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Army Blasts Taban Amin Over PRA Talk

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
January 18, 2005
Posted to the web January 18, 2005

By Tabu Butagira & Richard Mutumba
Arua
The army has responded to claims by Maj Gen Taban Amin that most of the
suspected rebels of the People's Redemption Army (PRA) arrested in West Nile
last November are not insurgents but businessmen.
Taban Amin, son of the late Uganda dictator, Idi Amin Dada, said on Wednesday
that PRA rebel suspects being held by security agencies are businessmen who
were trading guns following the now abandoned lucrative cash-for-arms scheme
initiated by the government.
The UPDF spokesman in West Nile, Lt. Anech Mubangizi, who paraded the captured
PRA suspects and arms before journalists, said yesterday that Taban is "a
confusing agent".
"If the PRA suspects we have arrested are confessing their involvement in rebel
activity, who is Taban Amin to refute their testimony? His information is not
researched and he is merely a confusing agent," he said.
Several suspected Peoples Redemption Army rebels including Col. Kizza Besigye's
brother have been charged and remanded to prisons over charges of treason and
concealment of the acts.
Taban, who returned to Uganda about a year ago with nearly 600 of his DR Congo-
based ex-Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF II) combatants after striking a
deal with President Yoweri Museveni, claims he is the deputy Director General
for special operations in the Internal Security Organisation (ISO).
While featuring on 87.8 Arua One's Ti Ecita (Co-operation) Talk show hosted by
the station's News-Editor, Mr. Luke Ocima on January 13, the towering Taban
Amin said the suspects, who were buying guns cheaply from neighbouring Southern
Sudan, fell into trouble when the government halted the profitable trade -
catching them with stockpiles of illegal arms.
Mubangizi said the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and the Joint
Anti-terrorism squads had since November arrested 21 suspected PRA rebels and
collaborators and recovered a stockpile of arms from Koboko and Yumbe.
Mubangizi said the army had retrieved 135 SMG riffles, 12 tortoise grenades, 24
anti-personnel landmines with 31 fuses, 262 loose ammunition and 146 magazines,
20 of which were fully loaded.
Other weapons up out from the said rebel hideouts in mainly Ludara sub-county,
kept at the UPDF 409 brigade head quarters in Arua, are; one pistol, 23 RPG
(shells) with 19 fuses and two pipes.
He said they also recovered rebel training kits which included; 39 pairs of gum
boats, seven coats, 210 blankets, 600 cups, 780 plates, one satellite phone and
17 bags of beans.
"So what is Taban Amin talking about when we have all this evidence," Mubangizi
asked.
His boss, Major Shaban Bantariza, challenged Taban Amin to substantiate his
claims. "Let him tell if Capt. Katabazi [PRA suspect and UPDF deserter] under
whose bed we dug out 47 riffles was a businessman in the remote village of
Ludara," he said before hanging up.
Taban Amin was destined to fly to the Congolese capital - Kinshasha on Saturday
to organize repatriation of at least 40 of his former rebels still holed up in
Kananga. He was also scheduled to discuss with the Kabila government payment
for the ex-WNBF rebels who fought alongside Congolese forces during the anti-
Kabila (Snr) war from 1998.
The Monitor could not verify if he flew out. His phone was off.
Meanwhile, the acting Arua RDC, Henry Ringakech, who chairs the district
security committee, has reported subversive activities in the region.
"It is true PRA rebel activity started in the area and were detected early
enough. As a result, some people have been arrested and are awaiting
prosecution, he said.
He said in spite of the rebel scare, Arua was peaceful and calm. He asked the
public to ignore Taban Amin's contradicting remarks and volunteer information
relating to rebellion.
The government claims PRA is a rebel group with training camps in the jungles
of eastern DRC under the political patronage of exiled former presidential
candidate, Col. Dr. Kizza Besigye. But Besigye has repeatedly denied the
claims.
Recently, the government shuffled and transferred security and prisons
commanders in West Nile region in a shake-up.
Sources say it had to do with their failure to detect PRA presence in the
region.
Museveni also recently appointed his former Aide de Camp (ADC), Lt. Col. Sam
Kavuma, formerly commanding the UPDF 51st battalion to take military charge of
the West Nile region.

   

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