Uganda gives protection to students fleeing Rwanda

KAMPALA: Sixteen Rwandan students who fled to Uganda over alleged recruitment into a Congolese rebel group are now under police protection at a secret location, a Ugandan government official said yesterday.
Meanwhile, Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye was arrested yesterday for holding an unsanctioned rally and seeking to incite violence, police said, the latest move in what critics say is a campaign to silence dissent against the president.
David Kazungu, Uganda’s commissioner for refugees, said the students will be considered for refugee status despite Rwanda’s protestation.
“Rwanda’s government does not manage refugee affairs in Uganda,” he said. “We want to give (the students) a hearing.” The students’ account is strongly disputed by Rwanda’s government, which wants the 14 men and two women deported. Frank Mugambage, Rwanda’s ambassador to Uganda, told reporters this week that the students’ case was academic and had nothing to do with politics or security. Rwanda’s education ministry has listed the fleeing students among more than 500 whose results were officially confiscated for alleged malpractices.
“The background is that these people defrauded the system established by the Rwanda examinations board to sit (high school) exams,” he said Tuesday.
The students say they fled Rwanda on June 3, ending weeks of what they say was harassment by security officials who targeted them for dodging a “political awareness program” in Butare, a town 50 miles (80 km) from the capital.
The students’ allegations suggested M23 was recruiting inside Rwanda, which has long denied any involvement with rebels. A UN panel of experts has said that Rwanda has lent direct support to M23, a charge the Rwandan government denies.
M23 is made up of hundreds of Congolese soldiers who deserted the national army last year after accusing the government of failing to honor the terms of a deal signed in March 2009.
The police detained Besigye, a former ally of President Yoweri Museveni, saying he was inciting a crowd that rallied to support Erias Lukwago, an opposition colleague and mayor of the capital Kampala who is facing a tribunal over charges that include abuse of office.
“We were surprised to see Besigye appear there. Then he started addressing and inciting people as usual, yet he had no police permission to do that,” deputy police spokesman Patrick Onyango said, adding police used teargas to disperse the crowd.
Besigye would be charged if there was enough evidence that he had incited violence, Onyango said.
Francis Mwigukye, Besigye’s aide who was with him when he was detained, dismissed the accusations. He said Besigye was on regular business in Kampala when an impromptu crowd gathered around his car and became angry when the police stepped in.
Rights lawyers say police often use a law that requires they be informed about rallies to clamp down on basic rights of association and freedom of speech. Police deny the charge.
Besigye, who has long led opposition to Uganda’s leader, has lost three presidential elections to Museveni, saying the results were rigged, and has often been detained by police.
Opponents have increasingly criticised Museveni for what they describe as his autocratic style of rule. Journalists protested in May against a crackdown on the media that followed a rare public debate over who would succeed him.
Last month, the authorities halted operations at two newspapers and two radio stations after they reported a purported plot to assassinate people who said that Museveni was grooming his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, for power.
Speculation is growing that Museveni, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, is lining up his son to take power at the end of his term in 2016, a move that would probably test the loyalties of Uganda’s ruling elite.