{UAH} MUSEVENI'S INTELLIGENCE MACHINERY OUT COMPETES IDDI AMIN'S Mulindwa's SRB (photos)

On Sun, Feb 7, 2021, 1:37 AM 'Rehema Uganda' via Ugandans at Heart (UAH) Community <ugandans-at-heart@googlegroups.com> wrote:

: MUSEVENI'S INTELLIGENCE MACHINERY OUT COMPETES IDDI AMIN'S SRB (photos)

By CHANGE OF GUARDS

      "No action or other legal proceedings whatsoever, whether civil or criminal, shall be instituted in any court for any act, matter or thing done during the continuation of operations consequent upon or incidental to the said take-over of powers of the government if done in good faith and done or purported to done in the execution of his duty or the defense of Uganda or the public safety be it  for the enforcement of discipline or law and order or otherwise in public interest by a person holding office under or employed in the public service of Uganda or A MEMBER OF THE ARMED FORCES of Uganda or by another person acting under authority of a person so holding office or so employed."

     Iddi Amin Decree - February 2, 1971 giving soldiers and all other security agents absolute powers to abuse human rights. 

"The other day, there was a fracas in West Nile where our young friend Bobi Wine tried to fight with security people. I think they beat him a bit and then they came to me and said that an MP was beaten. I said okay, let me study how he was beaten. When I studied, I found the man had been beaten properly, in the right way. This was because when the SFC people, who are not police, are used to do other things, they actually managed to act properly. I was surprised." Museveni said in August 2020.

If you threaten the lives of the security forces and the lives of the public, they have a right to shoot you. That is why they are armed with coercive weapons to make you fear committing crimes. So, if people don't take that genuine and peaceful advice and want to gloss over it in chaos, they should go ahead," Gen. Tumwine said.

    Museveni's Minister of Security - November 2020.

The State Research Bureau (SRB) was the notorious secret service of Uganda during the Iddi Amin regime.  Before he took over power in  January 1971, his predecessor Milton Obote ran a state security outfit called the General Service Unit (GSU) to which Museveni belonged.  The GSU was the vanguard of Obote's short-lived one party communist agenda. Among the reasons the Iddi Amin coup gave was the terrorising of citizens by the GSU. The SRB was established in February 1971 as a replacement for the abolished Obote's GSU. With the help of the Israelis, the  SRB was initially established as a military intelligence agency and named the State Research Centre (SRC).  Maj. Amin Onzi was the founding Director of SRC and a decade later in 1987, he was appointed Minister of State for Works by Museveni. It was meant to be a centre for collecting and sieving intelligence from informers. After the expulsion of the Israelis in 1972, the SRC was renamed SRB. The Russians were brought in to provide the technical backup. Owing to the military threat posed by exiles, the core mandate of SRB was to gather military intelligence. Its Counter Intelligence unit was headed by a Briton, Bob Astles. The SRB was built on the Russian KGB model of spying. Many of its personnel had training in Russia.  

In 1973, the Iddi Amin regime established the 500 members Public Safety Unit (PSU) based at Naguru barracks as a police intelligence unit. With police and civilian personnel, its core mandate was to gather Intelligence. Its head was Ali Towelli who had been the Director of Training and Operations in the Police. Around 1976, Ali Towelli clashed with the then chief of Police, Ondria, over excesses of PSU and killings in particular. The clashes became native and tribal with Ondria accusing Ali Towelli of being a Sudanese. Iddi Amin intervened by sending Ali Towelli on forced leave and retiring Ondria in public interest, pending investigations into divisions and clashes in PSU. Amin appointed Commissioner of Police, Kassim Obura, as Police Chief as well as head of PSU. The inquiry never took place and shortly after, Ali Towelli was recalled from forced leave to resume heading the PSU. The Military Police, under Hussein Malerra, had an Intelligence Wing that proved to be dangerous to even fellow security personnel. Then there was the mainstream Military Intelligence whose mandate extended to even civilians. During the regime's late days, it initiated a Special Presidential Intelligence Office under Malerra's direct supervision.   

With sweeping powers, these security agencies went on rampage targeting civilians not only for Intelligence but for torture and extortion. The SRB drew its personnel from both the army, and Police was dominated by ethnic Kakwas, Nubians and West Nilers in general. Rwandan and Palestinian mercenaries also played a big role in sustaining the agency's atrocities.  Lt. Col. Francis Itabuka, from Busoga, headed the SRB's 20,000 full time personnel and the 5,000 unofficial employees that consisted of civil servants, office messengers, medical workers, teachers, businessmen, religious leaders, street hawkers, sweepers, students, ordinary people and even detainees and prisoners. Pretty Rwandan Tutsi girls were systematically planted in banks, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, bars and government offices as spies. However, with time, dissidents leant how to avoid them and in some instances, through their relatives, they would be befriended by dissidents and turned into double agents. That is how the likes of Amama Mbabazi's wife, Jackline Mbabazi, who worked at the SRB's switch Board came to work for Museveni. 

The Nubian, Maj. Farouk Minawa who deputized Lt. Col. Itabuka, wielded more powers than the latter.  He had the trust of Iddi Amin and no wonder in September 1977, Lt. Col. Itabuka was transferred from SRB to the Mountains of the Moon. This followed the mysterious escape from the cells of 6 soldiers who were being held on treasonous allegations. A decade later, Itabuka appeared before the Commission of  Inquiry into human rights violations where he challenged anyone with evidence to implicate him in any killings by SRB.  He disclosed that his Deputy Maj. Farouk Minawa had more powers than himself (Itabuka).  He went ahead to give its administrative structure as; 

Director - Col Francis Itabuka, Deputy - Maj. Farouk Minawa, Head of Operations - Capt. Mzee Yosa, Administrative Adjutant - Lt. Jackson Kyalikunda, Head of Technical - Lt. Adam, In charge of Transport - Lt. Abdulatiff.  

Mzee Yosa died recently in Museveni's detention without trial after he was accused of links with alleged Rwanda backed PRA.   

With their trademark dark skin, flowered shirts, Kaunda Suits, dark glasses, bell bottom trousers, platform shoes and Peugeot cars with special number plates, the SRB agents could be identified by everyone. They were assisted by opportunists, weaklings, thieves in extorting and picking up their targets for detention and killing. The killings mostly targeted the educated, wealthy and mostly non Muslims and anyone having links with foreigners. However, despite those shortcomings, the SRB had a robust capacity to gather intelligence. It monitored and tracked the activities of Ugandans at home and abroad through phone tapping, freelance informers and full time agents. Even its diplomatic staff abroad were monitored by agents attached to embassies the same way Museveni runs his External Security Organization (ESO). That is how SRB was able to accurately monitor the movement of the arms consignment sent in by the Obote group using the Archbishop of The Anglican Church.   

At home, the network was so widespread that a wave of mistrust thrived amongst the population. A wife could not trust a husband, a parent could not trust a child, relatives could not trust each other, workmates did not trust each other and neighbors suspected each other. People didn't know who was who and only talked in whispers. Amin's henchmen roamed the countryside arresting, torturing and killing with impunity. People gave information for money. That is how the regime was able to flush out any attempt by dissidents at establishing cells within the country.

Agents and some soldiers had licences to kill anyone deemed dangerous to the peace and good order.  They would grab wives after killing husbands, cars and private property for themselves.  At one time Iddi Amin told them that; 

     ".......if you get a Zionist, someone spying for foreign agents, you should not wait for Amin to come and tell you what to do so long as what you are doing is in the interest of the government of Uganda." 

With the total breakdown of the rule of law, courts were rendered inactive with regard to political offences. After terrorising the entire nation into fearful silence, these atrocities became normal with no questioning as the population became insensitive. Many adopted total submission while others played the fool as a survival instinct. When a list with photographs of undercover SRB agents was made public after the fall of the Iddi Amin regime, many Ugandans were shocked while those implicated melted into thin air.  

The Museveni regime's security machinery seems to be reading from the same script which Iddi Amin's security goons used. The only difference is that in terms of efficiency, those of Iddi Amin were far ahead.  Museveni's security goons are only better at covering up and propaganda. While to some extent the Iddi Amin Intelligence outfit was a secret service, Museveni's intelligence goons are just a bunch of publicly identified terrorists.  

--

Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:Assalamu Alaikum

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