Ugandan authorities on Thursday, September 9, handed over bodies of two Rwandans murdered and their bodies dumped near the common border in the past few days.
The bodies of the deceased, Paul Bangirana, 47, from Kaniga sector and Theoneste Dusabimana, 52, from Cyumba sector, were received by Felix Ndayambaje, the Mayor of Gicumbi District, relatives, and other officials at the Gatuna-Katuna border in the afternoon.
The border crossing is in Gicumbi district, Northern Province.
Ndayambaje and the relatives discounted allegations by a senior Kabale District official, Nelson Nshangabasheija, who claimed that the deceased were killed in Rwanda.
Ndayambaje said: "The Kabale official, among other things, alleged that he (Dusabimana) was killed in Rwanda and his body thrown in Uganda. This is very sad and unfortunate. They (Ugandans) have been doing horrific things to our citizens, torturing and killing them for no good reason.”
"We comfort the families of the deceased and assure them that a day will come when justice will be done. Right now, my message to our residents is not to risk crossing into Uganda where their security is not assured. We have done our best to ensure our people have all services they need.”
Bangirana's wife, Gaudance Kamuyenje, 40, told The New Times that her late husband left home early this month going to burn charcoal across the border but he never returned in the evening as usual.
On the other hand, Dusabimana who worked in a tea plantation in Western Uganda was killed last month.
His elder brother, Yohani Kanimba, said he picked tea in a plantation in the Tooro region of Uganda.
"We last saw him over a year ago and we were expecting him home when he was killed last month. We started getting very worried when others back where he works called asking us if he had reached home yet he hadn’t yet got here,” Kanimba said.
The development comes after 16 other Rwandans were on Wednesday, September 8, received at the Cyanika border in Burera District, after being deported from Uganda. The latter were deported after enduring more than two weeks in police cells in Kisoro district, South Western Uganda.
Eleven Rwandans - 10 men and one woman – were in July received at Kagitumba One-Stop Border Post in Nyagatare District after being deported from Uganda where they had been detained for some time.
Majority of the deportees were accused of espionage among other unjustifiable crimes for which they were never processed through courts of law. They also say they were tortured by operatives of Uganda's Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence and some of them had vivid signs of torture on their bodies.
Like previous cases, however, the deportees claim to have gone to Uganda at different times and for different reasons, with some having lived and worked there for years.
Earlier, 17 Rwandans were on May 5 deported from Uganda after being illegally detained in the country for weeks. The 14 men and three women were dumped by Ugandan authorities at Kagitumba One-Stop Border Post in Nyagatare District and were received by Rwandan immigration officers.
In March, five Rwandans were dumped at Kagitumba border post by Uganda's Ministry of Internal Affairs, following lengthy detentions, mostly in ungazetted facilities.