UPDF parades bomb suspects

The Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) on 22 July paraded 28 people before journalists in the capital, Kampala, saying they were part of the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which it accuses of carrying out a series of bomb attacks in the past four years. Over 40 such attacks have killed more than 60 people and injured almost 300 since 1997, according to news reports. The Ugandan head of military intelligence, Lt-Col Noble Mayombo, said the suspects (16 men and 12 women) belonged to two units in Kampala and one in Jinja, eastern Uganda, as the ADF had changed its tactics from rural to urban warfare. In addition to bombings, the suspects were involved in armed robberies, drug trafficking and counterfeiting, Mayombo said.

The rebel operatives were under the command of ADF commander Jamil Muluku, who based himself in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, and in Britain, Mayombo told journalists. One of the men, Rashid Kawewa (24), who said he was head of the ADF’s Kampala cell, said he was trained for three months in Kenya before returning to Uganda as a coordinator, Reuters news agency reported. In its 22 July press conference, the army displayed an array of bomb-making equipment and explosives, which, it said, could have been used in the assembly of 48 bombs and grenades, Radio Uganda reported.