Nairobi, March 4 -- Uganda's "permament"minister of foreign affairs is a straight-talking man. Henry Oryem Okello has held office for two decades -probably the longest-serving unreshuffled minister in Uganda's history.

And handling the foreign docket seems to be a matter of fate, for he spent all his teenage in foreign land - Tanzania - where his father, General Tito Okello, was one of the commanders who prosecuted the war to overthrow Idi Amin.

In the younger Okello's last year of teenage, he saw field action himself during the final push against Amin.

Destiny was with Okello from the start, as his family and that of another commander, General Yoweri Museveni, were close neighbours.

Incidentally, his father, having been Museveni's im...