“NEITHER Gen. (Salim) Saleh nor Saracen nor me have been training and arming paramilitary armies among Congolese rebels with a view to destabilise that country.

“That is a lot of bull.... It is real bull.... Nonsense. That is extremely irresponsible talk. We are not a gun-running company.”

An angry Saracen Uganda managing director, Heckie Horn, fell short of using foul words to express his disgust for the United Nations panel report that Saleh, Horn and Saracen were training and arming paramilitary forces to facilitate commercial activities of top UPDF officers after the Ugandan army withdrew from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The UN panel led by Egyptian ambassador, Mahmoud Kassem, said Saleh and Horn consulted DRC President Joseph Kabila for consent on the covert operation.

The other UN panelists are Jim Freedman (Canada), Mel Holt (USA), Bruno Schiernsky (Belgium) and Moustapha Tall (Senegal).

Horn, a former South African Defence Forces soldier, appeared before the Justice Porter commission yesterday to defend Saracen against the UN panel allegations.

Saleh dismissed the UN claims as rubbish on Capital Radio on Saturday. Uganda has also criticised the report for ignoring its legitimate security concerns in Congo.

The report says, “This military group draws on dissidents from Jean-Pierre Bemba’s MLC, members of the Uganda-supported RCD-Congo including its leaders Professor Kin-kiey Mulumba and Kabanga Babadi, and others in the north-eastern DRC who have supported UPDF in the past.”

“The Panel’s sources have indicated that Heckie Horn...is a key partner with Lt. General Saleh in supporting this paramilitary group and that Lt. General Saleh himself is a 25 per cent owner in Saracen. Saracen’s managing director also provides military training and arms to members of this group,” the report adds.

Horn told Porter, Justice Joseph Berko, retired UN official John Rwambuya and Vincent Wagona that Holt and Freedman interviewed him on September 17, in his Kampala office.

“I showed them my gun register and other records but they were not interested. They said they got the allegations from my competitors. Can you imagine that!” he said.

Horn said the nearest Saracen has been to Congo is in the Semlik valley where it is providing security for the on-going Uganda/Heritage Oil & Gas drilling.

He said the South African-based Saracen International, with links in Angola, owns 75% shares in Saracen Uganda Ltd., while Special services in which Saleh is a shareholder, owns 25%.