Alex B. Atuhaire
14 April 2003
Kampala — Former presidential candidate Kizza Besigye has denied any links with the People's Redemption Army (PRA), a new Ugandan rebel group operating from inside the DR Congo.
Dr Besigye wrote in his latest statement on 12 April that the existence of PRA is illusionary and a concoction of the Ugandan intelligence services who are
"competing for a cut in the hefty budget of the intelligence industry".
"Recently, I have been designated by some of these "sources" as the supreme commander of the PRA!" Dr Besigye said in a statement titled "Uganda-Rwanda Relations and the PRA."
"The "intelligence" reports have served to fully establish the PRA as a reality in the minds of the Ugandan rulers, the press, and eventually the general public. I have seen many of these "reports" and wondered at the ingenuity of their authors," Dr Besigye, a retired army colonel, said in his statement.
Government last month paraded 22 alleged members of PRA captured in action inside DR Congo.
Government has claimed that PRA is headed by Dr Besigye and commanded by renegade UPDF officers Lt. Col. Samson Mande, Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale and Col. Edison Muzoora.
Dr Besigye denies the claims.
"The Museveni government has continuously sought to link me and the Reform Agenda to all armed rebellions in Uganda," he said. "First, it was the ADF, then the LRA, and more recently, the still nebulous PRA. The PRA is supposed to be part of Rwanda's plans to wage a proxy war against Uganda, and "evidence" of this was ceremoniously paraded as the 22 Ugandans received from some Congolese tribesmen," he wrote.
Dr Besigye, who has been living in exile since he fled the country in the aftermath of the disputed 2001 presidential elections, is also the chairman of Reform Agenda, a political pressure group.
Dr Besigye said if Rwanda supported rebellion in Uganda for the last two years as it has been accused, "the result would not just be seen in the "arrest" of 22 unarmed civilians from Congo".
"It is also noteworthy that in spite of persistent reports of thousands of
"Rwandan-backed PRA troops in various parts of Rwanda and DRC for 2 years now, no single bullet has ever been fired by these "forces" and no camp has ever been identified anywhere," he said.
This is the first time the exiled colonel is talking about the renewed alleged link to PRA by government after the parading of the 22 alleged rebel captives.
Dr Besigye said he was well informed that lieutenant colonels Mande and Kyakabale had never left the place where they are kept since their arrival in Kigali.
"The truth of the matter is that many within NRM/UPDF whose sacrifice for the liberation of Uganda has been squandered and abused by Museveni and cohorts now see a redemption force as a necessity," he said.
"This rapidly spreading view within NRM/UPDF, which is shared by the majority in the "traditional opposition", is likely to be the basis for the illusory PRA," he said.
* We shall publish the full text of Dr Besigye's statement in the course of the week
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