Uruguay general gets 28 years in prisoner's murder

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Uruguay has convicted an active general for dictatorship-era human rights violations for the first time. Gen. Miguel Dalmao was sentenced to 28 years in prison for the death of a communist professor.

The general's defense lawyer told The Associated Press on Thursday that he has already appealed Wednesday's verdict, saying the evidence was "invented" and calling it unacceptable that his client is being blamed for the crimes of a bygone era.

"This is speculation, 40 years later," Miguel Langon said while visiting Buenos Aires. "A criminal trial is completely different than a historical study. You have to have proof. ... These kinds of generalized statements can serve for a general analysis of the dictatorships of the Southern Cone, but against an individual? It just can't be."

Dalmao was a 23-year-old lieutenant in 1974, and was in charge of the jail where Nibia Sabalsagaray, a 24-year-old literature professor and communist activist, was taken from her Montevideo apartment. Hours later, she was dead.

Dalmao claimed she had committed suicide, hanging herself with a handkerchief from an iron peg in the wall that was just 4 inches (10 centimeters) above her head. The military that ran Uruguay from 1973-1985 agreed.

But Judge Dolores Sanchez dismissed the suicide claim, citing physical and psychological autopsies that showed evidence of torture and found that Sabalsagaray was optimistic and combative, not the type to kill herself.

Dalmao won't go to prison soon despite Wednesday's conviction. Now in his mid-60s, he's been hospitalized for months with a heart infection.

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Ugandan general questions Museveni succession plan

KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Breaking ranks with the military high command, a general is accusing President Yoweri Museveni of trying to ensure his son replaces him, the first top official to raise concerns about the purported succession plan.

David Sejusa, one of only six generals in the Ugandan military and a member of its high command, said in a recent letter to the head of the internal security service that he wants an investigation into allegations that those opposed to Museveni's son as a future leader could be targeted for assassination.

The allegations by a military official believed to be near the center of power have shocked many in Uganda. The army's top commander ruled Sejusa "out of order" and accused him of subverting the country's military laws. Some analysts now believe the apparent division among the military's top brass suggests a power struggle amid uncertainty over when Museveni, in power for almost three decades, will retire and who might replace him.

Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, the army's top commander, issued a statement Tuesday saying the military was offended by Sejusa's letter, in which Sejusa alleged that the idea of Museveni's son taking over as president when his father retires "is becoming divisive and creating fertile ground for causing intrigue" in the armed forces.

"The (Ugandan military) takes exception to the fact that the spirit of the general's letter simply champions the agenda of the radical and anarchic political opposition, hence rendering him partisan," Nyakairima's statement said. "I would like to take this opportunity to reassure the general public that the (Ugandan military) is a cohesive, effective, efficient and pro-people force ... loyal to the people, the commander-in-chief and the constitution of Uganda."

Museveni's son, a senior army officer named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been rapidly promoted over the years, leading some to believe he's being groomed to succeed his father. Last year he was made an army brigadier in changes that also saw him become the top commander of the country's special forces, an elite unit widely seen as the most powerful in the military. The special forces guard the country's oil installations and are also in charge of the president's security. In this position Kainerugaba answers to his father.

Museveni, himself a serving army general, has never publicly said he wants his son to succeed him. But rumors to the contrary have persisted, fuelled in part by the son's strong position in a military institution that wields substantial power in this East African country.

Angelo Izama, a Ugandan analyst who runs a security think tank called Fanaka Kwawote, said there was likely a power struggle within the army ranks as the older generation of army officers gradually loses power to the new guard, of which Kainerugaba is the most prominent member. Sejusa is one of the original bush-war fighters at the side of Museveni when his rebels took Kampala in 1986.

"The younger officers are now effectively in charge," Izama said. "Some of these things reflect the older officers' disenchantment with this state of affairs. Succession has already begun in the military, and it has proceeded apace."

It remains unclear if Museveni will seek another term in office when his current one expires in 2016.

Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, a prominent Ugandan lawyer and political analyst, said Sejusa had given voice to an issue that few in the military have the courage to speak of.

"It's a fact that he's not alone in thinking this way about Museveni's son," Rwakafuuzi said. "Many of the army officers haven't spoken their mind, but they know that Muhoozi's meteoric rise does not augur well for politics in this country."

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US general: Taliban likely to be long-term threat

BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan (AP) — The United States accepts that a diminished but resilient Taliban is likely to remain a military threat in some parts of Afghanistan long after U.S. troops complete their combat mission next year, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday.

In an Associated Press interview at this air field north of Kabul, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he is cautiously optimistic that the Afghan army will hold its own against the insurgency as Western troops pull back and Afghans assume the lead combat role. He said that by May or June, the Afghans will be in the lead throughout the country.

Asked whether some parts of the country will remain contested by the Taliban, he replied, "Yes, of course there will be."

"And if we were having this conversation 10 years from now, I suspect there would (still) be contested areas because the history of Afghanistan suggests that there will always be contested areas," he said.

He and other U.S. commanders have said that ultimately the Afghans must reach some sort of political accommodation with the insurgents, and that a reconciliation process needs to be led by Afghans, not Americans. Thus the No. 1 priority for the U.S. military in its final months of combat in Afghanistan is to do all that is possible to boost the strength and confidence of Afghan forces.

Shortly after Dempsey arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the Taliban demonstrated its ability to strike.

It claimed responsibility for a suicide car bombing that killed five Americans — three soldiers and two civilians, including Anne Smedinghoff, a foreign service officer and the first American diplomat killed overseas since the terrorist attack Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya.

A NATO airstrike Saturday, which came after a joint U.S.-Afghan forced encountered heavy fire from militants during an operation against a Taliban leader, killed 11 Afghan civilians, including 10 children, Afghan officials said.

There are now about 66,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. That number is to drop to about 32,000 by February 2014, and the combat mission is to end in December 2014. Whether some number — perhaps 9,000 or 10,000 — remain into 2015 as military trainers and counterinsurgents is yet to be decided.

Dempsey spent two days talking to senior Afghan officials, including his counterpart, Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi, as well as top U.S. and allied commanders.

He also visited a U.S. base in the volatile eastern province of Paktika for an update on how U.S. troops are balancing the twin missions of advising Afghan forces and withdrawing tons of U.S. equipment as the war effort winds down.

Paktika is an example of a sector of Afghanistan that is likely to face Taliban resistance for years to come.

Bordering areas of Pakistan that provide haven for the Taliban and its affiliated Haqqani network, Paktika has been among the more important insurgent avenues into the Afghan interior.

While the province has a functioning government, Taliban influence remains significant in less populated areas, as it has since U.S. forces first invaded the country more than 11 years ago.

"There will be contested areas, and it will be the Afghans' choice whether to allow those contested areas to persist, or, when necessary, take action to exert themselves into those contested area," he said.

Dempsey said he is encouraged by the recent development of coordination centers, including one in Paktika, where a wide range of Afghan government agencies work together on security issues. He called it a "quilt" of government structures that links Kabul, the capital, to ordinary Afghans in distant villages.

In some parts of the country, Afghan villagers have shown their dissatisfaction with Taliban influence by taking up arms against the insurgents, even without being pushed by the U.S. or by Kabul. This has happened in recent weeks in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province, a traditional stronghold of the Taliban. The Andar district of Ghazni province has seen a similar uprising.

"We should encourage it, but we shouldn't be seen as hijacking" these local movements, he said.

Dempsey said he discussed the uprisings with Karimi, the army chief, and the Afghan defense minister, Bismullah Khan Mohammadi. They told him they "appreciated that they should allow this to occur (and) they should probably nurture it. They don't necessarily feel at this point as if they should tangibly support it."

The Afghan government's concern, Dempsey said, is that influential warlords could embrace these local movements and eventually leverage them to threaten the armed forces of the central government.

In a separate interview Sunday with al-Hurra, the Arabic-language satellite TV channel funded by the U.S. government, Dempsey was asked whether he worries that Syria, in the midst of a civil war, could become another Afghanistan.

"I do. I have grave concerns that Syria could become an extended conflict" that drags on for many years, he said.

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AP INTERVIEW: US general makes overtures to Karzai

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan says he's working quickly to resolve issues that have infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, including the delayed handover of a U.S.-run detention center and the withdrawal of U.S. special operations forces from a province outside Kabul.

In his first interview since taking command, Gen. Joseph Dunford told The Associated Press on Monday that there is no new deadline for handing over the detention center despite an Afghan official statement saying the U.S. had promised a resolution by the end of the week.

Dunford also says he is working with Afghan officials to hand over security in Wardak province where Karzai says there have been complaints that the U.S. forces or Afghans working with them have mistreated citizens. The U.S. has denied any wrongdoing.

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