Natete blast: 2 arrested

Feb 21, 2007

SECURITY has arrested two former Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, among them a rebel commander, in connection with last Friday’s vehicle bomb blast in the Kampala suburb of Natete. The attack left two passengers dead and three others injured.

By Steven Candia and Emmy Allio

SECURITY has arrested two former Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels, among them a rebel commander, in connection with last Friday’s vehicle bomb blast in the Kampala suburb of Natete. The attack left two passengers dead and three others injured.

Among the victims was UPDF 2nd Lt. Issa Lubega, a former ADF rebel who had turned into an operative of the Joint Anti Terrorism Unit.

The five were travelling in a four-wheel drive car when the explosive, which security believes to have been a stick grenade, detonated.

“We have made two additional arrests. Both were ADF and one of them a former ADF commander,” army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye said yesterday.

Kulayigye, who declined to disclose the identity of the suspects, said the two were picked on Monday and are helping with the investigations.

The arrest brings to four the total number of people rounded up in connection with the incident.

Kulayigye said the army was still not certain that the blast was an attack on Lubega. “The investigation will reveal it,” he said.

“We are acting on leads which we can’t discuss in the media. The former commander made some contacts with another person, apparently with the intention to commit this crime.”

The ADF, now a vanquished rebel group, was blamed for the spate of bomb attacks that hit the city in the late 1990’s and 2000.

They also attacked villages in western Uganda from bases in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The arrests suggest that the bomb explosion was an attack and not an accident. They also point at a possible act of revenge on rebels who surrendered and are now cooperating with the Government.

The Friday incident triggered off a joint investigation, involving all security agencies, spearheaded by the anti-terrorism unit.

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