By Alex B. Atuhaire
Dec 8, 2003
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KAMPALA - President Museveni should be punished for his role in the purchase of junk Mi-24 military helicopters, Col. Kizza Besigye has said. Besigye, a losing candidate in the 2001 presidential election now exiled in South Africa, said this in a statement e-mailed to The Monitor yesterday. He said Parliament should make sure that action is taken against Mr Museveni. Besigye is one of the army officers lined up for action by the Justice Julia Sebutinde Commission of Inquiry set up in 2001 to find what went wrong with the purchase, and who was responsible. Besigye insists Museveni and then Minister of State for Defence, Mr Amama Mbabazi, are to blame for the bogus purchase."Whereas I was not responsible for selecting the 'technical' teams to carry out the PSI [pre-shipment inspection], it is recommended by the JCI [commission] that as their leader, I be held vicariously responsible for their failures; while those who appointed them, and were generally responsible for the procurement exercise take no responsibility whatsoever. Instead, the Government in its white paper recommends that I should be directly held responsible!" wrote Besigye, the then chief of logistics and engineering in the army. Besigye who fled the country in August 2001 is living in exile mainly in South Africa. "In spite of the reprehensible actions or omissions of President Museveni in managing the MOD [ministry of defence] and UPDF generally, and in the helicopter saga specifically, which were ably documented in the report, the Commission was 'understandably' silent about his culpability in its recommendations," he said in a 3,100 word statement. He added: "What I cannot understand is why the commission was silent about the responsibility of the minister of state for Defence; who is responsible for the day-to-day running of the MOD generally, and who oversaw the whole helicopter procurement exercise." Besigye wants Parliament to take action against Museveni and Mbabazi, who is the current minister of Defence. "Parliament would be abdicating its duty if it does not take action against a president who openly abets serious crime, like he did when he advised Maj. Gen. Saleh to 'go ahead and receive the commission [from the chopper sale] and apply it to special operations in the north'. "He knew very well that it was not a 'commission' but a bribe since he [Saleh] was in government service," Besigye wrote. He wondered why the commission was silent on Mbabazi and why Brig. Joshua Masaba, who is recommended for disciplinary action, was recently appointed chief of staff. "The implementation of this was to promote Col. Masaba to Brigadier, and appoint him Chief of Staff," he said. Government lost $6 million in the purchase of the four junk Mi-24V helicopters. The report was made public last month. |
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