{"id":39456,"date":"2019-06-06T08:49:54","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T08:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/lawyers-demand-rights-groups-to-take-action-on\/"},"modified":"2019-06-10T15:05:59","modified_gmt":"2019-06-10T15:05:59","slug":"lawyers-demand-rights-groups-to-take-action-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/lawyers-demand-rights-groups-to-take-action-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers demand rights groups to take action on Rwandans illegally detained in Uganda"},"content":{"rendered":"

The diplomatic row between Rwanda and Uganda relations dates back two years ago. The government of Rwanda reports 900 of its nationals are ambiguously incarcerated, tortured and illegally expelled from Uganda. <\/p>\n

The souring relationship between Rwanda and Uganda worsened in March 2019, when Rwanda advised its people not to travel to Uganda until the situation comes back to normal.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a recent press conference in Kampala, lawyers of detained Rwandan nationals said all rights of their clients have been violated by the government of Uganda as reported by The Observer, a Uganda based media house. <\/p>\n

They allege that as many as 100 ordinary Rwandan traders, and business people engaged in export and import trade and others working with faith-based organizations have been illegally detained by the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) and the Internal Security Organization (ISO) on undisclosed charges.<\/p>\n

Many have been illegally deported to Rwanda while others have had to endure inhumane treatment. <\/p>\n

Gawaya Tegulle and Aboneka Michael, the lawyers of the detainees, who were joined by the Secretary of Uganda Law Society, Francis Harimwomugasho, said the time has come for the international community to get involved in order to arrest the situation, which they said is spiralling out of control.<\/p>\n

Tegulle said as lawyers of Rwandan detainees, they were dismayed by the statement made by Sam Kutesa, Uganda\u2019s foreign affairs minister on May 17.
\n The minister said the only Rwandans arrested in Uganda are those found on the wrong side of the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cRwandans are welcome to visit Uganda. However, Uganda expects Rwandans who visit Uganda just like any other visitors to be law-abiding. Anyone who breaks the law will be dealt with according to the law. In this connection, several Rwandan nationals who have been arrested for breaking the law have been charged in courts of law or deported back to Rwanda. In addition, a number of Rwandan security operatives have been entering Uganda without following laid-down procedures governing entry of security personnel into the country. A number of these when apprehended have been deported back to Rwanda,\u201d Kutesa\u2019s statement partly reads. <\/p>\n

But Tegulle said the only truth in Kutesa\u2019s statement is that Uganda has arrested Rwandans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the statement is a rather disturbing pack of prevarications. He simply skims and slides over very important matters concerning real people and their families; people whose lives are being changed for the worse; irreparably and irreversibly by the actions of the security agencies in Uganda. There are children whose fathers are missing wives whose husbands cannot be traced, old folks who are wondering if they will live long enough to see their children again,\u201d Tegulle said.<\/p>\n

He added that those arrested are not allowed access to their families, lawyers and medical care and some are subjected to torture to extort information from them. He said they have tried but failed to call government to order through the legal process.
\nUp to 12 orders of habeas corpus have been issued by the court but in almost all cases, the government has defied the court save for the cases of Calude Iyakaremye, Rene Rutagungira, Emmanuel Rwamucyo and Augustine Rutayisire who appeared in the Military Court Martial. <\/p>\n

\u201cA few weeks ago Robert Tumwine was released after torture and dumped half dead at his sister\u2019s home in Mbarara; he died shortly after\u2026If any law has been broken, then it\u2019s the security agencies, not the detainees,\u201dTegulle said.<\/p>\n

Harimwomugasho said Uganda Law Society is dismayed that government continues to disregard court orders. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs long as a court of competent jurisdiction issues an order, it must be respected. As ULS, we condemn in the strongest terms possible anybody who receives orders and doesn\u2019t respect them. If the government is displeased with such orders, let them appeal them,\u201d Harimwomugasho said.<\/p>\n

Rwanda also accuses Uganda of housing dissidents intending to threaten state security. <\/p>\n

\"Gatsinzi<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawyers of Rwandan nationals detained in Uganda have called on rights groups to intervene into political tensions between Uganda and Rwanda resulting into imprisonment of Rwandans in Uganda on undisclosed charges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-39456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-main-featured-home","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39456"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=39456"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=39456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}