What Pakistan and Uganda have in common

But amidst all the exchange of pleasantries and clicking of champagne glasses, one thing stuck out like a bad sore -bloody demonstrations on the streets of Kampala, to condemn President Yoweri Museveni's government track record of human rights.

With Queen Elizabeth, Gordon Brown and about 50 other heads of government in the club of former British colonies in town, Museveni laboured to present a new Uganda, detached from the horrors of its past. According to news reports, police beat protesters as they tried to demonstrate against human rights abuses in Uganda.

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Opposition leader and Museveni's fiercest critic Kizza Besigye was quoted as saying that what the country was experiencing was nothing new. "This is what we have been living through all this time. This is a government that does not respect the rights of citizens at all," he was quoted by journalists.

It's purely hypocritical that the summit decided to kick out Pakistan from the Commonwealth group while on the other hand showering praise on the host country.

UK foreign affairs secretary David Miliband said the decision to suspend Pakistan was taken in "sorrow, not in anger". The troubled Asian country will now be barred from attending meetings of the Commonwealth and receiving assistance from the group, which represents almost a third of the world's population. But as the Commonwealth heads were strongly condemning General Musharraf, and in particular his crackdown on the opposition and his human rights abuses, they forgot that they were dining with a similar player.

They also failed to see that the grounds they were standing on were not 'clean' either. The summit was held barely 300 miles away from the so-called 'killing fields of northern Uganda'. According to a 2005 survey conducted by Uganda's own Ministry of Health in partnership with the World Health Organisation (WHO), there were 1,000 excess deaths per week in the 200 or so camps. These numbers translate into 52,000 deaths per year, 520,000 over the last decade, or more than one million over the course of the 20 years war.

The delegates were also hosted in the same city where the government tortures political opponents critical to it. These allegations of tyranny are backed by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which confirm the harassment of Museveni's political opponents, detention without trial, torture and extrajudicial killings.

It is no secret that since 1986, when he seized power, Museveni still dons his military uniform. The Commonwealth leaders are the same people who are now pressurising Musharraf to shed his military uniform. So why didn't they ask Museveni to do the same?

In 2001, after bitterly disputed elections which critics alleged were rigged, Museveni vowed that he would not run again. A new constitution was ratified that imposed a presidential two-term limit, making him ineligible for another run. But come 2005, Museveni pressured his parliament into removing the term limit thereby destroying the new constitution and he was again declared victor.

So why this double standard by the Commonwealth top organ? Zimbabwe was kicked out, now Pakistan is also out and who knows who's next.... The leaders cited Musharraf's arrest of political rivals, removal of judges, suppression of peaceful protests and militarisation of society. While it's not in my authority to say that this condemnation of Pakistan is justified, I strongly believe it's completely hypocritical, taking the Ugandan scenario into account.

This is so because the same voices of Musharraf admonition are coming from Commonwealth leaders who have accepted the hospitality of Museveni. How can they condemn the dictatorship of Musharraf but happily wine and dine with the African leader? Why was he in the first place given the honour of hosting the prestigious event?

At the very least, the Ugandan government should have been required to conform to the Commonwealth's agreed minimum standards of democracy and human rights before being granted the right to host the summit. That's why I find it as pure betrayal of the Ugandan people and the general international community.

The writer is a Sub Editor with Khaleej Times. She can be reached at joyce@khaleejtimes.com