President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is by any reckoning a controversial leader.

Museveni is a modernizer who has led Uganda through nearly a decade of non-stop economic growth; a supporter of Uganda's booming and sometimes harshly-critical free press; a visionary who in the mid-1980s foresaw the threat to Africa of the AIDS epidemic and took radical steps that have now halved the number of infected people in Uganda; and a personally principled man who has in 16 years of rule has refused to cultivate the cult of personality adored by so many of his contemporaries.

On the other hand, Museveni came to power in 1986 at the barrel of a gun after a protracted "bush war" rebellion and has so far refused to open up Uganda's one-party "Movement" system; he can take a hard line against opponents of his government, sometimes jailing them or forcing them into exile.

Museveni is accused of being soft on corruption by his close supporters, and his foreign policies with regards to neighbouring Rwanda and The Democratic Republic of Congo (where Uganda maintained thousands of occupying troops until recently) are portrayed as hostile and confrontational.

Critics of President Museveni like to say he casts a spell over foreign journalists who meet him, and after my first interview with the man three years ago, I would say this might be true. While I may not agree with many of his policies, there is no denying his remarkable achievements in developing Uganda and his personal intelligence and integrity. In fact, it is Museveni's projected image as a "man with a plan" that may well be the secret to his charm over western journalists.

After reading his biography, Sowing the Mustard Seed, it's hard not to be impressed: Fundamentally, Museveni has maintained his same grand scheme for Uganda since his early days as a bush rebel with just 27 comrades and 13 guns. His studies at The University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania made him, it seems to me, an avowed Marxist. Not the discredited economic Marxism -- which Museveni's zest for trade and the free market certainly rejects -- but rather the societal analysis Marx provided as one of the founders of modern sociology.

If Museveni rejects political parties, this is fundamentally a rejection based on principle. In the Marxist style, Museveni views true "democracy" as being the natural result of combined economic factors which together create fertile ground for the constructive and responsible "market place of ideas" (to use the phrase of the English philosopher John Stuart Mill) well known in western countries.

For instance, so long as Uganda remains without a widespread middle class of multi-racial and shared economic interests, political parties must appeal to tribal allegiances to win power. Political parties become fronts for racial and tribal interests, as opposed to representing broad-based opinions on economic and social policy.

Once a sufficiently large middle class is in place however, "primitive" tribal interests give way. Regular home-owning folks of all tribes turn to the parties they believe will best guarantee their rights of private property and promote the future prosperity of their families.

Even if you don't agree with notions like this, it's refreshing as a journalist working in Africa to disagree with a president on the level of ideas. It's somewhat uncommon in Africa to find a political leader whose ideas are about more than skimming dollars from the national treasury. Whatever else, at least Museveni isn't the cynic using Uganda as his personal piggy bank.

Our interview with President Museveni came as a surprise. He doesn't often allow television cameras in Uganda to come near him. It's a quirk that may be a result of a fear of assassination: a team of Taliban posing as television journalists used a rigged "camera" to assassinate the pro-western Afghan rebel leader Ahmad Shah Massoud just prior to Sept. 11.

We were in Gulu, northern Uganda, reporting on Uganda's war against the Lord's Resistance Army (or LRA) rebel group. These Christian extremists are known to cut off the lips and genitals of their victims. They maintain their ranks only through the widespread abduction and indoctrination of children and youth as combatants.

Uganda's war on terror has dragged on for over a decade. Sensing a break in the stalemate when the government of Sudan recently abandoned their long-time support of the LRA, Museveni has now pulled up stakes and moved to the capital of northern Uganda, the city of Gulu (which ironically means "heaven" in the Acholi language). The president has since put back on his military fatigues and picked up his AK-47. Photos in the local press show him running senior generals through basic recruit drills of marksmanship and physical fitness (much to the amusement of Ugandans who appreciate seeing their pot-bellied army generals sweating and grunting around an exercise field).

When we were called to the army barracks, we believed we were scheduled for a simple interview with the Army Commander. We arrived at the heavily guarded barracks of Uganda's northern army only to be told that the president himself had decided to meet with us.

It was 10 o'clock at night, and President Museveni was clearly tired. We restricted our interview to discussing the war in the north, although a few other related topics came into our discussion. Our meeting took place in Museveni's briefing room, under horrible light. In fact, nobody from his staff would agree to sit in "the president's chair" (in reality a lawn chair) so that I could make sure the framing and lighting were correct in the camera's viewfinder. Even my Ugandan cameraman begged off.

Museveni isn't a particularly warm man. But strangely enough, his taciturn approach is probably part of his appeal: he doesn't seem to want to "spin" his listener. That's a refreshing change for any journalist.

Read the full text of my interview with President Lt. General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

• Write to Murray Oliver: CTVbureau@africamail.com