Muhoozi accused of killing, kidnapping & extraditing Rwandans The Uganda Special Forces Group (SFG) has denied allegations that its commander, Brigadier Muhoozi Kainerugaba has had a hand in numerous kidnaps, disappearances, killings and quick illegal extraditions of United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) satisfied Rwandan Refugees from several parts of Uganda. “The allegations that Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba masterminds the kidnaps and extraditions of Rwandan refugees are just fabrications,” SFG Spokesman Maj Chris Magezi said, adding: “Any attempt to link Brig Kainerugaba [to the allegations] is completely baseless and has no grounds. There are no linkages whatsoever.” Brig. Kainerugaba is one of President Yoweri Museveni’s more than 40 children he has sired with various concubines. The SFG is an elite force within the Uganda People’s Defense Forces (UPDF), and it’s responsible for the protection of the president, VIPs and all major installations in the country, including the oil fields and other strategic places. The SFG’s denial follows allegations by Uganda-based Rwandan refugees that Brig Muhoozi has a hand in unexplained and unaccounted for kidnaps, disappearances, killings and illegal extradition of Rwandan refugees from Uganda back to the country where they face persecution. The refugees, who abandoned their known residences and have since gone underground, also hold responsible the UNHCR for doing little to pressuring the Uganda government to do more and provide enough protection. Refugees claim that top Ugandan officials connive to “facilitate” and “protect” Rwanda security agents whilst terrorizing, kidnapping or killing the refugees in some extreme circumstances. Charles Ingabire, a Rwandan refugee in Uganda, was shot and killed in December 2011 by unknown assailants; he was editor of an online magazine. Another Rwandan refugee, Sergeant Dominic Sabagasani, was killed in Kampala. Both murders remain unresolved. Maj Magezi said: “SFG Commander, Brig. Muhoozi provides no assistance to the kidnaps and illegal deportations of Rwandan refugees.” However, the SFG spokesman, acknowledged that there might have been issues of kidnappings of the Rwandan refugees. “…but any attempt to link [these with ] Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba is completely unfounded and adds no grounds or basis at all.” In an exclusive telephone interview with The London Evening Post (The LEP), Maj. Magezi, a UPF officer attached to the SFG who is also the group’s spokesman said: “Brigadier Muhoozi, is a senior serving officer in the UPDF. He can therefore, not be held responsible for the activities and work of another force. In this case, the Uganda Police Forces. There is no linkage whatsoever, between the work the police does and Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba,” said Maj Magezi, adding that: “The police forces have their methods of work, Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba is a military officer, so the two are not linked at all.” “If there are questions to be answered in the manner the Rwandan refugees have been extradited or their disappearances and so on, really is an area and responsibility of the Uganda Police Forces,” said the SFG spokesman. He added: “And if there’re any questions to answer; the Uganda Police Forces should attend to them. We [SFG] cannot answer the actions for the police. These are questions for the police to answer. Not UPDF or Brig. Muhoozi Kainerugaba in this instance,” said the UPDF major. “Completely, there is no iota of truth in those allegations,” he added. The Uganda police is led by a four star military general. Commenting on the disappearance of a Uganda Radio Network (URN), journalist, Tom Malaba, who uncovered the kidnap of Lt Joel Mutabazi, a former member of President Paul Kagame’s elite Protection Unit Force; Maj Magezi, said: “I think the police is handling the issue, they [police] are better to attend to that issue.” Numerous allegations from different sources claim that Rwanda’s Ambassador to Uganda, Maj Gen Frank Mugambage, coordinates a “Hit Squad”, which carries out the kidnaps; abductions and the quick illegal deportation of the Rwandan refugees, whilst being facilitated by high-ranking officers in the Uganda Police who are protected by SFG Commander Brig Muhoozi Kainerugaba. News of kidnapping of Rwandan refugees first came into the public domain during the Lt Mutabazi Entebbe incident. It was the intervention of the government and UNHCR that Lt. Mutabazi was rescued, although, he was later successfully kidnapped and extradited to Rwanda, where he remains in prison. The investigations into the Mutabazi-Entebbe incident never got to the conclusion. Journalists who have tried to write follow-up stories are intimidated to back off; blackmailed or disappeared. According to the January 28, 2014 Human Rights Watch report, in Uganda and Rwanda, journalists reporting about attacks on Rwandan refugees, are intimidated or blackmailed. Elsewhere, the Reporters Without Borders, in its latest report that came out on, March 19, condemned the government of Rwanda for lack of transparency and its unacceptable acts of harassment and intimidation of journalists. “Rwandan journalists have been the victims of the government’s harassment for years, but the targets have for some also included foreign journalists, especially Ugandan ones,” read the Reporters Without Borders’ publication. There are fears that a Ugandan journalist, who has extensively covered and exposed several kidnaps of Rwandan refugees from different parts of Kampala, himself, reported missing. Fears gripped the family and friends of Tom Malaba when he failed to return home on Saturday, March 8. Malaba is the URN journalist who exposed the October 25, 2013 Entebbe International Airport incident in which Lt Mutabazi, a former member of President Kagame’s protection Unit force was abducted by agents of the government of Uganda and handed over to the Government of Rwanda. Mutabazi had fled Rwanda into exile to Uganda in 2011. Embarrassingly, the Uganda police then claimed they had received an Interpol warrant of arrest for him. Though, the UNHCR in Kampala issued a strong protest to the government of Uganda about issues regarding the kidnappings and the attempted assassination of Rwandan refugees and asylum seekers in the country, Lt. Mutabazi was again kidnapped anyway and no action has ever been taken. According to the January 28, 2014 Human Rights Watch report, many Rwandans initially flee to Uganda because of its proximity. However, UNHCR officials believe that Uganda has become one of the least safe countries for Rwandans facing political persecution because of the close links between the police and intelligence services of the two countries. Many senior Rwandan officials, particularly those who grew up in Uganda served in the Ugandan security forces or intelligence services. Rwandese who formally served in NRA/UPDF still hold close links to the country. Rwandan agents can therefore operate in Uganda with considerable ease. Indeed the Rwandan leader, Maj Gen Paul Kagame, served in Uganda’s army as a military Intelligence Chief. Gen. Kagame who is credited for stopping the 1994 genocide, has seen his country’s human rights record slowly shrink because of numerous assassinations, the kidnaps of his opponents, journalists as well as his former allies. Though under Geneva conventions to which both Uganda and Rwanda are signatories entitle refugees to get protection from hosting states, Rwandan refugees seem not catered for as they are being summarily abducted from many parts of Uganda and extradited with the help of some officials in Uganda without giving them access to full and fair asylum procedures. Mr Malaba who has covered the Rwandan kidnap issues since about 1996 shortly after the country’s genocide, might have been a victim of this woven web of sophisticated secret agents. In addition the Lt Mutabazi’s incident, Mr. Malaba had questioned Maj. Gen. Mugambage about the asylum seeker who had been attacked after they refused to enroll onto the M23 ranks. In its January 28, 2014; report, UN Human Rights Watch reported: “The situation in Uganda is less clear, mainly because there has been a lack of transparency in the Ugandan authorities’ efforts to investigate and bring to justice perpetrators of attacks on Rwandans in Uganda. Human Rights Watch is not aware of evidence that Ugandan government authorities have been officially or directly involved in particular incidents, though in at least one case, a high-ranking Ugandan police officer facilitated the forcible return of a Rwandan refugee from Uganda to Rwanda. The UN Human Rights Watch report however says the long-standing personal relationships between some Ugandan and Rwandan officials may obstruct access to information about possible collusion to facilitate the commission of these crimes.” Indeed the investigations into the murder of Charles Ingabire, who was shot and killed in Kampala, hit a dead end. Nobody has ever been charged or prosecuted for the murder and it remains a mystery. Unfortunately we cannot answer your questions in the details you ask for, as we do not discuss individual cases owing to the confidentiality requirements of our work,” reads part of the UNHCR’s response. It adds: “Rest assured that as an organization, UNHCR has done everything possible to ensure this does not happen again, including writing protest letters, note verb ales and press releases, as you would have seen in the papers.” The UNHCR shot back in response to claims by Rwandan refugees that the UN body was doing little to push Uganda authority to protect them. But the UNHCR further explained that: “At the end of the day, the primary responsibility to host and protect refugees lies with governments, and in our case, with the Uganda Government. They [Uganda authorities] have assured us repeatedly of their continued commitment to their obligations under the AU and UN Conventions relating to the protection of refugees, to which they are party,” says the UNHCR. Mr Malaba has been followed and according records provided by a police source indicates; there was a shoot-out in Tom’s compound in an attempt to his life, the incident was recorded as SD: Ref: 13/01/07/2013, at Nalumunye police station, Nsangi sub-county in Wakiso district, four miles from the capital Kampala. This newspaper has since established that the January 2014, Human Rights Watch report was referring to the Commandant of Kampala Metropolitan Police, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, as the high-ranking Ugandan police officer that facilitated the forcible return of a Rwandan refugee from Uganda to Rwanda. Mr Kaweesi is believed to be working under the directives of SFC Chief, Brig Muhoozi. Kaweesi works directly under the office of Inspector General of Police, Gen. Edward Kale Kayihura. According to Rwandan refugees in hiding, Joel Aguma together with Kaweesi work under Kayihura’s office, but they report direct to Brig Muhoozi. The refugees allege that Joel Aguma, a deputy director of crime intelligence arrested Mutabazi. Mr Aguma carried out the handing over of the kidnapped refuges to Rwanda agents. Rendering more credence to the story, a police officer from Mr Kaweesi’s office who requested for concealment of his name due to the sensitivity of the material, collaborated the Brig. Muhoozi-Andrew Kaweesi involvement in the kidnaps. The officer also pointed to the February 12, 2014, case involving one Martin Tumusiime, recorded at Kampala Central Police Station (CPS) as Ref. SD/72/12/2/14. A police source confirmed a phone call, which he described as “order from above” instructing Mr. Kaweesi to handle the file. A police source claims that though, the suspect [Martin Tumusiime] had gone for a more dangerous mission, police records were changed and recorded as “Threatening Violence,” on the Order from Above” according to a source. A police source further explained: “Everybody here knows that Mr Malaba was under 24 hours surveillance by Rwanda security agents in Kampala, and had only managed to play a cat and mouse game for a limited time.” Initial efforts to speak to Mr Kaweesi had proved futile, as he could not answer his phones, until we sent him a text message to comment about allegations against him, that he [Kaweesi] ‘facilitated’ the kidnaps and disappearance of UNHCR satisfied Rwandan refugees. Sounding furious and roaring like a wounded lion, Kaweesi rung back to attack this reporter and threatened in a typical ‘mafia’ language. “As an officer of Uganda Police force, I cannot be asked those bully questions,” said Mr Kaweesi, adding that: “I can’t answer such stupid questions.” Another officer from the UNHCR office who spoke to this reporter on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, blamed the Uganda government for failing to protect the refugees particularly those from Rwanda. “It appears there is a superpower in government who sanctions these kidnaps of the Refugees from Rwanda. If there were no such things in all these kidnap issues, he/she who abets the kidnaps and engineers the quick extraditions of the genuine refugees to Rwanda, that individual would have been apprehended and made to account for the kidnaps,” said the UNHCR officer. He added: “In the case of Joel Mutabazi we involved the government who intervened and rescued him at the airport, but he was again re-kidnapped despite our petition to the government. No one has even been made to account for the Entebbe Airport incident though the officers who had aided the kidnap were named.” The January 2014 report further says: “Ugandan journalists who have investigated or reported on security threats against Rwandans in Uganda have also raised concerns for their own security, particularly in 2013.” Undeniably, Malaba’s whereabouts remain a mystery to his family since there have been numerous attempts on his life by Rwanda secret police operating in east Africa. A source on the search mission to establish what happened to the URN, journalist, Malaba, who previously exposed several operations by Rwanda and Uganda security agents to either kill or kidnap the UNHCR satisfied refugees from Uganda, could himself be a victim of these unrestrained kidnaps. According to the October 18, 2013, a letter retrieved from the police files, which was stamped an acknowledgement to have been received two days later, Mr Malaba wrote to Commandant Kampala Metropolitan Police, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, outlining his trouble. In a letter also copied to the Inspector General of Police, Malaba had explained that his trouble started following the questions he had raised to Rwanda’s Ambassador to Uganda Maj Gen Frank Mugambage to clear the air over the 16 Rwandan students who escaped from Rwanda to avoid being recruited in the M23 ranks and had taken refuge at Old Kampala. Gen Mugambage who had called a press conference on June 19, 2013, was uncomfortable with Mr Malaba’s question to which the general labeled him [Malaba] a disrespectful journalist asking the whole ambassador about the numerous assassinations and kidnaps of Rwandan refugees in Uganda. At a press conference last June, a URN journalist had asked Gen Mugambage to react to allegations that he was running a “Hit Squad” in Kampala that was kidnapping and killing Rwandan Asylum seekers. According to a source who attended the press conference, instead of reacting to Malaba’s questions, Gen Mugambage took a standing position and said Malaba was disrespecting him, yet the general was protected by his Diplomatic Immunity, though he had allowed journalists ask anything about Rwanda. It is alleged that Gen. Mugambage avoided the question and still went on furiously to talk more about his Diplomatic Immunity. Information obtained by The LEP confirmed that the general instructed his staff to find out whether Mr Malaba contacts and his employers at the URN were given a warning. Malaba’s friends now wonder whether his disappearance was caused by the same Rwandan hit squad which was responsible for the assassination of Charles Ingabire or just the work of Kampala common criminals. Malaba survived the shoot-out that happened in his compound during the late hours of the night. In recent years, Rwanda has operated an alleged million-dollar project to put out of action or completely eliminate opponents of the Kigali regime around the world. Kigali secret agents go beyond their jurisdictions when it comes to the hunting down of Rwandan refugees considered to be state enemies. In 2011, Britain’s Scotland Yard and MI5 both stepped up and warned some members of a Rwanda opposition group living in the country about imminent attacks on them by agents of the Rwanda government. The MI5 explicitly delivered a message to Rwanda’s High Commissioner to the UK, Ernest Rwamucyo to stop alleged campaigns of harassment against President Kagame’s critics living in the UK. Contacted to comment about Mr Malaba’s disappearance and allegations of running a Kampala-based ‘Hit Squad’, Gen. Mugambage neither denied the allegations nor gave a comprehensive answer. He said: “I have been busy and I’m still busy. I’m in a retreat somewhere, I can’t get involved in such issues at this time.” Pressed when he could be available to comment about allegations levelled against him that he runs a “Hit Squad” that targets Rwandan refugees in Uganda, Gen. Mugambage said: “Maybe sometimes on Friday.” That was last week. Since then, the ambassador has not answered any phone call or responded to a couple of text messages. thelondoneveningpost/muhoozi-accused-of-killing-kidnapping-extraditing-rwandans/
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 04:27:35 +0000
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