Besigye On Meeting Museveni

The four time presidential candidate further cited hisdetention immediately after the February 18 polls, describing it as something that shows the impunity of the state which he said ought to end before any dialogue can go on.

Besigye said keeping him in what he termed as illegaldetention is one of those situations that cannot be wished away by having ‘a chat’ over a table but proper process.

Conditions
The former FDC president said that the only chance for him engage in dialogue with President Museveni is when a number of issues have been resolved before the talks can commence.

“There must be a properly structured process. We have been talking about agreeing on a mutual facilitator who starts the process but not Museveni or Besigye inviting the other or another Church leader inviting us for a dialogue,” Besigye said.

The opposition stalwart said the person to facilitate and convene the dialogue should be one of high repute and recognized by all, on top of considering a guarantee to the implementation of the outcome of the dialogue.

He said that before the talks can kick off, there must be a mutual agreement by all parties involved, laying down a strategy and mechanisms in which the agreed principles would be implemented after
the talks.

“There have been many agreements gathering dust in the shelves .Like in Gambia, Yahya Jammeh was defeated and conceded but later changed his mind. What would you do to a person like that?”

“One must think of a process that can cause the implementation of what has been agreed. There must be an agreed mechanism and put in place guarantors to ensure the agreement  is followed.”

According to Besigye the agenda of the dialogue ought to be first discussed before the actual meeting.

Asked to comment on the botched meeting with President Museveni in 2006, Besigye said that he received the invitation for the meeting but was stunned that he never knew the agenda of the meeting. “I wrote to them so I could propose an agenda plus another venue for the meeting. They sent back a letter saying I was just invited and the invitation was as it was. I just said I won’t go.”

The meeting in 2006 was subsequently attended by  Miria Obote(UPC), Ssebaana Kizito(DP) and Abed Bwanika among other people.