From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Wed May 19 2010 - 06:43:41 EDT
<http://www.independent.co.ug/index.php/news/news/77-news/2918-somalia-updf-
underfed-mistreated-> 'Somalia UPDF underfed, mistreated'
19 May 2010 10:06 By John Njoroge
AMISON:UPDF peacekeeper arrive in Somalia in 2008
Feeding by calories misinterpreted as starvation-Gen Wamala
In October 2009, anonymous emails and letters flowed into offices of the
Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF), Uganda Police, Chieftaincy of Military
Intelligence (CMI) and Ministry of Defence. Within days, the same emails
were also circulating in media houses in Kampala.
The emails, apparently sent on behalf of a group said to be part of the
Ugandan peacekeeping contingent in Somalia under AMISOM, talked of unpaid
allowances, payment of soldiers in fake currencies, unnecessary delays in
payments of allowances, allegations of unpaid benefits to injured and dead
peacekeepers etc.
According to one of the emails, the peacekeepers believe their allowances
were being siphoned by their commanders. Around the same time last year, the
UPDF spokesperson, Lt. Col. Felix Kulayigye said: "Once the AU sends the
money, they will be paid. A few of those returnees are unsettled and have
been sending emails to me and the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF). They should
rest assured that the UPDF is not about to eat their money."
However in a recent interview, another UPDF AMISOM peacekeeper, one of the
UPDF returnees who came back in September 2009, said the peacekeepers are
undergoing hard times in Somalia. He said the Ugandan contingent was leading
a pitiful life before the UN took over direct control of the logistics of
AMISOM.
"Some senior officers were stealing our food. They were stuffing their
fridges in the camp with other soldiers' juice and powdered milk. One deputy
contingent commander instructed junior officers to hide chicken in a water
boozer. When they tried to load it on a cargo plane coming back to Uganda,
they were stopped by an American soldier," he alleged. He said the culpable
commander had lied to the US soldier that the 1200 litre water boozer had
gotten damaged and was being taken to Uganda for repair.
The returnee said the US soldiers at Mogadishu Airport insisted the boozer
remains in Somalia for accountability. "The Ugandans convinced the Americans
that the equipment needed to get back to Uganda. To help load the boozer
onto the cargo plane, one US officer tried to use a crane to lift the boozer
onto the plane. He noticed it was too heavy and on checking, he found
pre-packed chicken meant for the peacekeepers," he said.
The returnees claimed the soldiers are sometimes paid in fake dollars by
their commanders. The returnee alleged that several AMISOM officers had been
arrested in forex bureaus in Kampala after presenting fake dollars for
conversion.
However the commander of the UPDF Land Forces Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala said
the UPDF has never paid its soldiers in fake currency. He said the problem
is most forex bureaus in Kampala do not accept American dollars printed
before 2003 whereas these dollars are accepted anywhere else in the world.
Some "Ugandan peacekeepers were paid with such dollars. When they got here,
the money was rejected by the owners of some of these Forex Bureaus,"
Katumba said.
The returnees also alleged that the delay in getting their allowances would
force them to sell their tinned food stuff like biscuits and tinned milk to
the locals to get money for personal use. "We are lucky that none of us was
ever poisoned or harmed in any way by the insurgents pretending to be
friendly locals." The EU pays $750 for every peacekeeper in Somalia. Of
this, US$100 is given to them in Mogadishu. AMISOM is funded by Britain,
USA, Sweden and EU. The money is channeled to the African Union (AU) through
the EU who pays Uganda and Burundi differently depending on how the two
governments negotiated for the payment of their peacekeepers.
Burundi, for example, pays its peacekeepers $650 in advance and later
replaces what it has spent on them when the AU pays. US$100 is kept by the
Burundian government. Of the US$750, Uganda pays its peacekeepers US$450.
US$250 is kept by the government of Uganda. "It's too much money to be taken
from us," one returnee says. "Why can't they take US$100 like the way
Burundi is doing? They even say this money is for maintenance of the
vehicles we use in Somalia. Doesn't the EU deal with this?" he asked.
However, these claims were refuted by Katumba and Kalayigye. Katumba said
Uganda, like Burundi, receives a portion of what the peacekeepers earn.
"Burundi takes US$100 and we take US$200 from each soldier. It is however
not true that we say the money is for maintaining vehicles. This is what the
UPDF and government earn from the services of its officers. Nothing else,"
Katumba said. Kulayigye said all the allowances of the UGABAG III contingent
were paid by the end of September 2009. "No soldier can complain that they
have not been paid. Bring me one," he says. He adds that UGABAG has never
been supplied with chicken for food as alleged. On claims of DYNCORP
conniving with commanders to give less or sub-standard food to the UPDF
troops, KUlayigye said: "This is outrageous. There are no American soldiers
in Somalia. Only AU and EU Troops. DYNCORP is a supplier, not a distributor.
Its work stops at delivering the food."
Katumba said that the soldiers are confusing calories and food. "One time, a
soldier approached me, asking why he was receiving half an orange instead of
a full orange. We had to bring in a nutritionist when we realised that this
was being misunderstood. The peacekeepers are being fed according to how
much calories their bodies need, not how much they want to eat. Health is
different from the personal desire to fill the stomach."
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