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ISO Disowns Taban Amin

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
January 18, 2005
Posted to the web January 18, 2005

By Felix Osike and Anne Mugisa
Kampala
TABAN Amin is not a deputy director general of the Internal Security
Organisation (ISO) and has no authority to comment on defence matters, the army
said yesterday.
"You can take it from me. He has no authority to speak on matters of anti-
terrorism. The poor chap is making false statements. He is simply a misguided
missile. He should keep quiet. He should not talk about matters he does not
know," army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said.
Amin, son of the late President Idi Amin, was yesterday quoted as saying the
People's Redemption Army (PRA) rebel suspects arrested in West Nile recently
had been recruited by the army to collect guns for cash from former rebels in
the region.
Amin, however, yesterday maintained that he was appointed deputy director
general for special operations eight months ago. "Ask Col. Elly Kayanja (ISO
chief)," he said.
Amin, a former rebel leader who once occupied the Uganda's embassy building in
Kinshasa, became a darling of the Government when he returned from exile with
his fighters. He now leads a music band that croons for a third term for
President Yoweri Museveni.
Bantariza said Amin was a mere ISO operative who wants to usurp the director
general's powers. "His being in ISO or any security agency does not entitle him
to know everything that happens there.
"He is simply unaware. He is not part of the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force
(JATT). JATT is not answerable to him. If he wants to exonerate some of his
friends in Arua, he should not use the security," Bantariza said.
He said the suspects confessed to being in the PRA. "No stupid government will
arrest its own people and take them to court. We are not a stupid government at
all," Bantariza said.
He advised the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) officials who are
calling for the suspects release, to wait for the court verdict.
"The FDC and Reform Agenda who are struggling for the rule of law, should
respect the role of the courts," he said.
Bantariza said the PRA suspects were former Reform Agenda activists.
Reform Agenda led by former presidential candidate Col. Kiiza Besigye has since
merged with the Parliamentary Advocacy Forum to form the FDC.
The Acting Chief of Military Intelligence, Lt. Col. James Mugira, said he never
employed the PRA suspects to collect guns. He said the matter was now
subjudice.
But he said, "If they have that defence, they should raise it in court."
The Paris based Indian Ocean Newsletter reported in its latest edition that the
Uganda army and military intelligence were indebted to intermediaries whom it
hired to buy arms from civilians in West Nile and southern Sudan.
The newsletter said when the government stopped paying the arms collectors,
some of them decided to keep the arms they had bought from civilians.
It claimed it was arms from this stock that were put on show by the authorities
as belonging to the PRA when a dozen suspects were arrested on December 18.
The East African quoted local authorities in West Nile as saying the suspects
were hired to purchase arms from former rebels.
The paper quoted local leaders as being surprised at the branding of the
arrested as PRA rebels.

   

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