Mandate of Ugandan judge's plunder probe extended

The government of Uganda has extended to mid-November 2002 the mandate of the Justice David Porter Commission investigating alleged plunder by Ugandans of the natural resources of neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), The New Vision Ugandan government-owned newspaper reported on Wednesday. According to the daily, the extension was granted in order to allow Porter's team to examine new evidence from the United Nations expert panel, whose current mandate expires on 31 October. "We have decided to extend the life of the Porter Commission because we are receiving a lot of fresh evidence from the UN panel in Nairobi," Ugandan Foreign Minister James Wapakhabulo was quoted by The New Vision as having said on Tuesday. "All sorts of documents have lately been presented to the UN panel by groups not happy with our insistence on accountability in Operation Safe Haven [code name of the Ugandan mission in the DRC]." The commission, led by the British expatriate judge, was established in May 2001 in response to a preliminary report from a UN panel of experts, which alleged that while Ugandan troops might have first entered the DRC in August 1998 for reasons of insecurity along Uganda's western border, Ugandans had taken advantage of their status as the de facto authority throughout northern and eastern DRC to profit financially from the pillage of that country's rich natural resources, including timber, diamonds and gold. A second UN report, published in November 2001, cleared the Ugandan government of any wrongdoing, but accused Gen James Kazini and several other Ugandan army officers of acquiring personal wealth from mining operations in the DRC. The Porter Commission has had its mandate extended several times, and was due to present its findings to the Ugandan government on 15 August.