Porter Commission Resumes Hearing

By Alfred Wasike THE judicial inquiry into allegations by a United Nations report that Uganda plundered wealth from the war-torn DRC yesterday resumed public hearing. A senior UPDF officer Lt. Col. Ssonko Lutaya denied allegations of illegal gold mining but implicated his former boss in the Congo, Lt. Col. Fencasious Mugyenyi, of the 409 UPDF Brigade Commander in army fuel racketeering. Ssonko, 45, then worked for the military intelligence. The probe led by Justice David Porter was angered and repeatedly criticised Mugyenyi for ordering his suspected subordinates to investigate themselves against allegations of illegal gold mining, army fuel racketeering, harassment of Congolese civilians and other offences. Mugyenyi came under severe fire for directing Ssonko (then a Major) in October 1998 to investigate allegations that Lt. Okumu, a detach commander at a huge gold mine called Kilomoto in north-eastern DRC was engaged in illegal gold mining, sold army fuel and other equipment and that Ssonko and Okumu harassed civilians. “How can that commander order his subordinates especially when they are suspects to investigate themselves. It does not make sense. It defeats logic,” Porter flanked by Justice Joseph Berko and John Rwambuya wondered. The Lead counsel was Allan Shonubi. Ssonko, accompanied by a UPDF lawyer, Capt. Timothy Kanyogonya also contradicted Okumu’s evidence to the commission that he (Okumu) had never visited the gold mine. “I found out that 100 drums of fuel were issued to Kilomoto on Mugyenyi’s orders and Okumu was selling army fuel for private gain.” “I also found out that locals who were former workers of the mine numbering about 20,000 had broken into the stores of Kilomoto and obtained TNT to use for mining. They had not been paid for four years”, Ssonko wrote in a May 18, 2001 report he made to his superiors. He said the Kilomoto mine manager requested the UPDF detach to intervene. Ends