Kony Backers To Be Pinned
Jun 18, 2003
PARLIAMENT is today scheduled to receive intelligence evidence from the defence ministry about sources of fresh arms supplies to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
By Felix Osike and Henry Mukasa
PARLIAMENT is today scheduled to receive intelligence evidence from the defence ministry about sources of fresh arms supplies to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
Due to the sensitivity of the report, which will be presented by the state minister for defence, Ruth Nankabirwa, Parliament will for the first time, since 1996, have a closed plenary sitting. It will commence at 2:00pm.
No outsiders, including the press, will be allowed in the chambers, side lobbies of Parliament or the public gallery.
“We have evidence of where the LRA has been getting arms and ammunition and my statement will be detailed,†Nankabirwa told MPs.
Several MPs were yesterday alarmed by the recent rebel incursions into Lira, Kitgum, Pader and Katakwi districts.
They said there were fears of planned attacks by the LRA in Moroto and Kotido districts.
Nankabirwa succumbed to demands by the MPs that the Government gives a detailed explanation today before the security situation gets out of hand.
She had preferred to give the information to the sessional committee on defence and internal affairs, but Ben Wacha moved a motion to withdraw strangers and compelling her to give detailed information to all the MPs in the sitting free of eavesdropping.
The motion will be formally moved today.
“The situation is getting out of hand and somebody somewhere is not telling us the truth,†Wacha said.
“How can a few hundred people be more effective than 50,000 soldiers with their tanks and helicopter gunships equipped with night vision? Is it the LRA or somebody else? he asked.
Rule 15 (2) of the Rules of Procedure says, “The Speaker may, with the approval of the House and having regard to the national security, order the House to move into a closed sitting.â€
Disclosure of the proceedings or decisions of such a closed sitting is prohibited.
President Yoweri Museveni recently told the CNN that Sudan was arming the rebels and fuelling the insurgency in the north in an attempt to expand her territory.
However, Sudanese embassy charge d’afairres Hassan Yousif Ngor, in a statement denied the allegations, describing them as “unfounded and hearsay.â€
Ends
PARLIAMENT is today scheduled to receive intelligence evidence from the defence ministry about sources of fresh arms supplies to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels.
Due to the sensitivity of the report, which will be presented by the state minister for defence, Ruth Nankabirwa, Parliament will for the first time, since 1996, have a closed plenary sitting. It will commence at 2:00pm.
No outsiders, including the press, will be allowed in the chambers, side lobbies of Parliament or the public gallery.
“We have evidence of where the LRA has been getting arms and ammunition and my statement will be detailed,†Nankabirwa told MPs.
Several MPs were yesterday alarmed by the recent rebel incursions into Lira, Kitgum, Pader and Katakwi districts.
They said there were fears of planned attacks by the LRA in Moroto and Kotido districts.
Nankabirwa succumbed to demands by the MPs that the Government gives a detailed explanation today before the security situation gets out of hand.
She had preferred to give the information to the sessional committee on defence and internal affairs, but Ben Wacha moved a motion to withdraw strangers and compelling her to give detailed information to all the MPs in the sitting free of eavesdropping.
The motion will be formally moved today.
“The situation is getting out of hand and somebody somewhere is not telling us the truth,†Wacha said.
“How can a few hundred people be more effective than 50,000 soldiers with their tanks and helicopter gunships equipped with night vision? Is it the LRA or somebody else? he asked.
Rule 15 (2) of the Rules of Procedure says, “The Speaker may, with the approval of the House and having regard to the national security, order the House to move into a closed sitting.â€
Disclosure of the proceedings or decisions of such a closed sitting is prohibited.
President Yoweri Museveni recently told the CNN that Sudan was arming the rebels and fuelling the insurgency in the north in an attempt to expand her territory.
However, Sudanese embassy charge d’afairres Hassan Yousif Ngor, in a statement denied the allegations, describing them as “unfounded and hearsay.â€
Ends