Museveni To Face Sebutinde

By Anne Mugisa and Milton Olupot President Yoweri Museveni is on Wednesday to testify before the Judicial Commission of Inquiry probing the 1997 purchase of junk combat helicopters. Justice Julia Ssebutinde heading the probe said yesterday the Commission will move to State House where Museveni will testify in a live UTV broadcast. The proceedings will start at 11.00am. Thirty-eight witnesses have already testified in the inquiry of the saga where the Government lost US$6.4m. The helicopter gunships which were supplied by the Consolidated Sales Corporation (CSC) from Belarus were rejected by the Ministry of Defence and still lie at the Entebbe Airbase. In another development, Emmanuel Katto, owner of CSC, denied any connection with Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels. The Commission said on Thursday it had received information that CSC was leaking information of the UPDF purchases to the LRA and selling them arms. Ssebutinde said yesterday that the Commission had received more information from abroad which they were still trying to verify. She said Katto would be availed the information so that he can peruse through it and give his side of the story. "These are serious allegations... I wish I could be given a chance to challenge it. It puts me in a precarious situation," Katto said. Ssebutinde said Katto during his testimony kept pleading that he had "no knowledge of this and no knowledge of that" leaving things in the hands of his co-directors. "While you were not there and aware...these people were providing copies of the contract and schedules to the LRA", Ssebutinde said. "We shall pass the information to you in good time. We saw there was a big likelihood that they are correct. Their information seems corroborated," she added. Katto also denied taking the bulk of the US$6.4m for the helicopters. He said the bulk of the money went to BT and Triton SAL. "Kopeikin is a liar," Katto said when he was told that Kopeikin told then Defence Secretary Dr. Ben Mbonye and Maj. Gen. Salim Saleh that he got only US$2.4m. Katto said he was willing to renegotiate the contract and supply the remaining two helicopters and overhaul the ones at Entebbe. See Verbatim on National Ends