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KAMPALA - The US government is concerned that
Uganda�s current military stance might cause an arms race in the Great
Lakes Region and lead to instability.
Highly placed
sources at the State Department in Washington DC have told The Monitor
that the US embassy in Kampala �raised concerns� with President Yoweri
Museveni �over recent reports that Uganda wants to procure tanks and
aircraft in former Soviet Bloc countries.�
In a report
from Kampala to Washington DC, the Embassy says �Uganda has also recently
sought heavy military equipment from Georgia and Slovakia
respectively.�
Washington is
concerned that such military procurement was likely to make Uganda�s
neighbours, especially Rwanda, also buy more arms, thus increasing
military tension in the region through an arms race.
According to
the source, the embassy in Kampala considers the heavy military equipment
�suspicious, at the very least because they were neither tendered nor
budgeted.�
The State
Department source told The Monitor the embassy in Kampala recommended that
the US government should insist on �raising transparency and
accountability as prerequisites for renewing military aid
programmes.�
This
financial year, Uganda will spend nearly US$200 million on defence while
Rwanda�s official defence budget is slightly below US$40
million.
Sources
further said the US government was deeply troubled by endemic corruption
within the Uganda military. The highly placed sources said sometime last
year, a US company, Harris Corporation, raised an alarm when Uganda
military officials edged it out of a lucrative US$17 million
communications deal to the Uganda Peoples� Defence Forces
(UPDF).
The source
said that top officials at the ministry of defence switched sides in the
deal to support an Israel company, Tadiran represented by a retired
Colonel, Amos Golan.
According to
an August 2003 US Embassy cable from Kampala to Washington, this was
�based on unexplained influence on the minister of defence, Amama Mbabazi,
and army commander, Maj. Gen. (now Lt. Gen.) Aronda
Nyakairima.�
Attempts to
get a comment from Mbabazi and Aronda were futile. Aronda was asked to
make a comment over three months ago but did not in spite of continued
attempts to talk to him.
Because of
concerns regarding Uganda�s military designs, the US Embassy in Kampala
advised Washington against giving Uganda military aid, which involves
�lethal equipment.
�Country team
recommends leased non-USG [United States Government] helicopters so we can
calibrate the timing and availability of the aircraft to the purpose
intended,� a cable from Kampala to Washington, which The Monitor has seen
says.
�By leasing
the aircraft, we ensure the equipment is not diverted and retain the
ability to stop the programme when we wish,� the cable said. The
government has requested the United States for �expanded intelligence
products, contracted airlift capability and other non lethal equipment�
which the US considers would �strengthen the UPDF�s ability to protect
civilians from abduction and death.�
�The need for
this help is urgent and legitimate. The items are consistent with, and
implied by President Bush�s promise to look at what more the US government
can do to help Uganda fight terrorism on its territory,� it
stated.
A highly
placed source within the State Department said aronda was in Eastern
Europe early this year to purchase military equipment.
The public
affairs officer at the US embassy promised to call this reporter, but he
had not done so by press time.
Contacted for
comment, the army spokesman, Major Shaban Bantariza said �Some foreign
sources want to do external threat analysis for us and want to determine
what we should use to handle those threats.
�They are
giving an impression that Uganda buys and others will follow cue. No one
is reporting what Rwanda and others are buying.
�We have
bought arms from those countries but not in 2003 or 2004. We bought some
helicopters in the year we had the 23% budget cut (2002), the ones we have
used in the recent successes against the LRA.
�The
Americans are talking about us fuelling an arms race on the hypothetical
premise that we have bought arms recently.�
�We have no
intention to fight anybody, let alone Rwanda. We do not consider Rwanda
our security threat and we are not buying arms on the basis of
Rwanda.�
About Israeli
influence on Uganda's choice of arms suppliers, Bantariza declined to
comment saying �I wouldn't know. At that level, the purchases are
classified. I only get to know after the purchasing. Only the army
commander can comment on that.� | 
