Talk:Isaac Maliyamungu

Potential sources


-Indy beetle (talk) 22:42, 2 March 2019 (UTC)

Concerns about Timothy Kalyegira as a source
Kalyegira's article, "Mystery of mass murder and rape in the Kagera Salient", is used to support the claim that Maliyamungu was shocked and saddened by the destruction he saw in Kagera. In my experience Kalyegira is something of an apologist for the Amin regime, and this seems derived from his general contempt for Obote and the UNLF (he generally refrains from attacking the Tanzanians). I find his claim that Maliyamungu wept upon seeing Kagera's situation highly suspect, especially considering how brutal Maliyamungu could be. Kalyegira even makes the incredulous claim in the article that "No records, no books published of the 1979 war speak of civilian casualties at the hands of the Uganda Army" which is blatantly false. -Indy beetle (talk) 18:16, 12 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your input! I already assumed that Kalyegira was an apologist from the tone of his writing, but I am always inclined to include infos as long as they are not proven to be false. However, you are probably right; perhaps it would be best to put Kalyegira's claim into a note. Furthermore, I find it funny that this article has already served as source for a newspaper article. Applodion (talk) 08:22, 13 August 2019 (UTC)
 * It appears we are not the only ones to question Kalyegira's stance. Jenkins Kiwanuka, a columnist for The Independent and former diplomat and government official, wrote a pretty harsh op-ed several years ago asking if he "lives on the moon" based on his repeated refusals to acknowledge the killings of Amin's regime. I read the whole thing, which includes some damning testimony as "Was Kalyegira around when we were summoned to the then Nile Hotel grounds to listen to a list of people who were alleged to have been plotting against Amin's government many of whom, including Archbishop Lawum, Oryema and Oboth-Ofumbi were killed that very day? Was he among the innocent civilians like me who, surrounded by a forest of uniformed soldiers, were ordered to decide by raising their hands whether the archbishop and others on the list should be sent to prison or condemned to death?" I think with this in mind we can no longer treat Kalyegira as a reliable source. Kiwanuka doesn't refute too many direct claims by Kalyegira, but as he says, "Kalyegira seems to be obsessed with numbers, but to many of us, the numbers don't matter. A court does not need more than one proven murder to sentence a killer to death." I say we remove Kalyegira's claims unless they are somehow notable or representative of apologist opinion. -Indy beetle (talk) 05:45, 4 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Thanks for finding this. Thinking about it, I agree that it is probably best to remove most of his stuff - though if he interviewed other people, I think we should treat it differently than his unsourced statements. Applodion (talk) 09:09, 4 March 2020 (UTC)
 * That seems fair. I also contacted a Ugandan academic to ask them about Kalyegira. They said I should "for the most part, just ignore Timothy Kalyegira", adding that he likes to delve into conspiracies and likes being "a contrarian and a revisionist". He must be quite the character. -Indy beetle (talk) 20:18, 4 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Wow, you got in touch with a local academic?! Great! I have already begun to remove Kalyegira from articles. It is a shame, really; Ugandan history already has enough real mysteries, there is no need for people to pile imaginary ones on top of them and thereby complicate issues even further. Applodion (talk) 22:21, 4 March 2020 (UTC)