{UAH} UGANDA IS FOOTING THE BILL OF UPDF IN S SUDAN

South Sudan: Uganda footing bills for UPDF

THURSDAY, 16 JANUARY 2014 23:19

WRITTEN BY SADAB KITATTA KAAYA & DEO WALUSIMBI

Expensive: Uganda is footing her own bills of a combat mission in South Sudan

Angry MPs summon Kiyonga, Nyombi

A belated admission of UPDF’s active combat role in South Sudan by President Museveni, hours after Parliament approved the deployment retrospectively, has stirred angry emotions across the political divide.

Defence minister Crispus Kiyonga, his junior Gen Jeje Odongo and Chief of Defence Forces Gen Katumba Wamala had successfully persuaded Parliament that the army was deployed in the volatile South Sudan largely to rescue trapped Ugandans and provide humanitarian services.

They fervently denied allegations of combat operations and roundly dismissed any suggestion of causalities.

On Tuesday, Kiyonga invoked memories of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and told MPs that the Ugandan army had moved into South Sudan to prevent such a scenario.

But hours after securing Parliament’s approval, President Museveni told fellow heads of state attending the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in Angola on Wednesday that the UPDF was playing a more active role than MPs had been told.(So you mean Uganda members of Paliament WERE DUPED ONCE MORE by the CHIEF DUPPER..Yoweri museveni)

“Only the other day, January 13, the SPLA and elements of our army had a big battle with the rebel troops about 90km from Juba where we inflicted a big defeat on them. Unfortunately, many lives were lost on the side of the rebels. We also took casualties and had some dead,” Museveni said.

Reacting to the President’s confession, some angry MPs yesterday resolved to summon Kiyonga and Attorney General Peter Nyombi to explain the UPDF’s role in South Sudan. Parliament’s committee on Defence also learnt yesterday, following a review of the Status of the Forces Agreement Uganda signed with South Sudan on January 10, that Uganda is bearing all costs of the war.

Apart from being exempted from South Sudanese taxes, the Ugandan contingent is meeting all its liabilities, including medical expenses for injured soldiers. During a heated committee meeting yesterday, the deputy chairperson, Peter Eriaku, said the minister of Defence and the Attorney General had been summoned.

“I hereby direct the Clerk [to Parliament] to send out invitation letters to both of them,” Eriaku said.

Summoning the two officials was mooted by Muwanga Kivumbi, the Butambala MP, who said he was privy to official information indicating that fighters loyal to Riek Machar, the former vice president, had killed some UPDF troops in battle last week.

“The minister of Defence should be summoned to explain what they (UPDF) are doing in South Sudan. It seems that they lied to Parliament before approving their deployment. They told us that they were going to be impartial but the commander-in-chief is saying that they are involved in battles and our soldiers were killed and that UPDF killed Machar’s fighters,” Kivumbi said.

He added that the Hansard should be analysed to establish beyond doubt what the motion was about. The MPs also queried the authenticity of the agreement Uganda signed with South Sudan, especially after they failed to establish the name of the South Sudanese official who signed for Juba.

“We would like to know who is committing the country to this mission and its scope and we need to know exactly what they are doing there [in South Sudan],” Bubulo  East MP Simon Mulongo added.

On his part, Kyadondo East MP, Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda, who had engaged Gen Odongo in an exchange before parliamentary approval was granted, said Kiyonga had told “lies” to Parliament but that is all he knew.

“I don’t have anything to demand from Kiyonga because I highly doubt he has full details of what is transpiring in South Sudan,” Ssemujju said. “He told Parliament what he thought was the right information, yet he had been told lies by the people who know the truth.”

Ssemujju added that only Museveni and “some few people around him like his son [Brig] Muhoozi” have an idea what is going on.

“Kiyonga is also looking for information like any other Ugandan and some of us have more information than him, so I’m not angry with him because when you try to [dig] much about military issues, Museveni will bury you six feet [under],” Ssemujju said.

Shadow minister for Defence Hassan Kaps Fungaroo told The Observer that it was unfortunate Parliament was not being taken seriously. He called on his colleagues to exert themselves.

Besides summoning top government officials, the committee asked Parliament’s Legal Department to scrutinise the Status of the Forces Agreement, which some MPs said was unfair to Uganda, and report to Parliament on Tuesday next week.

“The visiting forces will be responsible for meeting the cost of medical, optional and hospital treatment for members, for arranging evacuation in the event that suitable medical treatment is not available,” reads article 10 of the agreement.

Army Spokesman Lt Col Paddy Ankunda confirmed in an interview on Thursday, that “the UPDF is obviously in full combat.”

Asked about the casualties, he said: “We wouldn’t tell you how many they are until we have informed their next of kin, but the truth is that we have lost some soldiers and we also have some few who were injured.”

Last week, Aruu MP Samuel Odonga Otto said some of the dead Ugandan soldiers had been sneaked in from South Sudan and buried in parts of northern Uganda. He claimed the army had lied to relatives of the deceased, that the soldiers had died in a fatal accident on Masaka – Mbarara road.

Otto, who says he attended the burial of Sgt Santos Ocen at Onywana village in Omoro, Gulu district, and Pt Richard Oyaka at Ongako, adds that he had crossed-checked with traffic police and there was no such accident on the said road.

sadabkk@observer.ug
walusimbideo@gmail.com

 

 

           Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
           Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"