Repatriation of Congolese soldiers and rebels

Salim Saleh, a Ugandan army lieutenant-general accused by a United Nations panel of involvement in the illegal exploitation of natural resources in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), is to organise the repatriation of Congolese soldiers and rebels living in Uganda.

Uganda's government-owned newspaper, The New Vision, reported on Thursday that both Museveni and DRC President Joseph Kabila had assigned Saleh, who is President Yoweri Museveni’s half-brother, to the task. Saleh reportedly told the Porter inquiry into the DRC plunder that he had just returned from the DRC capital, Kinshasa, for talks about his new role.

He described his 14-month-long job as a "Great Lakes Region peace-building mission".

Saleh has reportedly denied the accusations made in the UN panel's report according to which, among other things, he was training a militia which would continue to facilitate the commercial activities of the Ugandan army after its withdrawal from Bunia and the Rwenzori mountains, northeastern DRC. He and Maj-Gen James Kazini were named in the report as being "key figures" in an elite network operating through front companies to exploit the DRC's resources.

The United Nations Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Natural Resources and Other Forms of Wealth of the DRC released its report on 21 October.