A review of Uganda’s External Security Organisation is
underway following the uncovering of a Sudanese espionage operation with
access to highly classified briefs, according to well placed sources in
the region.
The review follows the expulsion, earlier this month, of a Sudanese diplomat from Kampala over allegations of espionage.
Ugandan intelligence sources say Jad el-Seed
Mohammed Elhag, a liaison officer at the Sudan embassy in Kampala, was
the mastermind of a spying operation that had infiltrated Uganda’s
external intelligence.
The diplomat left the country within 24 hours of
being caught in a sting operation by Ugandan counter-intelligence
officials while trying to buy classified intelligence documents.
A clerk in Uganda’s External Security
Organisation, Stephen Kisembo, was last week charged in a Kampala court
with stealing and selling classified documents.
Ugandan intelligence believes that Mr Kisembo sold
classified intelligence documents, including weekly briefs sent to
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, to his Sudanese intelligence handlers
between 2009 and 2010.
A review is underway to find out how extensive the
Sudanese spy network is and how far its tentacles spread within
Uganda’s military intelligence. A source told The EastAfrican the Sudanese spying operation was "potentially one of the largest intelligence leaks" in many years.
In August, President Museveni ordered the Office
of the Auditor General to conduct a special audit into the classified
expenditures of the External Security Organisation following allegations
of misuse of funds and disgruntled operatives.
Cat and mouse
Uganda and Sudan have had a cat-and-mouse
relationship over the past two decades, with Khartoum supporting Joseph
Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in retaliation for Kampala’s
support for the Sudan People’s Liberation Army, and its continuing
military and political support to Salva Kiir’s Government of South
Sudan.
The animosity between the two countries died down
after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between Khartoum
and the SPLA, and relations warmed after South Sudan broke away from
Sudan.
Yoweri Museveni.
However, Khartoum has increased its
intelligence interest in Uganda after dissidents and rebel groups under
the Sudan Revolutionary Front signed a charter in Kampala in January
pledging to overthrow Omar al-Bashir’s regime.
The Front is a coalition of Sudanese rebel groups
in Darfur, South Kordofan and the Blue Nile. At its inception in
November 2011, it vowed to overthrow President Bashir’s regime “using
all available means.”
The rebel groups represented included the Sudan
People’s Liberation Movement-North, the Justice and Equality Movement,
the Sudan Liberation Army-Abdel Wahid, and Sudan Liberation Army -Minni
Minnawi.
Sudan responded by filing three complaints against
Uganda with the African Union, the Intergovernmental Authority on
Development, and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
Regime change
President Museveni and President Bashir met in
Addis Ababa on the sidelines of an extraordinary African Union Heads of
State Summit two weeks ago at the request of the Ugandan leader to
review their relations.
It was the first time the two principals were
meeting in three years and President Museveni sought to reassure
President Bashir, who was facing urban unrest in Khartoum as well as
continuing insecurity in Darfur, that Kampala’s foreign policy did not
seek to support regime change in Sudan.
However, sources said that Mr Bashir presented
President Museveni with evidence showing that Sudanese dissidents in
Kampala were receiving some form of support from Ugandan security
officials.
President Museveni reportedly agreed to
investigate the claims and end any active support to Sudanese dissident
groups in Uganda.
Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.
In a statement issued after the “friendly and
frank” meeting of the two principals in Addis, Sudan’s Foreign Affairs
Minister Ali Karti said Mr Museveni’s response was more encouraging than
in previous engagements.
“I do not think that we are now in a position that
we can say there is a solution to the problem, but in my opinion there
is progress in the understanding of the Ugandan President of the
seriousness of the request of Sudan and the information put forward by
the president of the republic,” he said.
Withheld visa
On Thursday, the Sudan Tribune website
reported that the Ugandan embassy in Khartoum had withheld a visa to a
Sudanese opposition politician who planned to travel to Kampala to
attend a Sudan Revolutionary Front meeting.
The website reported that the embassy deferred a
decision on a visa pending consultation with Kampala after al-Sadiq
al-Mahdi of the National Umma Party indicated that he also intended to
meet with President Museveni.
The National Umma Party had earlier announced that
it signed an agreement with the Justice and Equality Movement and Sudan
Liberation Movement of Minni Minnawi.
The presence in Kampala of representatives of
political and armed groups with an avowed aim of toppling the Khartoum
regime could potentially complicate relations between Uganda and Sudan.
President Bashir has been facing domestic unrest
in Khartoum sparked off by economic hardships and over 200 people were
reportedly killed last month as security officers cracked down on
demonstrations.
In response, the Sudanese leader has gone on the
diplomatic and political offensive, holding talks with President Kiir of
South Sudan over the contested Abyei border region while pushing
dissenting voices out of his ruling National Congress Party.
