Three decades at head of country

Uganda's widely feted economic success of recent years contrasts with turmoil there in the 1970s and 80s

Three months ago, Yoweri Museveni entered the 30th year of his presidency of Uganda, a reign that makes him one of Africa's longest-serving rulers.

Museveni has been feted in recent years for the economic successes his country has chalked up. But his road to power in 1986, at the age of 41, was preceded by many years of bitter struggle.

Museveni attended the University of Tanzania in the late 1960s, studying economics and political science, and he became a Marxist, involving himself in radical pan-African politics.

He formed the University Students' African Revolutionary Front activist group and led a student delegation to Mozambique, then under Portuguese rule, where he received guerrilla training.

He joined the intelligence service of Apolo Milton Obote, then president of Uganda, in 1970, and fled to Tanzania after Idi Amin seized power in a military coup in January 1971.

After an unsuccessful attempt to regain control in Uganda in September 1972, Museveni and his comrades had to leave Tanzania, which signed an agreement with Uganda forbidding the rebels to use their soil.

Museveni broke away from the mainstream opposition and formed the Front for National Salvation in 1973. In August the same year he married Janet Kataha. He soon returned, with supporters, to rural strongholds in the south, where he formed the Popular Resistance Army.

It later merged with the Uganda Freedom Fighters under the leadership of former president Yusufu Lule, into the National Resistance Army and the National Resistance Movement. Obote regained power after overthrowing Amin in 1979.

The National Resistance Movement developed what it called a Ten-point Program for government, covering democracy, security, national unity, national independence, a self-sustaining economy, social services, elimination of corruption, redressing inequality, cooperation with other African countries and a mixed economy.

In July 1985, Obote was overthrown by his army, with which Museveni and the National Resistance Movement started talks that lasted four months.They called for a ceasefire but it did not happen. In January 1986 troops led by Museveni overran the capital, and he was sworn in as president four days later.

"This is not a mere change of guard, it is a fundamental change," he said at the inauguration ceremony. "The people of Africa, the people of Uganda, are entitled to a democratic government The sovereign people must be the public, not the government."

Museveni called for a return to normal social order, security, rebuilding the economy and protecting human rights. The year after he took power, Uganda began to take part in an International Monetary Fund economic recovery program, and the country's economy began to gain strength.

In May 1996, Museveni was elected to a second presidential term, and five years later he won yet another term by a substantial majority. He won again in 2006 and in 2011.

Rich mineral and oil reserves were discovered in Uganda about 2006, and Museveni began holding meetings with global investors. The country has enjoyed annual GDP growth of about 6 percent for more than 10 years.

Uganda is an active participant in the East African Community and contributes to regional peacekeeping operations. Museveni deployed troops to the African Union's peacekeeping operation in Somalia in 2007.

Last year Museveni signed an anti-homosexuality bill into law, raising protests from Western governments and NGOs.

(China Daily Africa Weekly 04/10/2015 page7)