Kyakabale, Mande get EU asylum

Dec 20, 2002

A European country has finally agreed to grant asylum to renegade Uganda People’s Defence Forces officers including Lt. Colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale.

By Felix Osike

A European country has finally agreed to grant asylum to renegade Uganda People’s Defence Forces officers including Lt. Colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale.

The officers fled the country last year and declared war on Uganda.
Diplomatic sources said one of the Scandinavian countries had accepted to host the Ugandan dissidents now based in Rwanda.

Mande’s former aide de camp, Capt. Masembe Kabali, is also believed to be in Rwanda.
There have been various summits this year between the Ugandan and Rwandan leaders to find a solution to the tension which was heightened by the neighbours accusing each other of training rebels to overthrow their governments.

It was also agreed that the dissidents be granted asylum in countries like Britain, the US and Sweden.

The relocation of the Rwandan dissidents to the UK has been delayed because of the ongoing negotiations between the British government and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The feeling in the diplomatic circles is that Rwanda does not want Mande and Kyakabale relocated before the Rwandan dissidents are moved from Uganda.

A senior Uganda government source told The New Vision, “We agreed months ago for (Rwandan dissident Maj. Alphonse) Furuma and others to be given asylum abroad. We have no interest in keeping them here.”

Saihou Saidy, the UNHCR representative in Uganda, told a press conference on Wednesday that two Rwandan dissidents had been granted asylum in the USA.

The process of resettling the dissidents in the US has been slow mainly because of the impact of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack which led to imposition of tight immigration controls.

Sources said about 600 refugees in Uganda were still awaiting resettlement in the US.
Saihou said UNHCR had also proposed to Britian to consider taking some of the Rwandan dissidents on a temporary basis.

The British High Commission officials declined to comment on the matter.
The most prominent Rwanda dissidents in Uganda are Maj. Alphonse Furuma, Maj. Michael Mupende and Maj Gerald Ntashamaje.

In October, a Rwandan dissident, Maj. Frank Bizimungu, was relocated from Uganda to the US with his family.

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