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Uganda: Government Builds Monument for Gadaffi
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New Vision (Kampala)
24 March 2008
Posted to the web 25 March 2008
Cyprian Musoke
Kampala
THE Government has erected a giant monument at Buganga, Nkozi to honour Libya's support to the liberation war. However, the unveiling ceremony that was to be performed on Thursday by Libyan leader Col. Muammar Gadaffi was deferred under unclear circumstances.
The Government and UPDF officials, who had gone for the ceremony, four kilometres from Kayabwe on Masaka road, were left in suspense.
The monument bearing the portraits of Gadaffi and President Yoweri Museveni was put up by the National Housing and Construction Corporation, one of the companies in which Libya has majority shares.
The corporation board chairman, Keith Muhakanizi, said they were only contracted to erect the monument, but that it belonged to the Libyans. The monument, now dressed in canvass with lights hanging over it, is guarded by UPDF soldiers.
Earlier, reports said the monument was in memory of Libyan soldiers killed in the 1979 war while fighting alongside the late Idi Amin's soldiers as they battled the Tanzanian liberators.
But Army spokesperson Major Paddy Ankunda clarified that it was in commemoration of the continued solidarity between Libya and Uganda.
"It is in support of our continued struggle to transform the peoples of both countries from the pangs of poverty and dictatorship," he said.
He said Gadaffi had some urgent business back home, so he asked Museveni to let him commission it another time.
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State minister for foreign affairs Isaac Musumba said the Government was aware of the monument. "How could it have been built quietly and the Government doesn't know? This government is awake," he said.
Asked why its commissioning was put off at the last minute, he referred the matter to state minister for security Amama Mbabazi, who was said to be out of the country.
State minister for defence Ruth Nankabirwa said she did not have information about the monument.
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