amongst western leaders. However, in the last few years I've heard some disturbing stuff from friends still living there.

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Yeah, he was a bit of a reformists' shining star there for a while, but it's faded somewhat. During the 80s and early 90s he had loads of ties to the Rwandan exile community in Uganda, which eventually developed into the Ugandan-backed Rwandan Patriotic Front. The RPF "liberated" Rwanda from the Hutu Power government and got involved in the Congo largely under the guise of bringing justice to the genocidaires (raiding the refugee camps across the Zairean border, where many of the perpetrators hid amongst legitimate refugees of the multiple wars).

So Museveni had a bit of a shine as being on the side of the "good guys." He's actually also done quite a lot to try to reform the political and economic system, Westernizing somewhat and making Uganda more attractive to foreign investors. But there's still a hint that he has something of a Mugabe complex and wants to hang on a bit long, which is where a lot of the contemporary criticism comes from.

Your posts have been great. I think the Africa stuff is the best yet, which is saying quite a lot.