Gen. Aronda on 2011 polls, Karamoja  atrocities

Last week, the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, concluded a three-day trip to northern Karamoja to assess the progress of the ongoing disarmament programme. Our Senior Reporter Tabu Butagira, who travelled with the military, interviewed Gen. Nyakairima at the UPDF 405 Brigade headquarters in Nakapirimoru, Kotido district. In the excerpts below, the CDF defends army involvement in managing the forthcoming ballot and says they will accept another individual voted in as President, next year, as Commander-in-Chief if that person does not polarise Ugandans.

Qn: What has brought you here to Karamoja?

A: I’m in my field office that stretches from the Central African Republic to Somalia and across Karamoja. So if you find me in the western Kasese [district], don’t say what has brought you here. I’m here for my day-to-day work.

Qn: The one thing catching attention in Karamoja is the ongoing disarmament exercise. What is your assessment of its progress?

A: We have made tremendous progress in the history of this area, I think, since colonial times. I have been in Kaabong district and interacted with stakeholders/political leaders and they admitted one after another that they have a good situation that is now going to help them wage their election campaigns. In other words like before when security of Karamoja was always a very enduring electioneering issue, this time around, they don’t have serious issues with security.

They will be raising issues of development; the electors will be having issues with their leaders on development and corruption.

There’s another issue they have come up with – compensation. That President (Museveni) told them that he will be compensating them for cows that were lost in our hands. And true the President promised and it is a question of time. One unenlightened political leader said it will amount to “no compensation, no vote”. We educated him to have a global picture of Karamoja and we told him that anyone – even people in Teso and Lango who also lost cows - could ask for compensation.

But since the President promised them, the President will deliver on this promise.

Qn: Do we know how many animals we are talking about?

A: I think they were talking about around 553. Of course, the government will take a little a bit of time to verify these claims but since the President has already made his commitments, it can only delay but he will [fulfill] it.

Qn: In the past month, some of the political leaders in Karamoja, particularly (Upe County) MP Francis Kiyonga and former spy chief David Pulkol have raised allegations of human rights violations in the army (disarmament) operations. What’s your take?

A:I would rather we answer that question when we are in Amudat district where the issues are. The man who’s talking we can engage one another in structured meetings. We have disarmament meeting from the Sub-county all the way to the regional [level]. We have district security committee meetings, we have extra-ordinary committee security meetings, we have meeting with MPs from time to time. I think when an individual MP chooses to speak for himself; then one can have a lot of suspicions on what he’s talking about.

Qn: Has it been brought to your attention if there are elements within the UPDF who go against disarmament principles, especially seizing people’s animals indiscriminately or killing civilians?

A: No, no, no! Not to my knowledge. The last case I heard was [in April] in Rengen Sub-county in Kotido district and we investigated and found out those who were involved. There were some soldiers who went and carried out the operation contrary to what they were told to. But as for Amudat, we are yet to find out.

We have structured the security elements: Kaabong and Abim districts are under the [UPDF] 5^th Division. There’s an element of police and intelligence. So it’s not possible for anyone to cover up. If the UPDF wanted to, which cannot be, police will tell it. If UPDF and police wanted to hide, intelligence will tell it. If all of them wanted to, the political authorities will tell it. So that’s the structure.