Alex B. Atuhaire
1 November 2002
Kampala — Exiled former presidential candidate Col. Kizza Besigye has denied his former aide has links with LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony.
Besigye while speaking on Monitor FM popular talk show, Andrew Mwenda Live Wednesday also denied that his political organization, Reform Agenda is planning rebellion against government.
He said he had no evidence to believe that James Opoka has links with Kony.
"Notwithstanding the picture that was published, I have no evidence to believe that Opoka has anything to do with Kony," Besigye said.
"We don't know what Opoka is doing at the moment but we have no evidence of what he is doing. I highly doubt that he has that Kony link," Besigye said.
The army last month published alleged pictures of Opoka with rebels of Kony using it to link Besigye and his Reform Agenda to the rebellion in northern Uganda.
Opoka who is said to be a major in the LRA ranks was a personal assistant to Besigye during the 2001 presidential elections.
Besigye was runner up to President Yoweri Museveni in the elections before he fled the country in the aftermath of the elections citing compromise to his security.
The colonel once again blatantly denied planning rebellion against government as intelligence officers have been alleging.
"I have no reason to deny that I want to fight government though I haven't ruled it out," Besigye said.
He challenged the Chieftainacny of Military Intelligence, Col. Noble Mayombo to produce evidence to back his allegations.
"You see what is being called military intelligence should be called military rumor mongering because whatever Mayombo says is outright rubbish," Besigye said.
He said that if he took the decision to take on arms against government, he would give concrete reasons as to why the government of Uganda today should be fought.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2002 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
