Kabila made me General - Taban Amin
Jan 19, 2005
Former West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) rebel leader Taban Amin has said he was promoted to major general by the late DR Congo President Laurent Kabila.
By Fortunate Ahimbisibwe and Frank Mugabi
Former West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) rebel leader Taban Amin has said he was promoted to major general by the late DR Congo President Laurent Kabila.
Taban Amin yesterday attacked army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza for questioning his rank.
Bantariza said Taban had never been commissioned as major general or even confirmed in the army, newspapers reported.
But the son of former dictator Idi Amin insisted he received the rank from the government of the DR Congo while Laurent Kabila was president.
"I am also a qualified pilot. I studied in the Soviet Union. I can fly MiG 21, L39 and Antonovs," Taban said.
He said he was in the UPDF on the orders of President Yoweri Museveni. "Maybe he (Museveni) has not yet signed my confirmation documents but the President himself is a good person only that the people around him, like Bantariza, want to confuse him," Taban said.
"Bantariza is a simple major who finished university recently. I joined the army in 1973 when he was a gadi-gadi (wheelbarrow) pusher," he said.
Taban said he was committed to the peace agreement in spite of the provocative statements made against him. He said he had worked with some members of Bantariza's family who knew him as a good man.
"No one will intimidate me to leave my country. I love President Museveni and he trusts me. That is why he sent me to ISO. I am working for him and my country," Taban Amin added.
Taban said he should not be judged by what his late father did. "That was politics and we are now in a new phase. Nobody should go around telling me how my father was a dictator," he said. Idi Amin, who was ousted by Tanzanian forces in 1979, is said to have murdered 500,000 Ugandans in a nine-year reign of terror. Taban was, however, apologetic for statements he recently made on Arua One FM that the People's Redemption Army (PRA) rebels suspects who were arrested in the region last November were mere traders.
"A human being can make mistakes. Only God cannot make mistakes," Taban said. "I told the people of Koboko that the people who were arrested were disguised as businessmen. I did not say they were businessmen. Our people do not want war, they want peace to develop," he said. Taban said Museveni knew him as a truthful person and he was working to maintain that. Taban bragged that he did not care being in the army because he is a son of a former president.
"I am a son of a former president and today I am a son of Museveni. I do not care being in the army because I will remain a state son," he said.
He said an army rank would not count without peace.
Bantariza yesterday said he had no grudge against Taban Amin but his rank of major general was not yet active in the UPDF because he had not been integrated in the army.
"There is no benefit for me to quarrel with any citizen of Uganda, including Taban Amin. He is my friend and let's keep that friendship in the interest of the country," Bantariza said.
Former West Nile Bank Front (WNBF) rebel leader Taban Amin has said he was promoted to major general by the late DR Congo President Laurent Kabila.
Taban Amin yesterday attacked army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza for questioning his rank.
Bantariza said Taban had never been commissioned as major general or even confirmed in the army, newspapers reported.
But the son of former dictator Idi Amin insisted he received the rank from the government of the DR Congo while Laurent Kabila was president.
"I am also a qualified pilot. I studied in the Soviet Union. I can fly MiG 21, L39 and Antonovs," Taban said.
He said he was in the UPDF on the orders of President Yoweri Museveni. "Maybe he (Museveni) has not yet signed my confirmation documents but the President himself is a good person only that the people around him, like Bantariza, want to confuse him," Taban said.
"Bantariza is a simple major who finished university recently. I joined the army in 1973 when he was a gadi-gadi (wheelbarrow) pusher," he said.
Taban said he was committed to the peace agreement in spite of the provocative statements made against him. He said he had worked with some members of Bantariza's family who knew him as a good man.
"No one will intimidate me to leave my country. I love President Museveni and he trusts me. That is why he sent me to ISO. I am working for him and my country," Taban Amin added.
Taban said he should not be judged by what his late father did. "That was politics and we are now in a new phase. Nobody should go around telling me how my father was a dictator," he said. Idi Amin, who was ousted by Tanzanian forces in 1979, is said to have murdered 500,000 Ugandans in a nine-year reign of terror. Taban was, however, apologetic for statements he recently made on Arua One FM that the People's Redemption Army (PRA) rebels suspects who were arrested in the region last November were mere traders.
"A human being can make mistakes. Only God cannot make mistakes," Taban said. "I told the people of Koboko that the people who were arrested were disguised as businessmen. I did not say they were businessmen. Our people do not want war, they want peace to develop," he said. Taban said Museveni knew him as a truthful person and he was working to maintain that. Taban bragged that he did not care being in the army because he is a son of a former president.
"I am a son of a former president and today I am a son of Museveni. I do not care being in the army because I will remain a state son," he said.
He said an army rank would not count without peace.
Bantariza yesterday said he had no grudge against Taban Amin but his rank of major general was not yet active in the UPDF because he had not been integrated in the army.
"There is no benefit for me to quarrel with any citizen of Uganda, including Taban Amin. He is my friend and let's keep that friendship in the interest of the country," Bantariza said.