Rwandan refugees =who sought shelter in Uganda did not show any interest of returning to their homeland and the government at the time became convinced that they were bent on remaining in Uganda.

The then Information Minister, Adobo Nekyon, told the organization of African Union (OAU) summit in Lagos: “Uganda has no alternative but to send these people away unless Uganda receives help.” He added that the same refugees were selling off government assistance to buy arms and to raise money for King Kigeri’s upkeep in Kenya.

The hospitality and generosity by locals also ran out due to a number of factors. In Buganda, the peasants called on government to expel Banyarwanda whom they accused of taking their land. In Ankole, the rivalry was based on the ethnic connection between the low caste, Baitu/Hutu and the high caste Hima/Tutsi alliances.

The predominantly Catholic DP (Democratic Party) alliance with the predominantly Catholic Banyarwanda refugees against the predominantly Protestant UPC was another factor. The UPC government banned Banyarwanda refugees from having ID cards and taking on government jobs. UPC also planned for a countrywide census of indigenous Banyarwanda but before it could be implemented, Idi Amin overthrew President Milton Obote’s UPC government in 1971. The violent political crisis in Rwanda triggered a fresh exodus of Tutsi refugees from Rwanda.

Between 500,000 – 600,000 Banyarwanda Tutsi refugees were spread throughout the Great Lakes Region but not all of them were registered under the UNHCR. Uganda had only 82,000 registered refugees.

Idi Amin invited, welcomed and hosted King Kigeri from Kenya and settled him in Kampala. Banyarwanda refugees were allowed to join the public service, the security forces including the dreaded Public Safety Unit (PSU) and State Research Bureau (SRB), where a number of Banyarwanda was dominant. It is a fact that the Banyarwanda spies under the Idi Amin regime helped in containing the activities of the anti-Idi Amin dissidents and in particular the 1972 attack by Tanzanian forces.

The forward base of the Tanzania based dissidents had been Kagera region which is another Banyarwanda stronghold. The Banyarwanda refugees in the security agencies terrorised and murdered perceived regime opponents. It’s during the Idi Amin regime that a number of Banyarwanda refugees managed to get out of refugee settlements and acquire land, jobs and business enterprises. In 1978, Idi Amin blamed the Banyarwanda refugees for sabotaging government’s political and economic policies. He reverted to the 1971 order by deposed President Obote for all refugees to register with government and to be confined in settlement camps. As had been the case with Obote in 1971, even before Idi Amin could implement this directive, he was overthrown in April 1979.

Meanwhile, Yoweri Tibuhabura Museveni who had been involved in anti-Amin campaigns had managed to recruit a Munyarwanda refugee, Fred Rwigyema in 1976 from Mbarara High School whom he took to Tanzania as part of his 28-man FRONASA that he claims to have got training in Mozambique. In 1978 when the Tanzanian troops crossed the Uganda/Tanzania border to take on Idi Amin, Museveni recruited a number of Banyarwanda refugees from the refugee settlements of Nakivaale and Oruchinga. By the time the war against Idi Amin ended, Museveni’s FRONASA had a sizeable number of Hima and Banyarwanda refugees.

During the process of reconstructing the new post Idi Amin Uganda army, it was agreed that Banyarwanda refugees should be eliminated on the account that they are non-citizens. Consequently, a number of Banyarwanda refugees including Fred Rwigyema were dropped. Paul Kagame survived because at that time he was attending a military intelligence course. But still a sizeable number of Banyarwanda refugees remained in the UNLA because it was difficult to accurately tell a Munyarwanda Tutsi from a Munyankole Hima.

Museveni who was the Minister of Defence retained these rejected Banyarwanda refugee soldiers as his private army.

In 1980, Museveni contested for the presidency in the general election by founding the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM). The main contestant, UPC, was wary of Banyarwanda refugees voting for the Catholic dominated DP. In Museveni’s newly found home, Nyabushozi (Mbarara North Constituency), he was branded a ‘stranger and an immigrant’ and totally rejected in favour of Sam Kuteesa of DP.

Actually, some Banyankole including ethnic Bahiima openly and outrightly branded Museveni a Munyarwanda. After losing the presidential bid in December 1980, Museveni took to the bush to start a guerrilla war in February 1981. He took with him the Banyarwanda refugee soldiers who had been eliminated from the national army. Museveni’s choice of Luwero Triangle as his theatre of war was precipitated by the presence of large numbers of Tutsi Banyarwanda migrants and casual labourers in those vast savanna lands. They were always in land conflict with the Baganda landlords and ranch owners.

Banyarwanda refugee soldiers were among the squad that Museveni used to launch the first attack on Kabamba barracks in February 1981. They took part in the March 6, 1981, ambush on government troops at Lawanda where over 70 soldiers lost their lives. They took part in the ambush and destruction of a civilian bus on Bombo road in which over 40 innocent civilians were killed. Refugee settlements and other Banyarwanda refugees settled outside the camps became NRA’s main source of recruitment, logistical supply and intelligence.

In July 2016, Museveni visited the family of the late Gregory Karuretwa in Kigali, Rwanda. He described him as “a Bush War hero who had migrated to Uganda in the 1960s and settled in Sembabule as a refugee. He recruited combatants, provided food and finance.” Earlier, this gentleman had been invited to Uganda to be awarded the Nalubaale Medal. The late Fred Rwigyema’s mother was also staying at the Karuretwa family home.

It became an open secret that Banyarwanda refugees were closely associated with Museveni’s NRA rebels. The UPC members of parliament attempted to move a motion on the floor of parliament on expelling Banyarwanda refugees but it was defeated, thanks to DP opposition. Instead, a proposal was floated for refugees scattered in the countryside to move into refugee settlements.

The UNHRC representative in Uganda, Tom Inwin, vehemently protested against the government plans to push refugees into camps. This implied that it was not the UPC as a party that was against Banyarwanda but individual UPC stalwarts mostly from the Ankole sub-region. In Ankole the hostility was mainly the outcome of decades of conflict over land, jobs and social services between the host communities and the refugees.

In Buganda, the former Banyarwanda casual labourers who had joined the NRA more often came back to haunt their former masters and murder them.

In late September 1982, Mbarara District Administration issued a memorandum to government demanding the eviction of Banyarwanda refugees over their role in the Idi Amin regime atrocities, failing the 1972 invasion by dissidents from Tanzania, grabbing of land from nationals, voting for UPM in the 1980 elections, and links with the then Museveni’s rebel NRA. The government simply ignored this memorandum. This came to be known as “the Kamukuzi Declaration”.

On October 1, 1982, teams of angry local Banyankole, local UPC officials, Youth-Wingers, Police Special Forces, with the blessing of top UPC stalwarts from Ankole like Chris Rwakasisi descended on Banyarwanda homesteads and rounded them up, put them on lorries and buses, drove them to Rwanda border. On October 2, columns of Banyarwanda with their herds of cattle were streaming to the refugee camps while others were headed for the border with Rwanda.

Roadblocks were erected on the roads where refugees lost some of their properties. On the way, local people were stopped from helping the refugees with even drinking water. Those who fled to the camps continued to live in fear.

In Rwanda, the Hutu government responded humanely by providing a fleet of trucks that ferried the evictees into reception centres. The Rwanda government working with CARITAS and OXFAM provided food and temporary shelter. At the request of the UN secretary general, the UNHCR coordinated emergency programmes. The UNHCR in Rwanda appealed for aid and countries overwhelmingly responded. A $400,000 fund was raised for emergency assistance for camps in Rwanda and relocation sites in Uganda. They set up two camps to accommodate an estimated 44,000 evictees who crosses into Rwanda.

Mahango Camp initially housed 13,000 refugees with their 50,000 heads of cattle. Kanyinya camp housed 30,000 agriculturalists. When the cattle started dying due to lack of sufficient pasture and water, the pastrolists left the camp and trekked the 70 kilometres journey through the Akagera National Park for 10 days before settling at the southern end near Lake Nasho. During the trek, they lost one per cent of their cattle to disease and lions. The cultivators at Kanyinya camp were moved to a tented camp at Kibondo. Interestingly, some of the Hutu who were sent back to Rwanda had so much integrated into the Ugandan society that they had even forgotten the Kinyarwanda language.

• A Tell report / By The Conscious Ugandans