Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine, president of the National Unity Platform (NUP), has applauded the European Union (EU) Parliament resolution on the Uganda-Tanzania oil project.
Addressing the NUP weekly press conference in Kamwokya for the first time since his return from Ukraine, Kyagulanyi stated that they are pleased that the EU has raised the same concerns that his party has.
“We are glad they cited the issues of gross Human Rights abuse and environmental abuse, among others,” Bobi Wine said.
“For a long time, we have been calling upon the international communities to stop being the wind under Museveni's wing,” he added.
The NUP president praised Ugandans in the diaspora and activists who had joined their call, claiming that Museveni had turned the country's oil into his personal property.
"We've heard Museveni declare it's his oil." It's not his oil. That is our crude. We applaud the EU Parliament Resolution, but we demand more. "We have been requesting punishments," Kyagulanyi continued.
The European Parliament, in the resolution they passed on Wednesday last week said that EACOP will increase human rights violations in the areas it set to pass.
They unanimously urged TotalEnergies to postpone the project, in order to enable feasible studies to explore an alternative route to safeguard protected and sensitive ecosystems and the water resources of Uganda and Tanzania.
The EU legislators also urged TotalEnergies to explore alternatives in order to reduce the potential vulnerability of watersheds in the African Green Lakes region.
On Tuesday, a section of Ugandan activists stormed the EU offices in Kampala to protest the EU Parliament resolution.
The resolution continues to elicit mixed reactions from the public, with some in favour of the project and others – primarily environmentalists – opposed.
President Museveni assured Ugandans that nothing would halt work at EACOP and that the project would proceed as planned.
