'Ex-Paymaster Tortured in Cells'
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The Monitor (Kampala)February 13, 2004
Posted to the web February 13, 2004 David Kibirige
MBUYA Wants to speak to Museveni An army inspector is languishing in cells at Mbuya barracks.
Sgt. Gitta Musoke claims he is in jail for exposing ghosts in the army.Musoke, attached to general army headquarters, Bombo, was arrested early last year on the orders of then Army Commander Maj. Gen. James Kazini.Musoke was arrested while trying to forward the list of ghost soldiers to President Museveni.Musoke, who spoke to The Monitor on Wednesday at Mbuya, said he was tortured during and after the arrest."My hands were tied behind the back and I was beaten by the arresting officers.
For two days I was put in a pit where I stayed without food," a tearful Musoke told this reporter.He said his captors took the list of ghosts he had compiled.Musoke's woes began in 2001. As a paymaster then in the DR Congo, he informed army headquarters that the UPDF was losing Shs 300 million monthly on non-existent soldiers (ghosts) on the payroll.
More than 68 soldiers were suspended in December over ghosts.Musoke said he has never been produced in a court martial."For 30 months I have not been getting salary because my name was struck off the payroll," Musoke said.
A senior army officer told The Monitor that though in jail, Musoke's case is not listed anywhere in the files at Mbuya. He said his captors can do anything to him and get away with it because there are no documents about him.
When contacted yesterday, the Army spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, said Sgt. Musoke's case has not been disposed of because he wants to talk only to President Museveni.
"He refused to speak to Brig. Kale Kayihura; he does not want to speak to the army commander or the chief of staff," he said."The President has not yet got time to talk to this great sergeant.
When he gets time and talks to him then he will guide us on how to proceed. But since Sgt. Musoke wants to speak to the highest person in the land then he must have the highest degree of patience," Bantariza told The Monitor by telephone.
"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
