Michael Ezra was ESO link
By Daniel K. Kalinaki
April 14, 2004
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Pulkol explains red passport KAMPALA � Government gave businessman Michael Ezra a diplomatic passport to help some exiles return, a former spy chief said yesterday. Mr David Pulkol, the former director general of the External Security Organisation, told The Monitor he recommended Ezra�s application for the red passport. �The circumstance under which that passport was processed was to facilitate a meeting for some citizens to return to the country,� Pulkol said in an interview. Pulkol, who headed ESO twice, said Ezra made contact with the spy body �between late 2002 and mid 2003�. Said Pulkol: �Ezra made that contact and was facilitated with the passport and other expenses like air tickets and we met those people and they came back home. As far as I am concerned, it was a good job done and I commend him for that.� Pulkol was speaking after the bi-weekly tabloid, the Red Pepper, said Ezra was being investigated over alleged links to people involved in money laundering and drug trafficking � links allegedly made possible by his having a diplomatic passport. The tabloid also said that Ezra was an ESO informer, a charge the former spy boss denied. �I can�t say that he was working for ESO; I do not know of any other assignment he undertook for ESO either as an operative or as an informer.� Yesterday, Pulkol defended his decision to give Ezra the diplomatic passport, which allows the bearer unrestricted entry into any country. �It is not the first time such citizens have been assisted to help bring back Ugandans to the country,� he said. �It is policy that passports issued in that matter, once the need is over, are supposed to be returned,� he added. He said he did not know whether Ezra had returned the passport, or whether it had been recalled. Immigration officials were unavailable for comment by the time we went to press yesterday. Pulkol declined to give details about the exiles that Ezra facilitated to return to the country, and whether he was paid for his effort. Added Pulkol: �I am no longer the director general of ESO and do not have the facilities to investigate or comment on this matter further.� The former spy boss also denied any knowledge about the money laundering and drug trafficking allegations made against the businessman. �This is the first time I am seeing those allegations; they were never around while I was in office and in any case, we spent all our resources on the real threats that existed against the country,� he told The Monitor. Ezra was not available for comment. |
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