UPDF Deploys At Rwandan Border
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The Monitor (Kampala)
May 4, 2004
Posted to the web May 4, 2004
Robert Muhereza
Kabale
The army has made heavy deployment on the Rwanda border amid fears that Interahamwe
militiamen have infiltrated the area.
However, the army and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) said the two tourist
attraction sites of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Park are safe.
"I am on the ground. There is no threat," an army officer in charge of security in the
parks, Maj. Geoffrey Otim, said yesterday.
"We have deployed heavily and there is no threat," he said, adding that they had met
with their Rwandan counterparts to review the security situation in the area.
Last evening sources said there was heavy military deployment on the border following
reports that the Interahamwe were in the area.
"We heard these reports and officials from our law enforcement unit travelled to
Bwindi last Thursday and met with local officials and the final conclusion is that
Bwindi is safe," said UWA publicist Lilian Nsubuga.
"We are closely monitoring the situation and the movement of Rwandan troops on the
Congolese side," she added.
Otim said Mgahinga Park on the Ugandan side was "small and any militia infiltration
can easily be detected".
The Rwandan army said at the weekend it had deployed troops after reports that the
militiamen were "taking advantage of the mountain ranges and the thick bamboo forests".
The Rwandan army last week deployed heavily in anticipation of an attack by the
Interahamwe.
Interahamwe are a militia group allied to the former Rwandan army, which carried out
the 1994 genocide in which about one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu died.
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They fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo after the collapse of the Juvenal
Habyarimana regime in 1994.
On March 1, 1999, about 100 Interahamwe soldiers attacked tourists and their guides at
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda killing eight of them.
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