Besigye Hits At Court Martial
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The Monitor (Kampala)February 3, 2004
Posted to the web February 3, 2004 Mercy Nalugo
Kampala
The General Court Martial is targeting officers who are no longer loyal to Lt. Gen. Museveni, Col. Kizza Besigye has said.In a statement issued on January 30, Besigye said the sacking, and the subsequent investigation and prosecution of the said "corrupt" officers, is aimed at assuring donors that government is committed to fighting corruption.
Besigye, who lives in a South African exile heads the Reform Agenda, a Kampala political pressure group.The group first vice president, Mr Reagan Okumu, read out Besigye's statement yesterday at the Reform Agenda's weekly media briefing in Kamwokya.Besigye is a former candidate in the 2001 presidential race."
Those who may oppose President Museveni's bid to change the Constitution and to continue in leadership beyond 2006 are the primary targets of these exercises. Several people who are not targeted have been swept by the exercises to create the necessary smoke screen," wrote Besigye.
He said that Museveni wants to promote and position the "loyal" officers to "protect and defend" his regime.At least 120 army officers were implicated by the Amama Mbabazi (Defence minister) investigation into the existence of ghost soldiers on the army payroll.
Lt. Gen. David Tinyefuza is chairing a committee, which is making deeper investigations into the scam that has cost the military billions of shillings.Several senior officers were sacked last year in a big shake up in the military.
These included former army commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini, brigadiers Lakara Nakibus, Henry Tumukunde, Steven Kashaka and Col. Poteli Kivuna.The brigadiers were charged with several counts last month in the court martial.Besigye also questioned the credibility of the prosecutors and investigators.
"The commander in chief, minister Mbabazi, all the army commanders and their relevant subordinate officers have been in charge of NRA and the UPDF and overseen the emergence, growth and entrenchment of the ghost soldier monster," he wrote.
Besigye said that the problem of ghost soldiers is as old as the NRA and has been progressively getting worse.Besigye suggested a multipartisan rescue task force to oversee the audit and reorganisation of the entire military and Ministry of Defence.
"The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth becomes the greatest enemy of the state."
- Dr. Joseph M. Goebbels - Hitler's propaganda minister
