MEDIASCAPE NEWS listened in and transcribed the interview:- Almost three months after the joint Ugandan and DRC forces launched blistering attacks on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebel camps in the east the vast country, the commander land forces of the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) and also Senior Presidential Advisor on Special Duties, Lt Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has in a rare interview, spoken out on the progress of the joint forces operation code-named ‘Operation Shujaa.’ As the operation goes into its second phase under the joint command of Maj Gen Kayanja Muhanga (UPDF) and Maj Gen Camille Bombele (FARDC), Gen Muhoozi in a candid in-depth exclusive interview with Journalist ARINAITWE RUGYENDO, reveals sordid details of the operation, why Rwanda is soon joining forces with Uganda and DRC to end terrorism in North Kivu, South Kivu and the Ituri provinces. He also answers critics who question his military credentials.
RUGYENDO: It is almost 100 days since Operation Shujaa was launched on November 30th 2021. What is your overall assessment so far?
GEN MUHOOZI: We have been very, very successful! We caught the ADF completely by surprise. We hit their main camp, Kambi ya Yua, at 4.00am on the morning of 30th November 2021. We dropped 30 tones of ammunition on them as they slept.
RUGYENDO: Many critics have said your forces have not shown proof of pictures and other forms of evidence. What is there to show for this devastation and downgrading of ADF forces?
GEN MUHOOZI: Mr Rugyendo, we have all the evidence most of which is not for your consumption. But we announced to the world the four mass graves of ADF terrorists we uncovered 4 kilometers to the south east of Kambi ya Yua!
We discovered at least 300 bodies there.
They were skeletons because after burial the wild animals could not resist the temptation. They came and ate them to the bone.
RUGYENDO: Why haven’t you allowed us to move in and independently verify this?
GEN MUHOOZI: I don’t control media issues in the UPDF. That is the discretion of my boss, the Chief of Defense Forces (CDF). But the few media people with the help of comrade Col. Paddy Ankunda, have verified all this.
RUGYENDO: There is something that does not seem to add up about the strength of the ADF. Your Commander in Chief President Yoweri Museveni once said UPDF fire power had reduced that force to less than 100. When, why and how did they become a strong force of over 300?
GEN MUHOOZI: No, that’s not accurate. You media people also mix up things.
The C-in-C said that 100 ADF entered Bundibugyo in 2007. It was actually March 22nd 2007 when our soldiers encountered them at Semuliki National Park! The commanders in the field were late Major Noel Mwesigye and Lieutenant Philip Mugizi (now a Major). I was at our headquarters in Karugutu when the battle began. We killed 65 of them that day including their Commander. The next day, 65 Battalion of UPDF killed another 25. The day after that, our patrol killed another 4. So, if there were any survivors, they must have been 4 or 6. That is what he meant. You can capture the correct version now.
RUGYENDO: Ok. How strong is ADF to warrant this show of force that we witnessed on November 30th?
GEN MUHOOZI: Let me give you some small background. Following that defeat in 2007, the ADF completely abandoned the idea of a military invasion of Uganda. Instead, they changed their strategy and started concentrating on building their strength inside DRC. They started seriously attacking our brothers in FARDC (the Congolese military). This is how they built their strength to about 2,000 fighters after 2007. But we have already reduced this number to about 1,000.
RUGYENDO: Where is this 1000 now?
GEN MUHOOZI: Some of them are hiding in the south of Busunga/Nobility border post. Around River Lume and Kikingi. This is why, together with FARDC, we have attacked the largest group nearby River Lume as part of the opening actions of Phase II. Others are running to the West! We also hear they want to run towards Kisangani. But we shall get them. Their days are numbered. We also hear that some have linked up with FDLR (a Rwandan rebel group opposed to Kigali) in the Samboka jungle. That’s one of the reasons our brothers from Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF) want to join this operation so that we deal with both ADF and FDLR.
RUGYENDO: Wait a minute. Did you just say the Rwandan forces are joining this operation?
GEN MUHOOZI: Yes, and I think it’s a good idea for FARDC, UPDF and RDF to pursue these negative forces west of the Komanda-Eringeti Road, and take them out once and for all so that the peoples of the three countries can live peacefully, work and trade together.
RUGYENDO: Who is backing ADF? What does your intelligence say?
GEN MUHOOZI: ADF has benefited from the chaos in Eastern DRC. They get their arms and ammunition from attacking our Congolese brothers. Then we have intelligence that some low level MONUSCO (United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) operatives are engaged in a very lucrative trade in gold and timber with ADF.
RUGYENDO: What problems have UPDF and FARDC encountered in the last three months and have you lost any combatants?
GEN MUHOOZI. The DRC terrain, the thick forests etc, have been abit of an issue. But we are an army so used to these conditions. We have only lost 3 soldiers. May God bless their souls. This mainly happened through our own mistakes. One soldier was lost because he was standing too close to his friend when he was firing an RPG! I got the same problem in 2002 when Mzee (President Museveni) sent us for an exercise in Kabamba before we went to Teso to battle a Lord’s Resistence Army (LRA) incursion there.
RUGYENDO: Oh! By the way, I heard about this incident some ten years ago. How you nearly got killed in an ambush by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). What exactly happened on that day?
GEN MUHOOZI: I stood very close to one of our soldiers who was firing an RPG. The back blast threw me like 10 meters. The next thing I remember was waking up at the MRS in Kabamba.
RUGYENDO: That was a close shave. What’s MRS?
GEN MUHOOZI: Medical Reception Station
RUGYENDO: As a First Son, with so many privileges and opportunities, why do you risk your life to this level?
GEN MUHOOZI: I have never, ever thought of myself as ‘First son’. I was born a refugee and lived for most of my formative life as a refugee. Boys used to beat me up in Kenya and then later in Sweden, calling me a refugee or Empuungyi (Runyankore for ‘refugee’)! I guess that taught me as a young boy to be aggressive! I became very aggressive from those beatings. And I am not someone who will just sit there, fold my arms and do nothing about a crisis especially of an armed nature. I must move in together with my fellow combatants and solve it.
RUGYENDO: What do you tell your critics who say you have no combat experience?
GEN MUHOOZI: I welcome all my critics who say I have no military experience to meet me on the battlefield! They will learn why my soldiers love me.
RUGYENDO: Thank you for your time.
GEN MUHOOZI: It is my pleasure to talk to you
– mediascapenews.com
