From: Leo Odera Omolo
Date: Sat, Oct 24, 2009 at 10:47 PM

Writes Leo Odera Omolo

President Yoweri Kaguta Musegeni has issued a stern warning to Islamist rebels in Somalia who have threatened to attack Ugandan capital, Kampala and told them point blank that they would pay a heavy price if they dare to make their threats real.

“These groups, I would like to advice to concentrate on solving their own problems, but if they decide to attack us, they will pay heavily because we know how to deal with those who attack us”, the Ugandan leader told journalists at the end of the African Union summit, which ended on Friday last week.

He further warned that Ugandan peacekeepers in Somalia would pursue and attack al Shabaab rebels if they acted on the9r threats.

“In Mogadishu, we are not active. We are just monitoring. If they say they want to come and kill our people in Kampala like what they are doing in Somalia, we know where to get them”.

President Museveni was reacting to a statement by hardliner al Shabaab insurgents, who have vowed to strike the Kampala City in Uganda and Bujumbura in Burundi, in revenge for what they allege was a rocket attack that killed at least 30 people in Mogadishu on Thursday last week.

“We shall make their people cry. We will attack Bujumbura and Kampala. We will move our fighters to those two capital cities and we shall destroy them”, one Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein, a senior al Shabaab Commander, told journalists in Mogadishu last week.

Burundi and Uganda both have about 4000 peacekeepers in Somalia capital as part of the African Union peacekeeping force, which is dabbed AMISOM..

International news agencies, quoting eye witnesses in Mogadishu said peacekeepers fired at least 35 rockets into the capital suburb of Bakara Market area last Thursday, after the al shabaab and Al-Qaeda gunmen there launched mortar shell, as President Sheilh Sharrif Ahmed was about to board the plane that took him to Kampala for the AU summit..The president was boarding the plane when mortar shells rained in the area. The incident was later confirmed by a senior Somali police officer. The presidential flight, however, took off safely unmolested.

The unconfirmed sources in Mogadishu said the peacekeepers had fired back in retaliation, But a spokesman of the AMISOM denied the claims that the au Peacekeepers fired back any artillery.

“We did not shell Bakara. It is these same insurgents who killed the civilians and as their usual propaganda tools, they would place the blame on peacekeepers. We know their tactics”.

The rebel combined groups of al Shabaab and Al Qaeda, which have declared their intention to topple the Somalia Transitional Government, and impose Islamic sharia laws in the country, are being accused of being Al-Qaeda proxies in Somalia, who were trained in Afghanistan by Osama Bin Laden hard-core terrorists.

Asked for his reaction, the head and coordinator of the security intelligence, Gen David Tinyfuze was quoted by the NEWVISION as saying.”The terrorist threat against Uganda is real. But it is not a new threat. Uganda has been a target for the international terrorists since 1990s. Our involvement in Somalia has only raised the stakes and intensified the threat.”.

The General recalled that rebel groups like ADF and LRA were sponsored by the international terrorists groups in Sudan and in other countries where terrorists have been on the loose.

Not only that the groups like al Shabaab and other have received their training in Afaghanistan, “Those who bombed the US Embassies in Nairobi and in Dar Es Salaam in 1998 had also targeted the same facilities, but the Ugandan security intelligence has always remained alert, constantly monitoring and even made some arrests”.

Asked by the interviewer as to what measures Uganda had taken to counter the latest threat, the General said the security intelligence community in that country was monitoring and have a concerted effort which involved collaboration with other agencies from the her Western allies”.

“We are strengthening our security capability system- detection, surveillance sensitizing our team on counter—intelligence in collaboration with information from our other allies”.

“Uganda’s legal system”, he added, “was supportive of such measures since its Anti-Terrorism Act was passed by an Act of Parliament, but the country is also mobilizing its citizens of the need to be alert and aware of the danger posed by terrorists. These combined efforts make the best weapons to counter the terrorists activities. We don’ take a chance because the threat is real. We need to strengthen our capacity to adequately neutralize the threats”.

Other sources quoted Western intelligence community as having confirmed that Somalia of late has become a safe haven for militants, including Jihadists who use it to plot attacks in the region and beyond.

Last week’s attack in Mogadishu become one of the heaviest in recent weeks, and underlined the difficult situation facing the 5,000 or so AU peacekeepers“..

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Subject: PRESIDENT MUSEVENI WARNS SOMALIS ISLAMIST TERRORISTS FOR THREATENING UGANDA AND BURUNDI THAT THEY WILL SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCIES OF THEIR HEINOUS ACTION.