UGANDA HANDS RWANDA 10 MEMBERS OF DISSIDENT GROUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L KIGALI 000291

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/13/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR RW
SUBJECT: UGANDA HANDS RWANDA 10 MEMBERS OF DISSIDENT GROUP

Classified By: Ambassador Michael R. Arietti, reason 1.4 (B/D)


1. (C) Summary. On March 12 Ugandan security forces
transferred to Rwandan authorities ten members of the
dissident organization RPR (Rassemblement du Peuple
Rwandais). These individuals are now in the custody of
military investigators, who are determining their personal
identity and status within the organization. The
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has requested
permission to visit them at a detention facility outside
Kigali. Rwandan security officials view the RPR as one of a
number of marginal organizations that jockey for attention
and support on the extremist fringe of external opposition
groups. They consider the "gesture" by the Ugandans as a
modest but encouraging sign of increased cooperation. End
summary.


2. (C) On March 21, polchief met with Richard Masozera,
security advisor at the office of the Prime Minister.
Masozera acknowledged continuing GOR custody of the ten RPR
members, characterizing them as unimportant members of a
marginal organization. While the RPR did engage in recruiting
activities among dissident rwandaphones in Uganda, and did
aspire toward military action, it posed no present threat to
Rwanda, said Masozera. As with several other relatively new
organizations operating on the fringes of external political
opposition, said Masozera, the RPR hoped to both unify that
opposition, and escape the FDLR's negative image as the
"remnants of Hutu Power" bent on restarting the genocide.
Hence it sought to recruit Tutsis as well as Hutus in Uganda.
One or two of the ten detained members might be disaffected
Rwandan military personnel who had deserted, he said.


3. (C) Masozera termed the handover of the ten as a positive
"gesture" by the Ugandans, but said that some elements of
Ugandan security forces has actually opposed their surrender
to Rwanda. Additionally, Rwandan security forces were
concerned that "more senior members" of the RPR "may continue
to be tolerated" by the Ugandans. "We have no information on
that," he said, "but that is what worries us." However, the
GOR welcomed the handover as a sign of increasing cooperation
between the two security services and the two governments, he
said. With continuing problems with the Lord's Resistance
Army on the one hand, and with Rwanda's entry into the East
African Community on the other, said Mosozera, "Museveni and
his people have more important things to do than support a
half-hearted group like the RPR."


4. (C) On March 20, ICRC Head of Delegation Pierre Wettach
told polchief that he had been in contact with Rwandan
military intelligence earlier in the day about the ten RPR
members, and had requested access by the end of the week.
General Musemakweli, head of military intelligence (DMI),had
told Wettach that the men were being properly treated.
Wettach noted that DMI was "usually very good about access,"
and he hoped for a positive response, while noting that the
Rwandan military had no clear legal obligation to allow such
access. The ten men were being held at Camp Kami on the
outskirts of Kigali, he said, and would likely be moved to
one of two military prisons once their questioning had been
completed.


5. (C) Comment. The handing over of the ten RPR members, on
the eve of the Tripartite Plus conference, appears to be
another in a series of confidence-building measures the GOR
and GOU have recently engaged in, as their relations have
taken a turn for the better in the past year or so.
Masozera's welcome of the handover of the ten RPR members was
tempered by suspicion that Uganda might be hiding more senior
figures -- a sign that security force cooperation, while on
an upward trend, has some distance to go. End comment.
ARIETTI