Regional-EastAfrican-Nairobi-Kenya
Monday, November 17, 2003
_____
Nobody Can 'Touch' Saleh, Says
Uganda Opposition
By BARBARA AMONG
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
AS THE director of Public Prosecution, Richard Butera, starts independent
investigations of Major General Salim Saleh and Col Kiiza Besigye to obtain
grounds over the loss in the purchase of two "junk" helicopters in 1997, the
opposition says it doubts the government's will to prosecute officials
implicated.
The Uganda Cabinet last week recommended the prosecution of army officers,
businessmen and civil servants implicated by a report by High Court judge
Justice Julia Ssebutinde in the purchase of the two attack helicopters in
1997 from the Republic of Belarus.
"There has been no will to prosecute the president's younger brother, Salim
Saleh. The investigations to be carried out by Butera are a gimmick and are
exciting the public for nothing," said Dr James Rwanyarare of Uganda
People's Congress. Rwanyarare said that "no one could prosecute" Saleh.
He recalled that the president's brother had been implicated in a number of
scandals including the illegal purchase of Uganda Commercial Bank Ltd in
1998, but he has never been prosecuted. In 1998, at the height of the
scandal overthe purchase of the bank by a Malaysian firm, Westmont, Saleh
admitted his role in helping a local bank, Greenland, to buy shares in the
bank, though it was against the sale agreement.
The former managing director of Greenland Bank, Dr Sulaiman Kiggundu, was
prosecuted and sent to jail for six months.
However, the prosecutor said that his office has "already taken the first
step and a committee with investigators from the CID has been instituted to
investigate the recommendations of the Ssebutinde report in order to
establish a criminal offence."
Mr Butera said his team have to make the investigations themselves because
Justice Julia Ssebutinde's report was not intended to establish grounds for
criminal prosecution.
"I do not believe that the government is serious at all. There are so many
reports made by Justice Ssebutinde and none of them has ever been acted
upon: They have always sat on them," said Elias Lukwago, a legal counsel for
the Democratic Party.
Three years ago, Justice Ssebutinde, after investigating the police force,
recommended the prosecution of senior police officers, but none were
prosecuted after the Inspectorate General of Government, Jotham Tumwesigye
carried out independent investigations later.
Mr Tumwesigye told The EastAfrican last week that he did not find enough
grounds to prosecute the police officers as recommended by Justice
Ssebutinde.
"The government is just gambling on these issues. Ssebutinde cleared some of
these people like Col Besigye, so why should his name come up again?" asked
Mr Rwanyarare. He said bringing up Besigye's name was part of a witch hunt.
In the 2001, Besigye was runner-up in a presidential election declared by
the courts as marred by violence and malpractice. Before deciding to contest
for the presidency, Besigye, now in exile, was President Museveni's long
time personal physician and the National Political Commissar of the ruling
Movement.
Mr Butera said his team would establish their own grounds for prosecution in
spite of the Cabinet's directive after reading the Justice Julia
Ssebutinde's report into the purchase of the mi-24 attack helicopters.
More than $10million was lost in the deal, which involved the purchase of
two choppers from the former Soviet republic of Belarus.
Among the people recommended for trial are Col Dr Kizza Besigye, former
Chief of Logistics and Engineering, Salim Saleh, motor rally ace Emmanuel
Katto, and his wife Naomi, the owner of Consolidated Sales Corporation and
former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defence, Dr Ben Mbonye.
Others are Uganda Peoples Defence Forces deputy director Joshua Masaba,
pilot Col Getahun Kassa, former Bank of Uganda, commercial banking director
Cyprian Mwa, former International Credit Bank managing director Patrick
Katto and businessman, Kwame Ruyondo.
The Cabinet ordered the Attorney General to lift CSC's corporate veil and
proceed personally against Katto, his wife, their overseas colleagues, Max
Waterman and Chris Smith and others to recover special damages for the cost
of overhaul of the two helicopters.
The aircraft are now standing idle at the main military airport at Entebbe,
32km south of Kampala city. The Cabinet observed that they ought to have
been overhauled before being supplied, which was not done.
The Cabinet last week ordered their immediate overhaul so that they could be
put to their proper use.
The choppers were bought at the height of an insurgency in north and western
Uganda by rebels of Joseph Kony of the Lord's Resistance Army and the Allied
Democratic Forces. At the time, Uganda had also committed troops to back up
rebels fighting the Kinshasa government.
When the case was first investigated, Saleh accepted that he had received a
commission of $800,000 in the deal and his brother, President Museveni,
corroborated this by saying his sibling confessed to him and that he had
ordered him to use the money in the war in northern Uganda
Mr Lukwago, a long standing critic of the Movement government, said that the
Cabinet should have recommended that all those implicated be produced in a
civilian court, "since this is corruption and the civilian court has the
provision and capacity to handle corruption cases."
In its recommendations, the Cabinet directed that implicated army officers
should face an army court martial. The report also recommended that
officials should be held directly liable for the loss and be prosecuted for
corruption, fraud, negligence and other offences
Mr Lukwago says that the failure by the government to prosecute those
implicated in the report showed that the Movement system has lost moral
authority to lead the country.
The chopper deal is one of the high-profile corruption cases to have been
investigated in Uganda.
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Additional report by Vincent Mayanja
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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