From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Tue Jul 15 2008 - 08:15:02 EDT
Somalia: How UPDF sold arms to Somali Alshabab -reports
Tuesday 15 July 2008
They met with key Uganda government officials among whom was the
minister for Foreign Affairs, Sam Kutesa, the Ugandan Special Envoy to
Somalia, Ngoma Ngime, the Chief of Defense of the Uganda People's
Defense Forces (UPDF), General Aronda Nyakairima, the Director General
of the External Security Organization of Uganda and the Mogadishu
Station Chief from the External Security Organisation of Uganda.
According to sources who talked to The Independent, the team was in
Kampala to express concern about UPDF's involvement in arms trafficking
in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. After presenting their concerns, the
Ugandan side promised to investigate the allegations and get back to the
UN monitoring team with its findings.
Five months later, in late May 2008, the UN Somalia monitoring group
issued a report of its findings to the UN Security Council. According to
the report, the UPDF has been involved in trafficking arms. Among the
allegations is one that UPDF troops on a peace keeping mission in
Mogadishu have been illegally selling arms to Somali gunrunners. The
report says that the gunrunners in turn sell the arms to Somali
warlords.
According to the report, among the beneficiaries of this arms trade is a
Somali militia called Al Shabab.
Al Shabab is part of the Islamic Courts Union, the rebel group that had
captured Mogadishu last year but was bombed out of the city by United
States air force with support of Ethiopian ground troops.
Al Shabab accuses UPDF of not being neutral in the conflict because the
Ugandan army is protecting the Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
The Al Shabab militia warlord threatened to and has actually attacked
UPDF positions in Mogadishu.
On November 15, 2007, three weeks before the UN Monitoring team's visit
to Kampala, Al Shabab leader, Sheikh Aden Hashi Ayrow, posted an audio
file on a Dayniile website. He said; "To us the Ugandans, Ethiopians and
Americans are all the same, they have invaded us and I am telling the
Mujahidin [God's fighters], Ugandans must be one of our priorities."
In the first three months after March 6, 2007 when the first Uganda
soldiers set foot in Mogadishu, a disarmament drive was attempted. Spear
headed by Major General Levi Karuhanga, the exercise yielded quick and
unexpected results; insurgents and businessmen surrendered stockpiles of
arms. Other stockpiles of explosives and ammunition were recovered by
peacekeepers hidden in underground caches in and around Mogadishu
following tip offs. The arms belonged mainly to Al Shabab which was at
the time pre occupied with fighting Ethiopian and TFG troops. It is
these arms, the report says, that found their way back to the Al Shabab
fighters.
How arms racket worked
The 83 page UN report details how a racket of UPDF officers, gunrunners
and militia traded in arms. A racket, involving arms men at the
peacekeeper armories beats all odds of the language barrier and the
volatile and hostile situation in Somalia. "The soldiers have set up a
network through their translators who are in contact with the arms
dealers; when the arms dealer receives a "wish list" from a client, a
representative of the arms dealer contacts a trusted member of the
Ugandan battalion stationed at the Mogadishu seaport, where the arms
(from Al Shabab weapon caches) are stored;" the report read.
But the Uganda military disputes this particular claim. Lt. Gen. Edward
Wamala Katumba, the Commander of UPDF Land Forces who went to Mogadishu
to conduct the investigation late last year, says this is a lie. "Though
we have troops at the sea port, we don't have any armory there. This is
one particular piece of evidence that shows the report needs to be
dismissed," Gen Katumba said in an interview with The Independent. "Our
arms and those captured are kept at Harani where the AMISOM base is."
Katumba's report was not shared with the UN.
The UN report further claims; "he (the Ugandan officer involved in arms
trafficking in Mogadishu) gains access to the containers (during the
night), chooses his weapons and makes sure that they are operational
(payment is always made before delivery)." However, it does not name the
officer. Instead, it gives details of the transportation of illegal arms
by pickup trucks in isolated areas like a Xooga Korontada (near the
electricity plant) or in the bush, to the waiting arms trader. Other
weapons are reportedly transported by donkey carts in order to avoid
being stopped by other Ugandan soldiers who are not part of the network.
"The smaller arms, such as AK 47s, RPG 2/7s, and PKMs, find their way to
the Al Shabaab; heavy weapons such as Zu 23s and B 10s find their way to
Puntland and Somaliland authorities," it added. The report further
points out one arms dealer Haniinya Badne, who gave a "wish list" of
arms to middleman "Goomey", including 4 Zu 23s, 5 DShKs, 3 dhuunshilke
(1 barrel Zu 23; typical Somali), 18 PKMs, 8 RPG 2/7s, 30 AK 47s and 50
pistols. The following ammunition was also requested: 25 boxes of
ammunition for PKMys; 20 boxes for the DShK; 40 boxes for the
dhuunshilke; 145 boxes for the AK 47s; 100 rounds for the RPG 2/7s; 180
boxes for pistols; and 1,800 belts and magazines."
Gen. Katumba attacks the report as flawed when it comes to transporting
a 23 millimetre gun on a pickup truck. "This is impossible, this gun can
only be towed and cannot fit on any pickup truck," he said. "The whole
thing beats me, how can soldiers sell arms to insurgents to put himself
in harm's way," he said adding; "this report does not make any sense and
is by people who are against AMISOM's objective which is to bring peace
to that country."
The report said the Ugandan contingent of AMISOM involved in the
transaction received US $80,000. "The arms were eventually bought back
by the Al Shabaab, via their representative at the Somali Arms Market,
Abdirisaaq Godane."
But the spokesman of AMISOM major Barigye Ba Hoku also dismissed all
these details as a mere fabrications. "Interactions of the troops with
the common man in Mogadishu, who would act as a link, are almost non
existent. The people we interact with are essentially sick people who
come to our area to seek medical help," Major Barigye said in an
interview with The Independent.
This is not the first time the UPDF is accused by the UN of dirty
dealings when its troops have been involved in international combat. It
is also not the first time UPDF soldiers have been accused of complicity
in illicit trade in combat zones. In 2000 and in 2002, the UN Panel of
Experts issued a report to the Security Council where senior UPDF
officers were accused of involvement in the plunder of Congolese
resources. Among those directly implicated by the UN were Maj. Gen.
James Kazini, then UPDF Chief of Staff, Gen. Salim Saleh, brother to
President Yoweri Museveni, Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire who had been
presidential advisor on the Congo and Brig. Noble Mayombo (RIP) then
Chief of Military Intelligence.
Over the years, the UPDF has been implicated in illegal arms sales and
trafficking in almost all areas of military operation ranging from the
Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) war, Karamoja forceful disarmament, and the
1998 2003 Congolese Civil War in which Uganda took part. The UN and
human rights organisations issued reports accusing UPDF personnel of
selling arms to warring ethnic groups and training militias, including
child soldiers.
Last year, the Army leadership unanimously agreed on a policy shift from
using arms men resorting to arms committees to manage UPDF armories in
Karamoja. Arms men refer to individual officers in charge of armories.
This followed allegations that soldiers were selling arms to Karamojong
cattle rustlers.
In early 2004, for example, the Intelligence Officer for 4 Division in
Gulu, Lt. Ochira, wrote to the Chief of Counter Intelligence at CMI
headquarters in Kampala complaining about the poor working relationship
between UPDF and Internal Security Organization (ISO). In the report,
Ochira reveals that the Deputy Director General of ISO, Col. Elly
Kayanja, invited Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebel defectors for a
meeting in Gulu on November 5, 2003 without informing CMI on the ground.
"Col. Kayanja promised these LRA commanders a lot of money which made
them to conspire to steal arms from their squad armory which were given
by 4 Division for operations i.e. two RPG [Rocket Propelled Grenades]
bombs without fuses, three 60mm mortar bombs and 125 rounds of G2
ammunition," the report reads in part, "On the 6th of November 2003,
Captain Otto and Lt. Egwalu went and hid these arms in Koc Orum and
later informed Col. Kayanja that they had an ammunition dump."
According to the report, the LRA defectors were literally taking arms
from UPDF armories and then returning and selling the same arms to the
army. Corruption in the UPDF had become so endemic that in 2002, Col.
Mayombo wrote a report to the Army Commander arguing that soldiers in
the armored units were stealing fuel and lubricants made to service
tanks and APCs [Anti Personnel Careers]. This, soldier's report argued,
had left many tanks and APCs in unserviceable condition and therefore
could not be deployed against the enemy.
Among the worst indictments from within the Ugandan military about graft
that had eaten the fabric of the UPDF was when, while investigating fake
names on the UPDF nominal payroll or the "Ghost Soldiers scandal," a
committee led by the Senior Presidential Advisor on Security, Gen. David
Tinyefuza. The committee discovered that UPDF soldiers were involved in
filling the army register with ghost soldiers and thereby creaming off
money into their pockets.
"After extensive examination of available data and the evidence gathered
from several witnesses, the committee has established that ghost
soldiers exist in the UPDF and its auxiliary forces," the report's
introduction says. "The committee has further found out that the
phenomenon is so large that it covers all units of the army. It has
further been established that many officers of the UPDF are involved in
this practice."
The report went on to reveal that "The ghost soldier problem is so grave
that the former Army Commander Maj. Gen James Kazini told the committee
that Uganda has no standing army and that it depends on the good
politics of Pr
Source: The Independent
<http://www.garoweonline.com/artman2/uploads/1/uganda2.jpg>
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----
