{UAH} AFANDE KAYIHURA

KA

YIHURA -

Following Tom Lubanga's ultimatum, the NRA to left Bunia via Mahagi port. Rwanda's RCD-Goma had taken upper hand in Ituri. They had been amassing troops and equipments using airfields located in Bule, Aboro Hills, Mongbwalu and Boga. They had taken controll of the militarily strategic Kanyabayonga with which a well dirrected artiller fire power can cause substancial damage hundreds of kilometres inside Uganda. The development came at a time when Museveni was alleging that the Dr. Besigye linked shadowy PRA rebels were assembling in Eastern Congo. Museveni had assigned Kale Kayihura to Bunia. Kayihura personally admits as to having held hostage by Tom Lubanga in Bunia.

Kayihura convinced Bosco Ntaganda to break away from Tom Lubanga. MONUC resisted Kayihura's urge to attack Lubanga's UPC. Kayihura organised a secret squad that ambushed and killed UN peace keepers including a Kenyan Major. As expected, the incident was blamed on the UPC and as a consequence the UN gave Kayihura a green light to suppress Tom Lubanga's UPC. With the the help of Bosco Ntaganda and some ethinic Lendu local Chiefs like Kiiza, the NRA suppressed and neutralised Tom Lubanga's UPC ending its influence in Bunia. It in this encounter that Museveni claimed that the shadowy PRA rebels were neutralised with some killed by Lendu militias while another 28 were captured and taken to Kampala. Around March 2003, Kale Kayihura publicly conveyed Museveni's appology for the NRA's mistakes and thanked them for having chased Tom Lubanga's UPC from Bunia.

Now Uganda's proxy, Bosco Ntaganda remained the victorious and leading player in Bunia. He was being assisted by local Hema and Lendu leaders who had by now burried their ethinic differences. Earlier on local Hema leaders like Chef Kahwa Mandro, Kisembo and others who had switched allegience to Rwanda before the fall out, had by now fallen back to Uganda's backing. The NRA had trained Chef Kahwa's militias at Kyankwanzi in Uganda. Museveni had tasked Chef Kahwa to talk peace with the Lundus in Kapendruma - a location alleged to have been hosting the shadowy PRA bases. 
Kayihura now concentrated on coordinating the recruitment and trainin of a Hema militia force. Recruits would be flown through the Entebe Airport and taken to the Semuliki Game Reserve for training under the 53rd Bn that was by that time under Lt. Col. Kimbowa. Another training camp for the Hemas was set up at Kasenyi in Congo under Chef Kisembo. Three months later, the NRA presumably withdrew from Congo but some NRA military Intelligence operatives among them a one Bashir were facilitated with satelite phones and retained in Bunia attached to Bosco Ntaganda. 

Earlier in 2001, the NRA Gbadolite based 19th Bn led the Congolese MLC militias to intervene in the Central African Republic (CAR) capital Bangui to surpress an uprising led by former President Andre Kolingba. They successfully put down the mutiny though they comitted a number of attrocities. The former President Andre Kolingba together with his son were taken hostage by the NRA, flown to Kampala and kept in a CMI Safe House in the Muyenga surburb. Because his son spoke English, he helped alot in translating for his French-speaking father during their stay in Uganda. The exited Museveni flew to Gbadolite to welcome back the victorius NRA and ordered for them plane loads of fresh meat from Kampala. Ofcourse Bemba's MLC militias were too weak to militarily intervene in CAR and it was the NRA that did the job. In 2005 when the MLC intervened again in the CAR to suppress another mutiny led by Froncois Bozize, the NRA had presumably withdrawn from Congo. The truith is that the NRA still had its forces within MLC who greatly boosted the success of the intervention. Again, the MLC militias like the Congo army did not have the capacity to militarily intervene in a foreign country and successefully suppress a mutiny.

Unfortunately the ICC decided to indict only MLC's Bemba. The same applies to Tom Lubanga and Bosco Ntaganda. Without the NRA, they would not have become warlords. Like was the case with all the ten militia groups, they were assisted by the NRA to recruit, train, arm and execute their operations. The NRA directly comitted horrific attrocities in the Congo. Innocent civilians and soldiers lost their lives, public and private property was destroyed and looted, women raped and chidren defiled. NRA's Capt Okum used explosives in Kilomoto gold mines in Isiro and ended up killing over 90 local miners who were burried by the collapsing tunnels. He was briefly helf for stealing a pick up truck but set free later. Col. Sula Semakula forcefully took explosives from a mining company Baric Gold and usf them in gold extraction. The ICJ ordered Uganda to pay reparations to Congo but who could enforce it! It is this impunity that makes Museveni to once again poke his nose in DRC with M23. The mysterious deaths of Kazini, Mayombo, Wapakhabulo, Kerim has links too.

Posted by Uganda - A Change of Guards! a

Viele GruBe

Robukui