The Short Hard Life of Alfred Olango: From U.S.-backed Persecution to U.S. Police Execution
The Short Hard Life of Alfred Olango: From U.S.-backed Persecution to U.S. Police Execution
by Ann Garrison
October 4, 2016
The El Cajon Police shooting of Alfred Olango is one of the most recent police shootings of unarmed Black men to make national and international headlines and inspire Black Lives Matter protests. Olango and his family fled war and persecution by the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a longstanding U.S. ally and military partner who has ruled Uganda with an iron fist since 1986.
Much of the press, including The Daily Beast, have reported that Alfred Olango survived the reign of Idi Amin. However, 38-year-old Olango would have been little more than a year old in 1979, when the Tanzania People’s Defense Force and the Uganda National Liberation Army drove Idi Amin from power.
A Ugandan American friend of the Olango family who preferred not to be identified by name confirmed that Alfred Olango’s father had worked for the governments of Milton Obote, then Tito Okello, whom General Yoweri Museveni and his National Resistance Army overthrew in 1985. The friend also confirmed that the family is from the Acholi people of northern Uganda.
According to federal court records, the Olangos fled to the United States after Museveni, who became president in 1986, threatened to kill the whole family. In a grimly ironic gesture, the Ugandan government ordered its embassy in the U.S. to investigate the killing of one of their citizens.
More:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/04/the-hard-life-of-alfred-olango-from-u-s-backed-persecution-to-u-s-police-execution/
