Uganda: Uganda's Banyarwanda Reject Screening Exercise
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New Times (Kigali)
18 July 2007
Posted to the web 18 July 2007
Charles Kazooba in Kampala
Kigali
The Banyarwanda residing in western Uganda have rejected a planned screening
exercise, saying that the move would fuel ethnic discrimination.
The group also wants Uganda's parliament to halt its investigations to identify
'foreigners' from indigenous Banyarwanda living in Uganda.
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Following recent clashes between Banyarwanda pastoralists with the Bagungu
cultivators over land in Buliisa district, western Uganda, the government
announced it would relocate the former to Kyankwanzi, Kiboga district for
screening to separate Banyarwanda that are suspected to have come from Tanzania
from the Ugandan ones.
"These are not nomads. We reject any idea of herding them in any given camp for
screening purposes. It is fuelling ethnicity.
"That process should not be done. It is reminiscent of Nazi policy. People
should not be taken away from their land to any other place. No one has said
these people are from Tanzania," Fred Mukasa Lugalambi, the Banyarwanda's legal
representative said yesterday while presenting a petition to Speaker, Edward
Ssekandi.
Different pastoralist groups have lately been expelled from Tanzania.
But the Banyarwanda the government wants to evict from in western Uganda have
lived in the country since Uganda was born, according to Donati Kananura, the
Chairman of the Ugandan Banyarwanda Cultural Development Association (UMUBANO).
The association also separately petitioned parliament.
Gen. David Tinyefuza, the Coordinator of Intelligence Services, who was tasked
by President Yoweri Museveni to oversee the relocation exercise, had earlier
estimated that eight families would be expelled because "they came from
Tanzania and must go back".
Despite being bona fide owners of the land in Buliisa, Banyarwanda are being
denied property rights creating ground for violent tribal conflicts."It is
going to cause problems not only for the Banyarwanda in Buliisa, but for all
Banyarwanda in the country. We were born here," Mukasa cautioned.
The New Times has, however, discovered that Buliisa, which is located at the
edge of Lake Albert, is sitting on large oil deposits, a factor that is largely
suspected to have triggered off the clashes.
The Banyarwanda pastoralists estimated at over 600 families were evicted from
Masindi Port - their original grazing areas - in 2003 before they were
resettled in Buliisa.
The pastoralists particularly accused Buliisa MP Stephen Birahwa Mukitale and
the State Minister for Disaster Preparedness and Refugees and Musa Ecweru, of
inciting the ethnic clashes and appealed for their prosecution.
A number of Banyarwanda, also referred to as Balaalo, sustained serious
injuries and had their cattle killed during numerous raids by the Bagungu.
They have also secured a court injunction to restrain interested public parties
from interfering with the applicants' occupation and their land rights.
And UMUBANO, an umbrella organisation that champions the interests and
aspirations of the Ugandan Banyarwanda, appealed to Speaker Ssekandi to
restrain parliament from interfering with the legal process that has been
invoked.
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However, the Banyarwanda leaders requested that in future
should parliament wish to investigate the matter, neutral and impartial MPs be
put on the probe committee.
In recent times, there have been unlawful evictions of Ugandan Banyarwanda,
which by 1939 was the fifth largest ethnic group in Uganda. Banyarwanda
communities are spread out across the country.
The evictions have been spearheaded by local council leaders and politicians,
including MPs who have all got away with it.
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