Gen. Muntu speaks on bush war

Kampala

Maj. Gen. (rtd) Mugisha Muntu has broken with the current military position and taken the view that calls for an independent inquiry into the killings of civilians during the five –year bush war and insurgency in northern Uganda are welcome.
“For me I would see no problem in carrying out a probe of any nature over any period because I think that is what will cause us to confront our past. I think many people are trapped in it and that is what is distracting our future.

Establishing the truth will create the healing necessary for establishing our future,” he told Sunday Monitor in his first ever public of happenings inside the bush army, his time as army chief and why he could no longer serve a Museveni government.

The retired officer-turned-opposition politician tells Sunday Monitor in his wide-ranging exclusive that Mr Olara Otunnu’s demands for an investigation into the deaths of thousands of Ugandans at the hands of the armed men are very much in order.

As UPC leader, Mr Otunnu two weeks ago drew the wrath of top army brass, with Coordinator of Intelligence Services Gen. David Tinyefuza promising to “crush” him, when he repeated demands for an inquiry at the first press conference he addressed since being elected party chief.

The Otunnu demand lifted the lid on a controversial subject that has President Museveni and the army leadership on the one hand and the Opposition led by UPC supporters on the other.

While the President has always said the more than 300,000 people murdered in Luweero fell victim to blood-thirsty UPC government troops, the opposite view is that this is not an entirely accurate account, and that the then guerilla forces under Museveni are not wholly blameless. He, however, contests the Otunnu view that genocide was perpetrated by Museveni government forces against the Acholi in northern Uganda as alleged by Mr Otunnu, only conceding that individual officers made “mistakes” that led to deaths of civilians.

Spirit of acquisition
In the interview, Maj. Gen. Muntu speaks about what he calls a spirit of acquisition, entitlement among other issues that drove him and President Museveni apart. Maj. Gen. Muntu, now a presidential aspirant seeking to battle President Museveni, his commander-in-chief for more than 25 years, in the 2011 elections, if he wins the party flag of the Forum for Democratic Change, says a probe would help the country confront its past and break that bondage to move forward.

Maj. Gen. Muntu also attacks President Museveni whom he accuses of failing to rein-in corruption because his “long term political ambitions and the sense of entitlement and acquisition tendencies of some of his close allies found a meeting point.” Maj. Gen. Muntu has mounted a challenge against former comrade-in-arms Dr Kizza Besigye for the FDC flag bearer in the coming 2011 presidential race.