Uganda arrests close to 200 Rwandans

Ugandan security organs on Monday rounded up and imprisoned between 150 and 200 Rwandans in Kisoro, south western Uganda, The New Times has learnt. Kisoro, which borders Rwanda, is mainly home to the Bafumbira community who share a great deal of cultural heritage, including language, with Rwanda. As such, some families in the area have relatives either side of the border and pay regular visits. The motive of the dawn raid remains unclear but hundreds of other Rwandans have been arrested in Uganda in recent years as part of what Kigali has described as hostilities against Rwanda and its citizens. While the fate of those arrested in yesterday’s swoop by Ugandan military and police remains unclear, there have been reports that they have been accused of being Kigali’s spies – an allegation that has been levelled against almost every Rwandan who has been arrested or kidnapped in Uganda in recent past. Many of the previous victims have gone missing for years or months before turning up at the Rwanda border nursing torture wounds, some in condition so dire it resulted in at least one death and left many others with permanent health damage. Those arrested in Kisoro yesterday were gathered in one place, screened and then “bundled onto garbage trucks” which drove them to Kisoro police station, according to reports. The New Times has learn that some of those arrested were later found to be Congolese or Tanzanian nationals and were subsequently set free. It also emerged that Uganda later dumped some 10 Rwandans – notably children and their mothers – at the border with Rwanda. This is similar in pattern to almost all the Rwandans who have been irregularly deported by Uganda over the last few years after lengthy illegal detentions. This newspaper has reliably learnt that Kigali had not been officially informed about this case or the fate of those involved, at least by the time we went to press. Contacted for comment, Rwandas High Commissioner in Uganda, Frank Mugambage, said, on Tuesday: “We have not been informed, as has been the case with very many other arrests.” The norm is, he said, the High Commission is officially informed. “We only learnt of it through the media and are now trying to follow up through the official channels here,” he said from the Ugandan capital of Kampala. Rwanda and Uganda are both members of the six-nation East African Community bloc under which citizens from one partner state are allowed to move to another and work or settle there with relative ease. Such mass arrests of Rwandans in Uganda were last reported in July when the country’s military intelligence operatives raided a church in Kampala, and arrested more than 40 Rwandans. In September, 32 of them were deported, including Jean-Paul Harerimana, 31, whose account of events supported earlier accounts and wide-held belief that Uganda was supporting armed anti-Kigali groups such as RUD-Urunana, a splinter group of FDLR, the genocidal militia largely based in DR Congo. The FDLR is an offshoot of the forces that committed the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda in which over a million people lost their lives. A UN report released last December cited Uganda as a major source of recruits for Rwandan rebel outfits based in eastern DR Congo. Kampala has denied this. In March, Kigali issued a travel advisory to Uganda, saying it could no longer guarantee the safety of its citizens there. The travel advisory still stands. The Ugandan establishment has also been linked to Kayumba’s Nyamwasa RNC outfit which seeks the destabilise Rwanda. The RNC is a terrorist group formed by Rwandan dissidents in 2010 and is blamed for grenade attacks that killed at least 17 people and wounded some 400 others in Rwanda between 2010 and 2014. Earlier this year, testimonies including those from arrested rebel leaders – including FDLR’s spokesperson Ignace Nkaka, alias LaForge Fils Bazeye, and head of intelligence Lt Col Jean-Pierre Nsekanabo – provided damning details of how Uganda was actively facilitating talks between RNC, FDLR and other anti-Rwanda groups with view to joining hands in their effort to violently remove the Rwandan government. Nkaka and Nsekanabo were arrested by Congolese security on their way from a meeting with RNC operatives in Kampala, talks brokered by Uganda’s state minister for regional affairs Phelomon Mateke.

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Uganda arrests close to 200 Rwandans