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| UGANDA 2/12/2004 9:53 |
| TROOPS DEPLOYED �PREVENTIVELY� ALONG BORDER WITH EX-ZAIRE |
![Politics/Economy]() |
Politics/Economy, Brief |
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The Ugandan armed forces have decided to �preventively� deploy troops along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo to impede the possible infiltration of armed �negative elements� from ex-Zaire. The announcement was made by Kampala�s military spokesman, Shaban Bantariza, referring to the new Ugandan rebel group PRA (People�s Redemption Army), which has its bases over the border in Congo on initiative of dissident Ugandan officers. �They exploited the absence of a State in east Congo to move around in the zone�, explained Bantariza, specifying to not have precise information on the effective presence of rebels in the area. In the past days a Rwandan diplomat was expelled from Uganda on accusation of complicity with the PRA rebels, unleashing an immediate reaction, analogous to that of Rwandan authorities that expelled a diplomat of the Ugandan Embassy in Kigali. The news of the deployment of U
gandan
troops along the border with Congo arrives amid growing tension between ex-Zaire and Rwanda, at least verbal. The United Nations peace mission in DR-Congo yesterday stated to not be able to confirm nor rule out the presence of Rwandan soldiers in Congolese territory. In the same hours, the UN peacekeepers stopped around a hundred men in uniform, maybe Rwandan soldiers. During the war 1998-2003, both Uganda and Rwanda militarily invaded DR-Congo, remaining four years and exploiting the natural resources of the territory.
[BO] | �No new troops at border�
By Mwanguhya Charles Mpagi & Ignatius Bahizi
Dec 3,
2004
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KAMPALA - The Army spokesman, Maj. Shaban Bantariza, has said no new troops have been massed at the border with Congo. He denied press reports yesterday that the army had redeployed at the border - saying that troop presence has always been there since a year ago.
In a statement late last evening, Bantariza also denied a quote attributed to him by the French News Agency (AFP) indicating the army had deployed. "While the quotation is accurately mine, it is the very quotation that was run in the media more than a year now, when the UPDF made deployments to forestall the ADF/PRA activities and infiltration, which are obviously not recent developments in that area," he said.
The AFP quoted Bantariza as saying, "We have made a precautionary deployment along the border on our side especially in areas we think possible crossing points for some negative elements based in eastern Congo."
T
he
government spokesman, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, also dismissed reports of border deployment. Buturo told The Monitor by telephone yesterday that, troops already at the border had been put on alert.
"What we have is increased alertness but the troops have always been there."
Bantariza said, "The three countries of Uganda, Rwanda and DRC are aware of these national deployments and no other deployments or reinforcements of UPDF have been made since then in the areas of Mount Rwenzori," Bantariza said.
"In our current security threat analysis, the forces that we have there are still sufficient to maintain our border security until otherwise."
In a related development, residents and security in the border district of Kisoro have reported troop movement on the Rwanda side of the border.
A Monitor correspondent in the area quotes security and local sources as saying that Rwandan troops were sighted crossing into Congo for four hours between 10:00pm and 4:
00am on
Tuesday night. The troops were reportedly sighted at Bunagana near Muramba Sub County.
"Residents also said they saw about 50 troops resting and eating sugar cane and smoking cigarettes near Bunagana on Wednesday," he said.
They said the troops that moved on Tuesday night were heavily armed.
Special Police Constables patrolling the border said the troop movement was quiet with no incident reported.
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� 2004 The Monitor Publications |
