The Monitor (Kampala)
June 19, 2003
Posted to the web June 19, 2003
Ssemujju Ibrahim Nganda and Emma Mutaizibwa
Kampala
A statement by the Ministry of Defence yesterday sparked off an angry debate in Parliament.
The Minister of State for Defence, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, had returned to the plenary to deliver a statement on the security situation in the country.
The focus was the war against Mr Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army rebels in northern Uganda.
The minister came with 14 pages that she read to MPs.
She told Parliament that the UPDF killed 19 rebels on 23 May and recovered documents showing "renewed contacts with some elements of the Sudanese Armed Forces which has resumed to supply the LRA".
She said that when the LRA attacked the 77th Battalion on 12 June at Omunyore on the Pader-Lira border, "40 LRA rebels were killed in action and six rebels were captured".
She reported that the UPDF recovered four SMGs from the rebels that day.
But Prof. Ogenga Latigo, the MP for Agago, disputed the minister's figures, saying that instead the LRA had killed 48 UPDF soldiers, including eight lieutenants.
Prof. Latigo said that if the minister insisted, he would take her to the area for verification.
Bunyole MP, Mr Emmanuel Dombo, wondered how government troops could kill so many rebels but capture only four guns.
Mr Hilary Onek, the MP for Lamwo in Kitgum, said that the figures of rebel casualties provided by the minister might include abducted children caught in the crossfire but also "counted as dead rebels".
Some MPs dismissed the minister's statement as a joke.
Mr Jacob Oulanyah (Omoro MP) said that Parliament wanted a serious statement and not "a joke from a joker".
Kumi MP, Mr Patrick Amuriat, said that recent rebel attacks in Teso suggested that the war is spreading.
He said that rebels have occupied some areas in Teso and were advancing.
The Minister of State for International Relations, Mr Tom Butime, warned Mr Amuriat against using words like "occupying" and "advancing".
Oyam South MP, Dr Okullo Epak, said that the government is not doing enough to fight the rebels in northern Uganda.
He said that when there was insecurity in western Uganda (where many senior ministers and army officers come from) the government moved swiftly and even pursued the rebels deep into the DR Congo.
The Minister of Local Government, Prof. Tarsis Kabwegyere, warned MPs against making sectarian statements.
He said that if the government were not serious about ending the war in northern Uganda, he would not have accepted to be a minister.
Ms Nankabirwa initially wanted to deliver her statement to a closed session but she changed her mind.
