Ugandan president defends family use of state jet
KAMPALA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Uganda's president has defended his daughter's using the presidential jet to take her to give birth in Germany, saying her baby had been overdue and that he did not trust local doctors.
In a statement published by newspapers on Sunday, Yoweri Museveni also cited security as a reason for the jet trip, which newspapers said had cost $90,000 -- enough to pay for 36,000 births at the main state hospital in Kampala.
Museveni said that as the leader of the guerrilla movement that brought him to power in 1986, it was vital for him and his family to take security precautions.
"It is true that I sent the presidential jet to deliver part of my family to Europe so that my daughter and daughter-in-law could deliver their babies," he said in a seven-page statement responding to press reports on the trip.
"When it comes to the security of myself, my family and my country there is no, and there will never be, any compromise," he said.
Museveni said he was a constant target for assassins, who would like to kill him and members of his family using methods that could include using local doctors -- some of whom were his political enemies.
"I have never rushed into a clinic and had my veins pierced in order to draw blood for examination. I do it in a certain controlled way or I do it abroad," he said.
Museveni said his daughter would ordinarily have made the trip by commercial airline but the baby had been overdue.
Museveni said the plane dropped off his family, stayed over night and picked them up a month later. He said the round trip cost about $27,000 and he footed his daughter's medical bill and the family's accommodation costs.
10/05/03 12:06 ET
