Fellow citizens:
The question then is : who are Ugandans and members of the International Comunity going to believe.. The UN whose credibility is impeccable , or Rugunda whose credibility is very questionable? If we are to believe the UN,as we must, the regime in Kampala must explain to Ugandans and members of the International Commuinty ..as to how the four extra people got into the helicopter?
Matek
Only 13 Bodies - Rugunda Insists
New Vision (Kampala)
August 12, 2005
Posted to the web August 12, 2005
Alfred Wasike
Kampala
UGANDA insists that only 13 bodies were recovered from the wreckage of the MI-172 helicopter in which Sudan's First Vice-President Dr. John Garang died in Sudan on July 30.
The head of Uganda's delegation to the crash scene, Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, said yesterday, "For us, Uganda, and as part of the international team of investigators into the crash, reiterate that our international team inspected, identified and verified that there were 13 bodies."
But the United Nations said on Wednesday 17 bodies had been recovered from the site of the crash.
A UN spokesperson, Radhia Achouri, told journalists in Khartoum, "The figures that we have, and these figures I saw, we are talking about 17."
Rugunda, the Minister of Internal Affairs, emphasised, "There is no dispute or reservation about the now well-established fact that the victims were 13."
"To us, this is an already settled and resolved matter. We are now investigating other aspects of the crash like avionics. We are progressing very well."
Explaining the disparity in the number of victims, Rugunda said, "Because of the severity of the crash and burning, some of the bodies were carried in more than one body bag. It is possible that some people may have observed and counted the bags and assumed that to be the actual number of victims whereas not."
In a statement yesterday, the Ugandan embassy in Khartoum said all the teams that took part in identifying the crash victims concluded that there was no extra unidentified body.
The embassy said the issue of finding facts regarding the accident was now in the hands of the international probe committee. It said statements from elsewhere should end until the committee releases the official results.
Rugunda said, "The overall leader of the international investigating team is Maj. Gen. Gier Chuang of the SPLM/A, while the head of the US team is Dennis Jones, the Chief of Regional Operations & General Aviations Division of the (National Transportation Safety Board) of the USA.
"I travelled to the crash scene with a team of highly qualified pathologists, forensic and other experts, including Uganda's Chief Government Chemist, Robert Erone, Prof. Wilson Byarugaba, a genetics expert, Dr. Nsereko Mukasa, a consultant pathologist, Dr. Thadeus Barungi, a consultant Police pathologist, who is also a Commissioner of Police and A.B.M. Lugudo, the deputy Chief Government Chemist.
"After our inspection, identification and verification of the remains, we issued a statement of our findings in New Site on August 8, in which we reported to the world that the experts and families determined that six of the bodies were Sudanese, including that of Dr. Garang, which had been identified and buried earlier.
"The experts also determined that seven bodies, including one female, were those of Ugandans. The bodies of the Ugandans were returned home and are being buried by family members around the country after a national prayer ceremony at Kololo on Wednesday. All the bodies were positively identified using various methods."
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
_______________________________________________ Ugandanet mailing list [email protected] http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/ugandanet % UGANDANET is generously hosted by INFOCOM http://www.infocom.co.ug/
