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The Monitor (Kampala)
October 4, 2003
Posted to the web October 3, 2003
Alex B. Atuhaire
Kampala
The Peoples Redemption Army (PRA) still has a loose presence in eastern DR Congo, the minister of Defence has said.
"There are still elements of PRA in Congo," Mr Amama Mbabazi said yesterday while addressing journalists at Bombo Army Headquarters. "We delivered a devastating blow while we were in Congo but we didn't completely wipe them out."
He said, however, the elements are isolated.
The Ugandan army withdrew from the DR Congo earlier in the year after a presence of about four years.
Throughout the media conference, Mbabazi referred to PRA as the "Besigye Group". Col. Kizza Besigye is a former presidential candidate and now lives in exile in South Africa.
Government has consistently linked him to the PRA but he has persistently denied any contact with the group.
In March, the army paraded a number of PRA captives allegedly caught in the DR Congo from where they were setting up rear bases to fight President Yoweri Museveni's government.
"We are in close contact with Monuc [the UN mission in DR Congo] and the new Congolese government to make sure that PRA's efforts do not destabilise Uganda," Mbabazi said.
He said in the last two months, 186 Lord's Resistance Army rebels were killed, 27 captured, more than 70 defected to the UPDF, while 650 abductees were rescued. The army recovered 74 SMGs, two of them 82mm recoilless guns.
The Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, Col. Noble Mayombo, admitted that some Allied Democratic Forces remnants still remain at large in eastern DR Congo.
"But the [western] districts of Bundibugyo, Kasese and Fort Portal are secure," he said.
This week's media reports indicated that ADF still pose a credible threat in large parts of western Uganda but the army denied knowledge of the threat.
Despite the recent LRA rebel incursions in Teso from northern Uganda, Mayombo described the general security situation in the country as calm.
The news conference was attended by Defense PS Gabindade Musoke, Army Chief of Staff Brig. Nakibus Lakara, Bombo Camp Commandant Col. Hussein Ada and Army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza.
