The Rwandan’s land grabbing strategy since 1950 [part 2]

The Rwandan’s land grabbing strategy since 1950 [part 2]

This is the second part of the series The Rwandan’s occupation and land grabbing strategy since 1950 In the series we explore how the Rwandans who came seeking for refuges in the 1950’s turned Uganda’s indigenous communities into refuges in their country by taking over their political, economic, social and now land heritage.

This is a long article detailing the history and facts linking Museveni Tutsi/Rwanda merciless strategies to grab land and literally wipe out all indigenous societies in the above region.

READ: The Rwandan’s occupation and land grabbing strategy since 1950 [part 1]

The revenge agenda. Building an occupational army for Uganda and a liberation army for Rwandans [The 1980-85 Bush war] 

In 1980, Museveni contested for the presidency in the general elections by founding the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM). The main contestant, UPC, was warry of Banyarwanda refugees voting for the Catholic dominated DP. In Museveni’s newly found home, Nyabushozi, he was branded a ‘stranger and migrant’ and totally rejected in favor of Sam Kuteesa of DP.

Actually, some Banyankole including ethnic Bahima out rightly branded Museveni a Munyarwanda. After loosing the presidential bid in December 1980, Museveni took to the bush to start a guerrilla war in January 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 6th, 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.

Museveni and his NRA evacuated Banyarwanda residents from Luweero to Ankole and other areas so as not to be war victims. The renown Luweero skulls are of Baganda peasants and soldiers and no single Mulaalo or Munyarwanda

Note: 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 (pictured). The late Fred Rwigyema’s mother is 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. 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.

In October 1982, Mbarara District Administration issued a memorandum to government demanding for the eviction of Banyarwanda refugees over their role in the Iddi 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.

On 1st October 1982, teams of local UPC officials, Youth Wingers, Police Special Forces, with the blessing of top UPC stalwarts from Ankole like Chris Rwakasisi descended on Banyarwanda homesteads. On October 2nd, 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 way 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 programs. The UNHCR in Rwanda appealed for aid and countries overwhelmingly responded. A US$ 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 kms journey through the Akagera National Park for ten days before settling at the southern end near Lake Nasho. During the trek, they lost one percent 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.

With a population of 5.5M at the time, Rwanda was the most densely populated country in the world. By November 1st it had been overwhelmed by the influx and it closed its border leaving thousands of refugees stuck around the border. This was after the Hutu government in Rwanda gathered intelligence that some members of the dissident Rwandese Alliance for National Unity (RANU) were senior officers in Museveni’s rebel NRA. It suspected systematic infiltration by armed Tutsi dissidents. A few refugees kept moving back and forth across the border at isolated points while coordinating the NRA recruitment drive.

The eviction had taken place when President Obote had been away visiting Italy for medical treatment. The Minister for Refugees Affairs, Hon. Rwanyarare was also away in Geneva attending a refugee conference. Upon return, President Obote issued a statement calling for a “return of law, order and constitutional rights that protected citizens, aliens and refugees alike”. He added that the matter was a local misunderstanding between refugees and indigenous inhabitants in Ankole. A five days later, a ministerial committee meeting was convened in Gabiro Rwanda from 22 – 27 October 1982. They agreed on a plan to resolve the crisis. President Obote appointed a team for a fact-finding tour of south western Uganda.

In Uganda, 35,000 displaced Banyarwanda remained in refugee settlements having joined those who had been living there since the 1960s. A sizeable number had succeeded in sneaking into Tanzania with thousands of their heads of cattle. There were 4,000 people stuck around Mirama Hill border encamped within several hundred yards of the border bridge. In March 1983, a follow-up meeting between Uganda and Rwanda was convened in Kabaale. A joint communiqué was issued committing the two countries to resolve the tragedy.

Uganda committed itself to provide additional land to relieve the overcrowded settlement camps. Indeed, another camp was set up at Nsungyerezi becoming the 8th settlement camp. However, around December 1983 about 19,000 Banyarwanda were forcefully evicted from Rakai district. In July 1984 Uganda and Tanzania signed an agreement to take back 10,000 Banyarwanda Tutsi.

Note: After Museveni took over power in 1986, former Minister Rwakasisi was charged with kidnap with intent to murder – related to Banyarwanda refugees, convicted and sentenced to death in June 1988. As the then Minister for Security, he had spearheaded the Banyarwanda eviction. During sentencing, he made a statement to the effect that he “was grateful that he was to die rather than live under the regime of Museveni.” He had set up a detention and torture chamber at Kamukuzi in Mbarara Municipality where victims were held before being transferred to Nile Mansions and Kireka in Kampala. Apart from Nile Mansions, the Museveni regime is also using the same facilities for the same purpose.

In February 1883 government troops launched a major offensive in the Luwero Triangle dubbed Operation Bonanza commanded by Col. John Ogole with the technical backing of the North Korea military team. Some 18 internally displaced people’s camps (IDP) housing about 20,000 locals mainly Baganda peasants were set up in different places in Luwero Triangle. Relief agencies swung into action around July 1983 to provide relief assistance.

Museveni and his NRA (National Resistance Army) evacuated Banyarwanda residents to Ankole and other areas with able bodied males enlisting in the NRA ranks. You should note that the skulls on display in Luwero are of Baganda peasants and soldiers but hardly of Balaalo.

The NRA took custody and ate over 21,000 heads of cattle with promises to compensate them after the war. In Ankole, the so called Balaalo from the Luwero Triangle intermingled with their ethnic Hima. They joined their colleagues in occupying the government ranches and parts of Lake Mburo National Park. In 1933 the area that later evolved into Lake Mburo National Park was declared a Controlled Hunting Area. In 1963 it was elevated to a Game Reserve. In 1983, it was made a national park and the illegal occupants (Balaalo) were evicted.

The UPC government fell in 1985 at a time when the Balaalo led NRA rebels were controlling the western region. The Balaalo reoccupied the park after attacking and expelling the park staff, destroying infrastructure and killing wildlife.

Towards independence, the USA and World Bank gave loans for the establishment of ranching schemes for beef and diary products. Government and private ranches were established in Nyabushozi, Buruuli, Kiboga, Masindi, Kabula and Sembabule. Over the years, Balaalo squatters encroached on these ranches. The children of these squatters on ranches and the national park joined Museveni’s NRA rebels in Luwero and were promised free land at the end of the war.

Immediately after taking over power in 1986, [before compensating Luweero residents] Museveni appointed a one Commander Kuteesa as the Commandant of the so called Luwero War Balalos in Nyabushozi.

He advised those who had land in the Luwero Triangle to go back and promised free land to those who had none.

Museveni used government money to buy cattle from Tanzania which he issued to these Balaalo.

In 1988 Museveni set up a Prof. Mugerwa inquiry into the question of ranches and encroachers but the regime ignored Prof. Mugerwa’s recommendations.

In 1999, the regime inspired violence between the now armed squatters and the private ranchers erupted. Museveni set up the David Pulkol led Ranches Restructuring Board (RRB). The board had Balaalo soldiers like now Gen. John Mugume Chaga and Col. Eric Kamugunda. About 100 sq. kms of Lake Mburo National Park and huge chunks of land was illegally allocated to the Balaalo squatters. Col. Kamugunda is now one of the richest landlords in Masindi and Ngoma.

Note: According to Mzei Boniface Byanyima, since the 1960s Museveni was opposed to private ranches.

Before Iddi Amin took over in 1971, Museveni had started campaigning for the position of Member of Parliament for North West Ankole on the UPC ticket.

His agenda was to fight the ranching scheme and to unseat John Babiiha who had been the brain behind the wider diary development program through establishment of ranches.

During the bush war, Museveni practiced preferential treatment for the Banyarwanda fighters. Unlike the Baganda, Bahima and other tribes, the Banyarwanda fighters owed the total loyalty to Museveni. Externally, the Banyarwanda Tutsi political organisation, Rwandese Alliance for National Unit (RANU) built within banking on the Banyarwanda in the NRA for its future prospects of “liberating Rwanda.”

The actions of UPC functionaries against Banyarwanda refugees in Ankole had helped boost the rebel NRA ranks. By the time the NRA took over power in 1986, the Banyarwanda Tutsi in the NRA were about 3,000 out of the force of 14,000. Fred Rwigyema was the defacto Army Commander before he became the Deputy Minister of Defence. Paul Kagame was the defacto head of Military Intelligence while a number of senior Banyarwanda army officers occupied key positions in security circles.

Banyarwanda dominate the NRA’s strategic departments like intelligence, finance, supplies. Army  and logistics, and Presidential Protection. Mindful of the resentment that Ugandans would develop towards Rwandese,

Museveni put in place an Anti sectarianism law that penalized anyone who would dare point a finger at the privileged positions and preferential treatment that was being accorded to the Banyarwanda [Tososola mawanga]

Museveni also changed the old colonial law that provided for proof of ancestry rather than birth or residence for citizenship of Uganda. One had to show that at least one of his or her grandparents had been born in what became Uganda prior to the 20th Century. He instead decreed that all one needed was to prove five years of residency in Uganda.

Pressure from Ugandans more especially those in the military who saw the law as a first step towards entrenchment of Banyarwanda forced him to reverse the law. The Banyarwanda saw the reversal as a big blow and a month later in October 1990, a sizeable number of Banyarwanda in the NRA invaded Rwanda.

As the NRA set to expand its numerical strength, the number of Banyarwanda Tutsi in the army also increased. The refugee camps became bases for Banyarwanda refugee soldiers. When the Banyarwanda soldiers in the NRA decided to invade Rwanda in October 1990, Museveni chose to give them all the assistance they needed so that they should never come back because indigenous Ugandans were tired of their preferential treatment.

The RPF advance into Rwanda was also backed by about tens of thousands of Banyarwanda Tutsi (both refugees and non-refugees) in Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and Congo. In Uganda, the chief financiers of the RPF were the likes of Mzei Donant Kananura who is still a top Museveni regime person. His son, Innocent Bisangwa was a top Museveni Bush War operative who hijacked the government plane from Entebbe to Kasese in 1985. While he was a Personal Assistant to Museveni in 1992, he was arrested in the USA as he attempted to smuggle a big consignment of arms to Uganda for the RPF and Museveni used Uganda’s resources to buy his freedom from US jail.

By 1991 . . . .