Thread by @ArthurMirama

When the Obote clique seized power on Dec 12,1980,a no of patriotic 4ces started considering the qn of armed struggle 2remove the dictatorship.
2lines of thought emerged on the strategy that shd be adopted:
Some advocated a coup d’etat others advocated a protracted people’s war

They,later formed the Popular Resistance Fighters [and went on] to form the National Resistance Movement and Army,rejected the strategy of a coup.The main point against staging a coup was the presence of Tanzanian troops in Uganda which could always be reinforced from TZ . 2/20

By trying to capture the radio station and take power in one day, they would have been making a gift of theseselves to the Tanzanians, since they had already decided to become backers of Obotes’s dictatorship. 3/20
#WhyNRAFougtPotractedPeopleWar
#NRAWar
@MrHilari

They there 4, decided 2give them an expensive war – a protracted people’s war -which wd render their superior weapons irrelevant &wear down their means of making war in Ug,i.e.the economy,morale, & domestic political support in Tanzania 4their government’s involvement in Ug. 4/20

They knew that the Tanzanians could not afford 2fight the people of Uganda once they had become well organised.The consequences for the perpetrators of aggression against the popular force of Uganda using the TPDF would not be very pleasant. 5/20
#WhyNRAFoughtPotractedPeopleWar

The people of Tanzania are not only brothers but allies to the people of Uganda. Anybody betraying the interests of the Ugandan people using the TPDF would soon be found out by the Tanzanian people.
6/20
#WhyNRAFoughtPotractedPeopleWar
#NRAWar

A no of other factors dictated their choice of strategy.The plot of the Obote clique against the Ugandan people revolved around the following points:making TPDF support Obote’s usurpation of power;the illegal expansion of the tribal militia in the months be4 the elections; 7/20

--and concentration of this militia in Kampala while non-UPC elements in the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) were dispersed to places like Soroti, Mbale, Jinja and Masindi 8/20
#WhyNRAFoughtPotractedPeopleWar
#NRAWar
@enockpotel
@cdfupdf

According to this plan, those elements opposed to Obote’s seizure of power within the UNLA would not be in position to challenge this array of Obote-Tanzania strengths 9/20
#NRAWar

How could “pro-Museveni” soldiers move from the Sudanese border and other remote areas to come and challenge Obote in Kampala?
Therefore, when Obote’s clique seized power on December 12, 1980, they thought they were home and dry! 10/20
#NRAWar

Obote now concentrated on co-opting the neighbouring countries into supporting his anti-people coup thinking that he would isolate the popular forces in Uganda by starving them of any assistance that might help them in the struggle 11/20
#NRAWar

Some of them watched this circus in amazement because they knew that the people of Uganda, provided they were well led, were capable of administering a deadly counter-blow in defence of their abused democratic rights. #NRAWar History as told by @KagutaMuseveni
12/20

Because of limitations in their political outlook, Obote’s clique and the Tanzanian authorities greatly underestimated the revolutionary capacity of the Ugandan people
13/20

Their contrived dispersal up-country of the pro-people elements in the UNLA had the practical result of further dictating that we should opt for a protracted people’s war strategy.14/20

Having chosen their strategy, NRA launched the war against the Obote dictatorship of February 6, 1981 by attacking Kabamba School of Infantry at 8:30am using their own platoon; they attacked 1,400 trainees and the one company of Tanzanians which was training them. 15/20
#NRAWar

They overran the camp by capturing the quarter-guard,the communications room,the military transport depot&all the administrative quarters.But they failed 2enter the underground concrete armoury where a Tzanian cpl,coz of their mistake of premature firing at the quarter-guard16/20

...had taken firing position under excellent concrete cover.
When they weighed the possibility of the casualties they might sustain, they ordered their fighters 2withdraw,taking all the vehicles & our available equipment. 17/20
#NRAWar @GenEllyTumwine was the first to fire 17/20

Thereafter, they established themselves in various areas of central Uganda and started launching attacks against the enemy. Their operations comprised of surprise attacks like the one on Kakiri,17 miles on the Kampala-Hoima road which was on April 6, 1981. 18/20
#StartingNRAWar

In this attack, they used a company to engage twice as many of Obote’s bandits who had camped there since February, terrorising and stealing from the people. 19/20
#NRAWar
@tayebwaemmazad1
@MrHilari
@AbelRutungu1

They overran the camp &captured everything:sub-machine guns,one 82mm mortar,one 60mm mortar, anti-tank grenades,1GPMG &1box of 7.6mm rounds of ammunition.They also,unfortunately,killed some Tzanian officers&men who had ignored their orders 2stop while from Busunju 20/30
#NRAWar

When they withdrew with their booty,the Tanzanians from Busunju and other units from Kampala supported by APCs,tried to encircle them in a forest near Kakiri.Had it not been for the heavy load of their booty they would have inflicted grievous damage on the reinforcing units 21/30

Eventually, they slipped through the net they were trying to weave around them and withdrew to their bases in good order. This was a typical operation of fairly advanced form of guerilla warfare - i.e. reaching the stage of attacking enemy encamping. 22/30
#NRAWar

.....A characteristic of this kind of operation is that it is short and sharp. They were not fighting protracted battles; rather, protracted campaigns and protracted war 23/30
#NRAFoughtPotractedPeopleWar

Another tactic they used was to ambush.The best example of this so far was when they carried out an ambush against Obote’s troops at Kawanda on March 16, 1981: Kawanda is only six miles from Kampala on the Gulu road. 24/30
#NRAWar

Using several sections, they laid in ambush for 12 hours until 5:30pm when they decided to go into action. Altogether they destroyed eight army vehicles: three lorries and five Landrovers, captured substantial quantities of ammunition and killed 70 enemy soldiers 25/30
#NRAWar

However, from April to the end of June, they suspended operations to allow the Tanzanians time to withdraw. They did not wish them to get involved in their war and be killed on their way home after they had helped Ugandans get rid of Amin. 26/30
#NRAWar
#panafricanism

"We resumed operations on June 30th, and we are achieving success after success. What the enemy has received so far is but a drop in the ocean of what we shall give him if he does not accede to the people’s demand for democracy" 27/30 @KagutaMuseveni
#NRAWar

It is important 2note that in all their operations,NRA soldiers maintain the highest level of discipline and have instructions 2be humane even 2captured enemy soldiers.They had also refused to adopt assassination as a tactic. 28/30
#NRAWar
Assassination has never been an option

More important, however, they regarded assassination as a cowardly tactic used because of a failure to identify and isolate anti-people criminals.29/30

"It must also be said that indiscriminate political assassinations can pre-empt the maturing of a process and thus deny the population an opportunity to see for themselves the bankruptcy of the repressive elements in power." 30/33 @KagutaMuseveni
#NRAWar

Thus they didn not use individual elimination to neutralise a political opponent simply because he is a political opponent, even in war situations like NRA.They concentrated, instead, on neutralising armed opponents. 31/33
#NRAWar
@chabaho

They believed in disciplined, organised & politically-motivated violence against systems, but not against individuals.
However,it must be emphasised that notoriously anti-people elements who persistently undermine the struggle,especially by killing civilians &our fighters 32/33

....will not escape their just punishment. He who indulges in committing anti-people crimes turns himself into a legitimate military target and earns his death as just retribution. #PhysicalDiscipline 33/33
#TheEnd
Story told by the @KagutaMuseveni
regarding #NRASuccess