Winnie Reacts To Opoka Photo
Sep 26, 2002
THE Reform Agenda yesterday said they were not responsible for the actions of James Opoka, their supporter who is reported to have joined the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony.
THE Reform Agenda yesterday said they were not responsible for the actions of James Opoka, their supporter who is reported to have joined the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony.
Reform Agenda was born out of Elect Besigye Task Force, a group that spearheaded Col. Kizza Besigye’s presidential campaigns in 2001.
“We as a pressure group are not responsible for the actions of any one supporter. We take responsibility for our group decisions. We have not taken a decision to engage in armed resistance,†Winnie Byanyima, the group’s third vice-chairperson, told journalists in Kampala.
Byanyima, also Besigye’s wife and Mbarara Municipality MP, was reacting to assertions by the army that it had evidence of links between LRA and Reform Agenda.
The New Vision yesterday ran a photograph from the Defence Press Unit, which the army claimed was of James Opoka seated among LRA fighters. Opoka was Besigye’s political assistant during the campaigns.
Byanyima told a press conference that there was “some resemblance†between Opoka and the person who appears in the photograph but added that she could not be absolutely sure whether he was the one.
“I see a bearded fat man but I can’t tell whether he is the one,†she said.
But Reform Agenda spokesperson Beti Kamya said on phone that the person in the picture with armed people did not look like Opoka.
Byanyima and Kamya said Opoka’s reported links with LRA, if true, should be treated as a personal decision or individual actions and not as a group decision.
They said, for example, some Movement leaders are in prison for embezzlement. This does not mean that the Movement is engaged in theft.
Byanyima said Opoka was still a member of the Reform Agenda but Kamya said the group had no list of members.
Kamya said, “We don’t have membership cards, colours or subscription. I can’t tell who is a member and who is not. We know we have supporters all over but we have not heard from Opoka since the elections.†Byanyima said she last saw Opoka, whom she refereed to as a friend, a year ago when he told her that he was going to the US. She said she had not spoken to him since then.
“He left me a dependant to try and secure him a visa to go the US,†she said. She did not say whether she got the visa or whether Opoka’s dependant had left the country.
She said the Reform Agenda would not try to ascertain Opoka’s whereabouts because it was not the group’s duty to track down alleged rebels.
She said it was upon the Government to capture Opoka and charge him in court or try him in absentia if it had evidence.
Kamya said it was not proper for the Government to continue linking the group to rebels when Besigye had repeatedly denied links with them.
She said UPDF spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza should not assume that everybody who was a member of the Besigye task force is a member of the Reform Agenda.
Ends