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Uganda: I Connected Besigye to Kony, Says
Witness
April 6, 2006
Posted to the web April 5, 2006
Solomon Muyita & Hussein
Bogere
Kampala
A FORMER female combatant with Joseph Kony's
Lords Resistance Army (LRA) yesterday told the High Court that she
helped Dr Kizza Besigye establish links with the rebels in northern
Uganda.
Jennifer Aryemo, 34, whom the State produced
as its first witness in the treason case against the FDC leader and
22 other men said Dr Besigye contacted her soon after the 2001
presidential elections through a one Maj. Salambwa.
The lean-bodied woman, who testified in a
tough tone in Acholi, claimed that she met several LRA commanders on
many occasions to link Besigye with Kony. The meetings were held in
the bushes of Gulu with Aryemo, who allegedly kept returning to
Kampala together with Salambwa and a one Migadde to brief Besigye on
the progress.
At one such meeting held in Pawel, one grenade
and one landmine were given to Maj Salambwa by a one Onen Kamdur to
take to Besigye as proof that the LRA had weapons.
The witness told court she did not know the
whereabouts of the two pieces of ammunition. Aryemo also told court
that one of Kony's commanders, George Abedo, met with Besigye at his
Bukoto office. In all, Aryemo met with the LRA commanders on three
occasions.
The former captive said that she had earlier
on been recruited into Besigye's then Reform Agenda pressure group
as a campaign manager among the Acholis in Makindye, Kampala by
James Opoka.
Aryemo, said to be Col Fearless Obwoya's wife,
told court that Maj. Salambwa took her to meet Besigye, in a meeting
at Crest House in Kampala.
She said there were seven people at the
meeting, including Ms Anne Mugisha, and a one Byaruhanga.
She could not remember the exact time of the
meeting, the day or the month, except that it was during the day and
shortly after the March 2001 elections
"Dr Besigye told me that the elections had not
been fair, they had been rigged. He said he would take the
government to court and that he would fight against the government
using guns," she claimed.
The witness said she is personally known to
Kony, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war
crimes, and most of his top commanders.
"I knew these commanders when we were captured
from Sacred Heart Senior Secondary School in Gulu in 1991," she
said, adding that she was in Senior Four at the time.
She said while in the bush, she participated
in rebel operations, and remembers times when she and her colleagues
were ordered to hack people with machetes "which traumatized me so
much."
Said the witness: "I saw many SMGs, grenades,
G2s. The G2 is a big gun and is used with chains of bullets wrapped
all over the body," she said.
The witness said she lived in the bush for
three months but escaped around December 1991 and returned
home.
The woman said she resides between Kyebando
and Mulago, a Kampala suburbs and that she sells maize in Owino
Market.
Proceedings were temporarily halted when
Aryemo failed to return to court after lunch. The Judge warned
Byabakama that he should advise his witness to get serious.
Aryemo re-appeared after 10 minutes of
adjournment.
Having finished with her testimony, Aryemo
will return on Monday for cross-examination by Besigye's
lawyers. | 
