Relocate army exiles

A KEY stumbling block in the relations between Ugandan and Rwanda seems to have been resolved by a fresh understanding that fugitive dissidents will be handed over to the UNHCR. Tensions between the two countries have been inflamed by the presence of dissidents in both Kampala and Kigali. Rwanda has been upset by the stay in Uganda of Maj. Alphonse Furuma and other RPA officers while Uganda has been concerned about the activities of Col Samson Mande and Lt Col Anthony Kyakabale in Rwanda. In August Uganda passed over to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees the names of 50 students who had fled Rwanda claiming political persecution. Following recent meetings with the Rwanda military leadership, they have also given the UNHCR a full list of RPA defectors to Uganda and their locations so that they can be relocated to a third country. It would against the UNHCR convention that has been signed by both Rwanda and Uganda to return defectors to their home countries against their will. Once they have applied for political asylum, that has to be respected. But at the same time defectors who are army officers give rise to special concern if they overstay in neighbouring countries. Both Rwanda and Uganda have expressed legitimate concerns in this regard. Obviously the UNHCR cannot arrange for all Sudanese refugees in Uganda, or for all Rwandese refugees in Congo, to be relocated to a third country. They are just too many. But in sensitive military cases, such as the Rwandese army officers in Uganda or Col Mande and Kyakabale, the UNHCR should make special efforts to arrange for them to be swiftly given asylum in a third country.