Gov't forces accused of involvement in arms trade

The Ugandan government has defended itself against criticisms by Amnesty International to the effect that the Ugandan police and army are linked to a flourishing illegal arms trade in the country. Responding for the government, Ofono Opondo, spokesman for the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM), on Monday told IRIN that President Yoweri Museveni's government had, on the contrary, impounded several illegal arms consignments destined for other countries in Africa, and had introduced an amnesty law to encourage armed groups such as the Karamojong in northeastern Uganda to hand in their weapons. "Many people are surrendering their guns under the amnesty law," Opondo said. "The problem with Amnesty International is they think the government of Uganda sanctions arms trafficking," he said. Amnesty International at the weekend said Uganda was among the "notorious countries dealing in illicit arms", The New Vision government-owned newspaper reported on Saturday. The rights body's president for Uganda, Richard Omongole, told a follow-up meeting on the UN conference on small arms in Kampala, that Amnesty had been able, by means of cover research, to identify places in Kampala, the Ugandan capital, "where one walks in and one is asked whether he or she wants coffee or a gun", according to the paper. Omongole did not, however, reveal Uganda's ranking on the international scale. "In Amnesty, we look at situations used by governments where they sometimes use illicit arms to extort information from suspects. There is equipment used by the army and police for torture. We have done comprehensive research on this," the paper quoted him as saying. "We met buyers and sellers through secret arrangements. That's why we in Amnesty are now changing our approach from the sellers to the buyers. Maybe the UPDF [Uganda People's Defence Forces - the Ugandan government army] - we shall soon be coming to you to expose you to the international community," he added. However, Assistant Police Commissioner Richard Nabudere denied that police in Uganda were involved in torture or any form of the extortion of information from suspects, according to The New Vision. "The Uganda police does not have anything like torture weapons. Torture is not our policy. We do much to follow up policy, and if there are flaws, it could be with the personnel. A lot has been done to eliminate these too," the paper quoted him as saying. According to Opondo, Uganda, like other countries in the eastern African region, is affected by "porous border areas", which made it possible for the illicit trade to flourish. He went on to say, however, that he did not "believe the government of Uganda was involved in protecting" the traffickers. "We are surrounded by troubled countries with porous border areas. A year ago, Ugandan police impounded a plane with guns, headed for Angola," he said. A United States government report released in 2001, described Uganda as one of the major illicit arms-trafficking centres for eastern, central and western Africa. According to the report on African arms transfers and trafficking presented on 9 July, at the UN conference in New York on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. Other countries in Africa identified in the report as major points for arms trafficking include Tanzania, Kenya and Burkina Faso. Arms trafficking has been considered the main factor behind insecurity, often related to cattle raiding, along the common borders of Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia - which is "expansive, poorly policed and very rough terrain".