Ugandan army officer defects

Senior army officer Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF), vowing to wage war against the government of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, joined some 50 UPDF soldiers who defected last week to Rwanda, the independent Ugandan newspaper ‘The Monitor’ reported on Saturday. Kyakabale called newspaper from Kigali on Friday evening to say he had joined Col. Samson Mande to launch an armed struggle against the government of Museveni. “As a revolutionary who went to fight against electoral violence and rigging in 1980, I cannot sit by and watch Uganda go back to its violent past,” Kyakabale said. “I have decided together with Col. Mande and other UPDF officers and men to launch the struggle to liberate Uganda from the tyranny of Museveni.” Kyakabale said that his organisation, which will be named soon, had extensive networks in central, eastern, northern and western parts of Uganda, as well as within the UPDF and Museveni’s official residence itself. Kyakabale, who joined Museveni in the Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) in 1978, was among the first group of rebels who launched the National Resistance Army (NRA) struggle against the government of Milton Obote on 6 February 1981, The Monitor reported. Responding to the defections, Museveni told a news conference on Saturday that “these two [Kyakabale and Mande] are renegades who were undisciplined. In fact, Mande jumped bail”. Museveni also wondered why Rwanda would allow UPDF officers to make statements against Uganda. “For us, we will not at all allow anyone fighting Rwanda to operate from here. But we do not know why they are doing it,” ‘The Monitor’ quoted him as saying.