The Ugandan army chief-of-staff Brigadier James Kazini has said he did “nothing wrong” in the DRC, contrary to press reports blaming him for the August clashes in Kisangani between the Ugandan and Rwandan armies. In an interview with ‘The EastAfrican’ weekly on Monday, he claimed the clashes were due to “attempts” by the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) faction to stop rival faction leader Wamba dia Wamba from holding a rally. “I simply deployed my forces in some places for Wamba’s security,” he said. Kazini denied “behaving like a colonialist” in the DRC, saying he was deployed there as an army officer. “Maybe some people do not appreciate the way we conduct ourselves as the UPDF, but I believe I have done nothing wrong,” he said. He further denied claims that he had threatened to arrest RCD commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane and that the Ugandan army was involved in pillaging minerals. “It is categorically clear that no army officer is allowed to engage in any form of commercial transaction,” Kazini stressed.
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