Rodney Muhumuza and Grace Matsiko
21 March 2008
Kampala — THE Presidential Guard Brigade and Col. Muammar Gadaffi's security detail were involved in a string of supremacy clashes during every public event that the Libyan leader attended, it can now be revealed.
During the clashes, security officials on both sides just fell short of pulling guns on each other, but both presidents seemed to be aware of the goings-on between their security outfits.
Matters came to a head when, during the opening of the Gadaffi National Mosque on Wednesday, President Museveni was pinned against the wall as his men fought with the Libyans to control an entrance to the mosque.
For about two minutes, a shocked Mr Museveni looked on as the security officers exchanged blows and threw each other to the ground.
The ensuing melee caught some reporters and diplomats, and for a moment it was difficult to tell who was in charge.
Mr Museveni managed to enter, but it was minutes after Col. Gadaffi had made his entry.
Earlier, at Nakivubo War Memorial Stadium, where Col. Gadaffi was a chief celebrant at a function to commemorate the birth of Prophet Muhammad, his security detail and the PGB fought to determine who got close to the presidents.
The Ugandans and the Libyans disagreed on risk-assessment and type of guns to be carried, according to a PGB officer who was involved in the scuffles. The officer, who did not want to be named because of the sensitivity of his job, said the Libyans were control freaks.
At the stadium, as at the mosque, the Ugandans appeared to get the better of the Libyans, who spoke in Arabic and often used sign language to communicate.
Security and protocol officers, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to talk to journalists, said Col. Gadaffi came with close to 200 security guards, most of them armed. From Sunday afternoon, when Col. Gadaffi arrived, there were early signs of the scuffles to come when PGB officers stopped some travelling Libyans from entering State House, causing a stampede at the entrance.
That stampede was to be replicated in at least three other places, often in full view of photographers desperate to take snap shots of the presidents.
PGB spokesman Edison Kwesiga said there was no fallout from the clashes, but failed to explain why Col. Gadaffi failed to attend the proposed unveiling of a war monument in Katonga, a ceremony that President Museveni had hoped his Libyan counterpart would honour.
Col. Gadaffi left on Thursday morning, around the time he had been expected to be at the Katonga event, prematurely ending a visit that most Ugandans will remember for the traffic disruption and the resultant jams.
News of Col. Gadaffi's departure was broken to ministers and senior army officers who had already converged in Mpigi to attend the event, district officials said.
Col. Gadaffi, who in the past travelled with an all-female security guards called the Amazonian Guard, was in Uganda to close the Afro-Arab Youth Festival and open the Gadaffi National Mosque, his gift to the Muslims of Uganda.
But his men, who always surrounded him as human shields whenever he was in public view, were apparently untrusting of the PGB, and the attendant uneasiness often gave way to clashes.
Officials on both sides disagreed on who was supposed to stand at the podiums where the heads of state were speaking, or who should stand behind which president.
"The Libyans are sensitive about their president's security, and it has been like that since Sunday [March 16] when they arrived," said one protocol officer.
In some cases, as the Libyan officers struggled to take control of security during events, blows were almost exchanged as PGB officers shouted on top of their voices that the Libyans should back off.
The Libyans, though they spoke some English, preferred to reply in Arabic, deliberately confusing the Ugandans. To avoid a confrontation, it was agreed that the Ugandans and the Libyans deploy their security in equal numbers around their presidents. But that was before the mosque melee.
And there was more drama to come when, after opening the mosque, Col. Gadaffi travelled in one of the heavy duty Land Cruisers instead of his green limousine.
Six of his guards, acting as human shields, jumped on the Land Cruiser's windows to block hundreds of people from having a clear view of the Libyan leader as his convoy left the complex.
Most countries, according to a knowledgeable source, offer not more than 10 guards for a visiting head of state. But Capt. Kwesiga said: "A country can forward a request that it is bringing in a certain number of security personnel. Once the number is agreed upon, they [can] come, so it cannot be that there must be a certain number."
A 30-seater Libyan jet arrived at Entebbe International Airport on March 6 carrying an advance team comprising security officers and secretaries.
Some Libyan guards were flown in on an Antonov aircraft on Saturday and more touched down at 2.30pm on Sunday, the day of Col. Gadaffi's arrival. Sources said that Col. Gadaffi came with a fleet of 30 vehicles, airlifted by Libyan military aircraft.
They included three green armour-plated presidential limousines, two high-tech vans fitted with electronic jamming devices, two mobile communication stations, a repeater station based at the airport, a mobile mini-hospital with five doctors, three Outside Broadcasting vans belonging to Jamahiriya Broadcasting Corporation, a state-run media agency, and heavy duty Land Cruisers for guards and aides.
On Monday the guards, equipped with Uganda maps and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers, took a test-drive through the city towards the Gayaza Road round-about and made a U-turn through the potholed Mulago Road before retreating to State House, Nakasero.
Similar drills were conducted in Entebbe and Munyonyo. Other sources claimed that Col. Gadaffi came with a double that confused the PGB and protocol personnel on arrival at Entebbe and the Commonwealth Resort in Munyonyo.
Although Daily Monitor could not independently verify the claims of Col. Gadaffi's look-alike on the entourage, it is well known that high profile individuals adopt doubles to enhance their security.
Capt. Kwesiga insisted that the PGB and the Libyan counterparts worked well together. The PGB, he said, never showed signs of an inferiority complex.
"That is a personal observation. We worked together. Remember this is not the first time we are working together--we have worked together before," he said.
"For one to say [that] President Gadaffi's guards wanted to take over the airport and State House, do you know how many soldiers [that would take]?"
Col. Gadaffi's foreign visits have mostly been controversial. During a visit to Nigeria in 2006, he threatened to return home after the Nigerian authorities refused to allow all his 200 guards from entering the country with arms.
"Rarely can a host have been so happy to see the back of a guest as President Sarkozy will be today when Muammar Gaddafi and his caravan of 400 followers finally leave Paris," reported the UK's The Times in an article published after the Libyan leader's visit to France last year.
"For the French President and many Parisians, the five-day official visit by the Libyan leader has seemed endless." The article, published on December 15, 2007, was titled "Adieu, Col Muammar Gadaffi, a tricky guest."
Mr Isaac Magoola, a Kampala political scientist, claimed that Col. Gadaffi's conduct is driven by huge resources, long stay in power and his philosophy.
"The huge resources at his disposal give him leverage over other African presidents...he who pays the piper calls the tune," Mr Magoola said.
"His long stay in power has made him insensitive to other people...He is more successful in Africa because we are poor. Fidel Castro of Cuba would have been like Gadaffi but his country is poor."
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JOSEPH MITI
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