Lt. Gen. Kayihura
UN report Gen. Salim Saleh has been responsible for conducting UPDF support to the M23 and that Lt. Gen. Kayihura has been holding meetings with the rebels in one of their acquired houses in Kampala
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United Nations distances itself from Congo report
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/United+Nations+distances+itself+from+Congo+report/-/688334/1610734/-/14sf1l9/-/index.html
By Isaac Imaka
Posted Sunday, November 4 2012 at 02:00
In Summary
‘Not our view’. UN says experts’s views on
Uganda’s alleged role in DRC crisis, not bindingA day after Uganda threatened to withdraw from all peace keeping missions in the region if UN considers the experts report on the Congo crisis, the UN has distanced itself from the independent experts report saying that the views expressed by the experts “do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations.”
Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri, who is also India’s Permanent representative on the Council, said that the report is yet to be considered by the Sanctions Committee concerning the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Uganda, as an important troop-contributing country, is playing a significant role in the maintenance of peace and security in several countries, particularly in Somalia,” he said.
He added that “views expressed by the independent experts do not necessarily reflect those of the United Nations”. Amb. Puri made the comments on Thursday while receiving Uganda’s protest letter to the UN over the experts report that implicated Uganda as aiding the M23 rebels in eastern Congo.
The letter was delivered by former representative to the UN and current ICT minister Ruhakana Rugunda. Dr Rugunda, accompanied by Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala the Commander of the Land Forces, said Uganda’s withdrawal from regional peace efforts, including Somalia, CAR, etc. “would become inevitable unless the UN corrects the false accusations made against Uganda, by bringing out the truth about Uganda’s role in the current regional efforts.”
While delivering what has been termed as “a message from the Government of Uganda expressing disappointment and grave concern about the false accusations against Uganda”, Dr Rugunda met with the Deputy UN Secretary-General, Mr. Jan Eliasson, who received the message on behalf of the UN Secretary-General.
In the meeting were Amb. Puri and the Representatives of Security Council members: South Africa, Azerbaijan, France, Togo, China, Russia, and United Kingdom.
“The government stressed that it was unacceptable to malign Uganda’s contribution to regional peace and security by alleging that it supports the M23 group,” read a communication from Uganda’s media centre.
DR Congo, UN request
Dr Rugunda explained that Uganda entered into DRC after a request was made to it by the Congolese government and UN.
“Uganda’s involvement in seeking a solution to the situation in eastern DRC was at the express request of both the DRC government and the UN Secretary General, and in its capacity as Chair of the International Conference of the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).”
Dr Rugunda is due to meet the President of the UN General Assembly, and the remaining Representatives of the Security Council members: United States of America, Germany, Pakistan, Guatemala, Colombia, Morocco, and Portugal next week.
The controversial report says that although there is a UN arms embargo against in the Congo rebels, Uganda and Rwanda have continuously provided support to M23 in the form of direct troop reinforcement in DRC territory, weapon deliveries, technical assistance, joint planning, political advice and facilitation of external relations.
The report was written by a group of experts working on the mandate of the UN pursuant to resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Gen. Salim Saleh
Congo war: Odongo defends Kale, Saleh
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/Congo+war++Odongo+defends+Kale++Saleh/-/688334/1611614/-/kreenrz/-/index.html
By ISAAC IMAKA
Posted Monday, November 5 2012 at 02:00
In Summary
KAMPALA
State Minister for Defence Abubaker Jeje Odongo yesterday noted that the UN report which says Police chief Kale Kayihura and the President’s brother, Gen. Salim Saleh, offered military assistance to DR Congo’s M23 rebels was written in bad faith.
Gen. Odongo’s comments in an exclusive interview with Daily Monitor came days after Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi and other government officials variously described the leaked report as amateurish and rubbish.
“The Prime Minister’s report to Parliament summarises the government, and army’s position on the UN report,” said Gen. Odongo. “Precisely, those officers were in no way involved in the said activities and that report was done in bad faith.”
A leaked copy of the October 12, 2012 report compiled by the UN Group of Experts accuses several Ugandan officials including Gen. Saleh and Lt. Gen. Kayihura of providing political advice, technical assistance, military assistance and facilitating M23’s permanent presence in Kampala.
It says Gen. Salim Saleh has been responsible for conducting UPDF support to the M23 and that Lt. Gen. Kayihura has been holding meetings with the rebels in one of their acquired houses in Kampala.
Neither the police chief nor the President’s brother were available for comment yesterday on a matter which has drawn strong reactions at the highest levels of government in both Kampala and Kigali.
Kampala has formally protested to the UN over what it says is an attempt to “malign Uganda’s contribution to regional peace and security by alleging that it supports the M23 group.”
The United Nations Security Council is expected to sit and formally consider findings of the Group of Experts, who themselves worked under a mandate of the UN pursuant to Resolution 1533 (2004) concerning the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The report observes that Lt. Gen. Kayihura hosted coordination meetings with the rebels in Kisoro between May and June 2012. The police chief reportedly frequently sent one of his deputies, Mr John Ngaruye Ndungutse, the officer in charge of counter-terrorism in the Uganda Police Force, to Kisoro to funnel support to the rebels.
Four unnamed UPDF officials and two officers, the report notes, confirmed to investigators working on behalf of the UN Group of Experts that a Maj. Charles Mukasa has been in charge of the local coordination of the support of M23.
Maj. Mukasa, who was described as the commanding officer of UPDF 63 Battalion based in Kisoro, allegedly received his orders from the army’s 2 Division commander, Brig. Patrick Kankiriho.
Brig. Kankiriho was himself noted to have been overseeing military support to M23 insurgents. “UPDF commanders sent troops and weapons to reinforce specific M23 operations and assisted in the M23’s recruitment and weapon procurement efforts in Uganda. Ugandan officials equally endorsed a “laissez-fair” policy authorising local military and civil authorities to corporate with M23 out of their personal ties to the Rwanda Defence Forces [RDF] or to the rebels,” the report reads in part.
The same report also names Kisoro District chairman, Mr Milton Bazanye, his “ally” Willberforce Nkudizana and “local UPDF officers” of collaborating with the Jomba groupment chief based in Bunagana, DR Congo.
M23 cadres, the report says, have been recruiting in Uganda with the support of Ugandan authorities. Interviewed sources told the UN group that the recruitments are on-going in Mbarara, Kasese, Kampala, Kisoro, as well as in the refugee camps of Kisoro and Nyakivale.
While addressing Parliament last week, the Prime Minister said Uganda has never given any support to the M23 rebels.“Uganda’s involvement in the DRC, M23 conflict was a mandate received from the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. At the height of the fighting in Eastern DRC, H.E Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, personally contacted H.E Yoweri K. Museveni, and requested him to intervene and stop the fighting in Eastern DRC,” Mr Mbabazi told Parliament.
The Premier further told the House that in case the UN adopts the October report, Uganda’s troops will be withdrawn from Somalia and other peace support missions in the region.
What the UN Panel of Experts on DR Congo report says
Military support
According to the report, Three Ugandan government officials and a Ugandan local leader and M23 cadres told the investigating Group that the UPDF used troops from the western division headquarters at Mbarara and from Kisoro which were deployed to the DRC using Muramba and Muhanguzi UPDF deployments near the border. To facilitate the UPDF troop support, M23 placed agents at Bunagana and Kitagoma border posts.
“Local [Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo] FARDC commanders as well as current and former M23 officers informed the Group that in July 2012, UPDF deployed a unit of about 600 soldiers in Busanza, DRC to prepare the rebel attacks in Rutshuru territory. The same sources stated the UPDF soldiers reinforced the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) troops already present and formed a “mixed brigade” which outnumbered M23 troops,” the report reads.
During that period, the report says, a former M23 soldier overheard a conversation between UPDF and M23 commanders, using a commercial radio, during which they discussed the need to “decentralise” the Kivus.”
A copy of radio intercepts of the said communication is attached to the report as annex 25. The Group claims that it interviewed one UPDF soldier arrested in the DRC who said that after completing military training in Masaka, his commanders sent him to fight in DRC alongside three groups of 75 experienced soldiers and other trainees.
“Following large scale operations in July, one border official and two Congolese leaders residing in Uganda and former M23 soldiers told the Group that the UPDF and M23 evacuated casualties to Uganda and transported them to the military hospital in Mbarara,” the report says.
Alleged UPDF’s role in arms supply
Former M23 soldiers told the investigators that officers based in Kisoro have been supplying M23 with small quantities of weapons. One former M23 said he had accompanied Col. Sultani Makenga [rebel coordinator] to Kisoro on three occasions at the beginning of July and witnessed how he procured weapons from UPDF officers. Each time they returned with 12.7mm machines guns which they received free of charge.
“UPDF commanders brought heavy weapons to the hill overlooking Bunagana on the Ugandan side of the border in order to reinforce the M23 during the attack on the town and subsequently left them with the rebels after they took over the town,” the report reads. Two former RDF officers, two FARDC officers, one M23 cadre and one M23 soldier stated that two trucks transported weapons and ammunition to Bunagana prior to the attacks on Rutshuru and Kiwanja. According to one FARDC officers, the two trucks mainly contained RPG-7 grenade launchers and machine guns.
Alleged UPDF participation in attacks
According to the UN report, the M23, RDF, and UPDF troops operated together during the July 2012 takeover of Rutshuru.Former RDF officers, border officers, border officials, FARDC officers and former M23 soldiers told the UN investigators that during the night of July 5-6, 2012, while the M23 and the RDF troops engaged in combat in Bunagana, the UPDF shelled the border town from their deployment on the hill overlooking the town and sent a unit of 100 to 150 soldiers to fight alongside M23 and RDF troops. MONUSCO peace keepers confirmed that the FARDC had been fired upon from Uganda.
15 eyewitnesses, the Group wrote, observed the crossing of UPDF troops into Bunagana in the middle of the RDF and M23 attacks. Additional UPDF troops crossed into the DRC through three distinct locations during the two days prior to the July operations on Rutshuru and Kiwanja: four trucks crossed into the DRC through Kitagoma and Busanza and four other trucks entered through Bunagana and transported UPDF troops and weapons to the frontlines in Rutshuru town and Kalengera.
