Police yesterday raided the New Times office in Kampala looking for information pertaining the publication of the scanned copies of passports belonging to Ignace Murwanashyaka and other Rwandan dissidents.
The two senior investigative officers, Moses Sakira and Moses Binoga from Criminal investigations department arrived at The New Times office seeking information on how the publication obtained the scanned passport copies in addition to details pertaining the latest press developments about Ignace Murwanashyaka and the Forces Democratiques de Liberation movement(FDLR).
“Could you assist the Criminal Investigations Department with the photos of Murwanashyaka, the scanned copies of the passports belonging to the FDLR outfit and details related to the FDLR militia in Kampala,” said Moses Sakira, who missed The New Times Kampala reporters narrowly.
Earlier in the day the officers quizzed Kayitana Simon, the The New Times Country Manager on how the publication got the passport photos of Murwanashyaka, Major Protais Mpiranyi, a former head of Juvenal Habyarimana’s presidential guard, Hyacinth Rafiki and Major Wallace Nsengiyumva, all members of the Forces Democratiques de Liberation (FDLR) who were facilitated by Uganda to obtain passports.
The officers who had The New Times cuttings of the Murwanashyaka passport saga claimed the journalists would assist the CID dig further into the passport investigations.
Of recent, the possession of passport files by Rwandan dissidents had become an issue of contention between Uganda and Rwanda, stirring up tension between the two countries. The Ugandan internal affairs minister had earlier promised to reveal the probe results into the issuance of passports to the Rwandan government and is is yet to release the findings.
The Rwandan foreign affairs minister, Dr Charles Murigande, had earlier observed that the FDLR has bases in Kampala, while Rwandan Presidential Envoy to the Great Lakes Region, Ambassador Richard Sezibera, had cited FDLR’s top brass members enjoying privileged Ugandan status.
“Many Rwandan dissidents are enjoying privileged Ugandan status at the expense of the tax payers’ money,” a highly placed source had earlier told The New Times.
According to information obtained by The New Times, Allsec, a company linked to President Yoweri Museveni’s son-in-law smuggled in the Rwandan applicants.
Between September 21-29, Abel Katungi, a Director with Allsec Security Ltd. submitted about seven passport applications of security personnel, claiming the company was recruiting the applicants for employment in Iraq.
The passports cited in the initial batch included passport number B0509924 belonging to John Bosco Sande, B0509928 of Jane Birungi, B0509921 of Jackson Safari, B0509927 belonging to Patrick Bahati and B0511267 of John Muhiirwe.
The Rwandan dissidents are alleged to have used pseudo identities to acquire the Ugandan passports with full knowledge of security personnel.
Sometime back, the Passport Control Officer Wilberforce Ngonde intimated to The New Times that Odrek Rwabogo, President Museveni’s son in law, had intervened when the immigration officials delayed to issue the dissidents with passports.
According to official evidence obtained by The New Times, Balagadde Kiggundu wrote the dissidents’ covering letters while Abel Katungi recommended each of the individual applicants.On May 22, The New Times reported that the Rwandan dissident files had gone missing.
Now, official information obtained by The New Times indicates that passport file number NT/24/56/2006 belonging to John Muhiire has been recovered and is in police custody, while NT/23506/06 belonging to Patrick Bahati has not yet been recovered.
