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Uganda military to free Somali state minister

Other News Materials 7 October 2009 12:23 (UTC +04:00)
Ugandan security forces have questioned Somalia's state minister for defence and will free him on Wednesday following his dramatic arrest by plainclothes officers in Kampala, Uganda's military spokesman said.
Uganda military to free Somali state minister

Ugandan security forces have questioned Somalia's state minister for defence and will free him on Wednesday following his dramatic arrest by plainclothes officers in Kampala, Uganda's military spokesman said, Reuters reported.

Sheikh Yusuf Mohammad Siad, a former warlord also known as "Inda'ade" or "white eyes", was bundled into an unmarked car by security agents on Tuesday, initially triggering fears among relatives and colleagues that he had been kidnapped.

"We have interrogated him and he seems not to be a threat. We will set him free today so he can go about his business in Uganda," Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye told Reuters.

"We can't disclose where we are detaining him. We just got interested in him because we didn't understand why he had entered the country the way he did." Kulayigye had said late on Tuesday the Somali minister raised suspicions by arriving unannounced on a private visit.

Inda'ade was a leading member of Somalia's Hizbul Islam insurgents who defected to the U.N.-backed government earlier this year. Colleagues said he was visiting relatives in Kampala and they initially feared he had been abducted by rebels.

Human rights groups have long accused the Ugandan security forces of using heavy-handed tactics when dealing with suspects.

The Ugandan military has about 2,500 soldiers serving in Mogadishu as part of the African Union's 5,000-strong peacekeeping mission AMISOM, which is guarding sites including the Somali capital's air and sea ports and presidential palace.

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