Remains of a car burnt by the Allied Democratic Forces rebels in Kasese District in the 1990s. PHOTO/ FILE
Twenty six years ago on Friday, it emerged that rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) operating in the western districts of Kasese, Kabarole, and Bundibugyo had come up with a plan to carry out bombings in at least eight towns across the country. The ADF, which is currently based in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is believed to have come into existence in 1995. The group, believed to have the backing of the Islamic State (IS), is a merger between Jamil Mukulu’s Uganda Muslim Freedom Fighters (UMFF), a radical offshoot of the Tablighi Jamaat Movement, and the late Amon Bazira’s National Army for Liberation of Uganda (NALU). Sheikh Jamil Mukulu was extradited to Uganda in July 2015 following his arrest in Tanzania in April 2015. He was charged with several crimes, including terrorism and murder. His trial is ongoing. On the other hand, Amon Bazira, a former minister in the Milton Obote II government, died in August 1993 at the age of 49. His bullet-riddled body was found on the Nairobi-Nakuru highway in Kenya.
Revealed
According to The Monitor newspaper’s edition of Sunday June 6, 1999, the rebel force’s diabolic plan was contained in a document, which one of its commander’s, Ali Mugisha, who together with his escort, Richard Nyemera, a resident of Rikando parish, defected from one of its camps in the DR Congo, handed to officers of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) in Kamwenge District. The document also reportedly contained names of the people who had been assigned tasks to carry out bombings in Mbarara, Ntungamo, Hoima and Masindi in western Uganda, Masaka and Kampala in the central region and Jinja and Iganga in eastern Uganda.
Ali Mugisha, who was known as Emmanuel Mugisha prior to his conversion to Islam and enlisting with the ADF in January 1997, escaped at Pwimi, Bunyangabu, Kabarole District during a fierce gun battle between the army and the rebels. At least 20 rebels were killed during the battle. Mugisha and his escort first reported themselves to the LC1 chairperson of Kanaara Parish, in Kitagwenda District, Silvant Bakeihahoki, who took him to a UPDF detachment at Kamwenge. The duo, who had two automatic rifles and six clips of ammunition, were received by UPDF Captains Bbosa and Tumwine.
Confessions
Military sources told The Monitor that Mugisha had revealed that most of the 100 students of Kichwamba Technical College, in Kabarole, who were abducted when ADF rebels attacked the college on June 8, 1998, had been killed. ADF rebels set fire to three dormitories in the college. That culminated in the death of at least 80 students. A few survived with severe burns. Mugisha, who claimed to be a resident of Kitakama Village, Kanaara, confessed to having been among the 65 ADF rebels who on May 18, 1999, crossed from the mountains into Mainaro, Kabarole District and attacked workers who were planting trees in the area on May 18.
Three people were hacked to death, 40 were abducted, and property worth millions was either looted or destroyed. Most of those who had been abducted later escaped from the rebels and fled into Kibale Forest National Park, when the procession encountered a herd of elephants which they initially mistook for UPDF soldiers. The newspaper wrote that the revelation came hot on the heels of the arrest by the directorate of military intelligence of one of the rebel force’s commanders, a one Kasangaki. Military sources had earlier told the newspaper that Kasangaki was arrested by UPDF on the night of June 3, 1999. Kasangaki, who was armed with a pistol and an AK-47 assault rifle, was arrested in Kalerwe. Kalerwe is one of the villages in Kawempe Division, Kampala.
Buseruka connection
Lt Baho-ku Barigye, the army’s public relations officer, said he was unaware of the arrest of Kasangaki. However, military sources revealed that Kasangaki, who tried to resist arrest but was eventually overpowered by government forces, was one of the rebel force’s commanders at the camp in Buseruka. The camp, which had reportedly been established between 1994 and 1995, was eventually attacked by the UPDF in 1996, leaving many of the rebels dead. Some 26 of the about 111 people who were captured by the army were in February 1998 charged with treason and failure to report treason. Kasangaki, according to what military sources told The Monitor, was one of the few who survived the army’s onslaught and fled the area before joining other ADF units that were at the time operating in the Rwenzori Mountains.
Commander killed
The newspaper further reported that military sources had informed it that another commander of the ADF, only identified as Mutebi, had been taken out of action in the last week of May 1999, during an operation that the army conducted in Mpokya, Kabarole District. Mutebi was reportedly killed along with the escort of ADF’s chief inspector of operations, only identified as Kabanda. The Monitor, however, learnt that it was against a background of heightened pressure from the army that the rebels mooted the plan to bomb several towns across the country. Analysts were at the time afraid that the rebels would become particularly vicious, given that their backs were against the wall.
