By Emmy Allio

GENERAL Salim Saleh has retired from the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) after 25 years of service.

Sources said the army’s promotions and commissions board, chaired by the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF), Gen. Nyakairima Aronda, cleared Saleh’s application last week.

The sources said Saleh is expected to pick his retirement certificate yesterday.

“Formal send-off ceremony for Saleh will be organised later,” sources said. Saleh is now the Senior Presidential Advisor for the Reconstruction of the Luweero Triangle, Northern Uganda, and the Rwenzori region.

Until recently, he was the Reserve forces commander in the UPDF. He was promoted to rank of General soon after a year’s course in the Senior Command and Staff College in Kimaka, Jinja.

Saleh was quoted in the local press yesterday as saying he wanted time to carry out his new responsibilities and that he could not carry out his new responsibilities under military rules.

He said he wanted to be closer to the people.

Saleh was a member of a committee set up by the army High Command to probe the ghost soldiers’ saga. In December 2003 he reigned as one of the 10 army MPs.

He first resigned in 1998 as senior presidential adviser on defence and security, but bounced back as the reserve forces commander.

Saleh, 45, was the first army commander between 1986 and 1989 and a member of the Government’s peace team in the talks with LRA rebels.