http://www.observer.ug/special-editions/40796-should-i-report-the-truth-or-keep-my-mouth-shut

Should I report the truth or keep my mouth shut?

Written by JUSTUS MUHANGUZI

RPA soldiers in the captured territories

To mark 25 years since Ugandan soldiers of Rwandan descent attacked Rwanda, former New Vision journalist JUSTUS MUHANGUZI relives a war that changed the region.
In my last article, I wrote that President Habyarimana's persistent accusations that the RPA were operating from within Uganda attracted the attention of the international community and the subsequent presence of a monitoring team from ACP and EEC.

For several months, these monitors' UN-registered four-wheel-drive vehicles became a common sight as they traversed the hilly village tracks in Kabale and Kisoro, trying to verify the Rwandan government allegations.

The irony was that the debate shifted from whether the Rwandese refugees were right to force their way back into their country in the first place. The world's attention was on whether it was true that Uganda was supporting the RPA.

It was because of these persistent accusations that the international community requested Uganda to allow a team of Rwandan military monitors to pitch camp in Uganda (Kabale) and verify the alleged presence of RPA bases.

In mid-November 1990, a team led by Lt Col Munyangango arrived in Uganda and specifically booked into the Kabale White Horse Inn for several months.

Maj Sam Bishuba, from the NRA's 2 Division, was specifically attached to this team with instructions to accompany them to wherever they wanted to go looking for the suspected RPA bases. Local and international journalists used to accompany this team on what later turned out to be 'wild-goose-hunt' missions.

Later, the monitoring team expanded when observers from mostly UN agencies picked interest in the cross-border accusations and counter accusations.

The need to establish the truth especially about the Uganda government complicity became overwhelming compared to what was being said about the many Ugandan civilian victims of Rwanda's shelling and abductions.

But in a twist of fate, while monitors failed to locate a single RPA camp or soldier on Ugandan soil, they found overwhelming proof of the destruction caused by Rwandan military attacks on Uganda. (Only recently, nearly twenty years after those attacks, the Rwandan government gave some material assistance to the Ugandans who were affected.)

Although it was 'an open secret' that the RPA fighters had, after the death of their commanders, withdrawn into Uganda, it remained a 'mere allegation' since monitors never found any proof. But this 'lack of evidence' put me in an awkward situation because of what I knew and used to see.

Sometimes I debated within myself, whether it was about being a 'responsible journalist', an issue of self-censorship, patriotism or being sensitive to one's national security and strategic interests.

One particularly-bizarre incident has stuck in my memory. On that day, I travelled with a team of monitors that left Kabale White Horse Inn in a convoy of five vehicles, including that of our NRA guide, Major Bishuba.

It should be recalled that immediately after the RPA invasion, the NRA established many detaches along the Rwanda-Uganda border, from Ntungamo near the Tanzania border to Kisoro on the DRC border.

I was later informed by the then commander of operations in the Mbarara-based NRA 2 Division, Lt Col Anthony Kyakabale, that the need for the deployment was strategic, in case of 'repercussions' from fighting across the Rwandan border.

It later emerged that when the RPA retreated from Rwanda, they 'melted' into these NRA detaches as they reorganized themselves for the guerrilla warfare.

It is alleged that it was from these NRA camps that the RPA occasionally raided Rwandan troop positions and military installations across the border. The 'hard' fact is that the Rwanda government claim about their enemy's presence on Ugandan soil was not unfounded after all.

What complicated the monitors' mission was that it was impossible to distinguish the RPA fighters from the NRA soldiers since they wore similar uniforms and spoke the same local Ugandan languages, besides sharing the same makeshift shelters made from elephant grass and tree branches.

Apart from a few of us (Maj Bishuba, his escorts and I) who could tell from the facial looks and to a certain extent the accent, the monitors could not identify RPA rebels. Still, for me, the debate whether to tell or conceal what I knew raged on in my mind every time I accompanied the monitoring teams.

On this most memorable trip, we had parked the vehicles at a distance and decided to walk to Mazinga camp since the motorable track had suddenly narrowed into a footpath.

It was about 8am and there wasn't much activity around the camp as it was still cold and misty for many to venture out of their shelters. I suspect that no NRA or RPA soldier saw us early enough to alert the rest in the camp. Since the camp was on top of a hill, we had parked our cars in the valley and were walking in a single file uphill.

As we approached, it was Maj Bishuba in the lead, followed by myself, with two bazungu monitors in tow. The Rwandan team was at the tail end of line. As we walked around a few huts, I suddenly recognized a very familiar face squatting with a cup of water in one hand and a toothbrush in the mouth.

I could not believe my eyes when I realized that it was Lt Geoffrey Byegyeka, one of the RPA commanders with whom I used to associate in Mbarara before the invasion. During earlier visits to the war zone inside Rwanda, I had met and talked to him as he went about his duties in the RPA territory.

When he saw me and the two white men behind me, he was stunned. As if regaining his survival instinct, he called my name and, looking straight in my face, put his right hand index finger on his lips. I understood him to be begging me to keep my mouth shut, to pretend that I did not know him.

Like a cornered rat, he leapt into the hut. All this happened within seconds and I never got to know whether Major Bishuba or the other colleagues, especially the two white men behind me, had noticed.

After that incident, I looked behind to see how close the Rwandan team was only to realize that they had missed that 'golden opportunity' as they were two huts behind in a corner. Still, I wondered if they would have recognized the uniformed soldier had they been closer.

As we walked on, I again wondered whether I was going to keep my mouth shut like Lt Byegyeka had begged me, or to let the 'cat out of the bag.' It was not until I reached Mbarara and started writing my story that I realized that I could not go public about what I had seen that day, let alone what I knew all along about the RPA's presence in Uganda.

Otherwise that day, just like the previous monitoring trips, went without incident. It was business as usual and, according to the rest of the team, the places we visited had no RPA rebels.

The group later drove back to Kabale and as usual, the Rwandan military team returned to their daily routine of dining and wining in the comfort of White Horse Inn while waiting for the next trip of a mission in futility.

On the other hand, it can be rightly argued that the Rwandan war was a blessing in disguise especially for hotel owners in Mbarara and Kabale, where most of the representativeS of international agencies lived as they executed their war-related missions.
Muhanguzijust@yahoo.com
0772 504 920

The author is a public relations practitioner and is writing a book on the Rwanda invasion