{UAH} TANZANIA OUGHT TO KNOW THAT REFUGEES HOSTED IN UGANDA IS MUSEVENI'S LUCRATIVE BUSINESS (photos)

TANZANIA OUGHT TO KNOW THAT REFUGEES HOSTED IN UGANDA IS MUSEVENI'S LUCRATIVE BUSINESS (photos)

 

By CHANGE OF GUARDS

Tanzania has protested against accusations by Uganda that it was chasing away Burundian refugees and forcing them into Uganda. Its Minister of Home Affairs described the accusations as false before saying that his country took exception to the accusation and demanded to be treated with respect. The development follows Uganda's Minister of Refugees and Disaster Preparedness, Musa Ecweru telling a press conference that Uganda was receiving refugees expelled from Tanzania and taking them to Nakivaale Camp.

Decades of political upheavals in Burundi have witnessed its tens of thousands of citizens flee the country to seek refuge in different countries. Over the years, many have returned home and as of now the following countries continue to host Burundian reefugees:
1. Tanzania - 160,312
2. Rwanda - 72,007
3. DRC - 48,571
4. Uganda - 48,404
5. Malawi. - 8,300
6. South Africa - 9,200 
7. Zambia - 6,000
8. Kenya - 13,800

Since the political upheavals of 1972, Tanzania has been the major host of Burundian refugees. Almost all the Hutu fighting groups that eventually took power in Burundi were born in the refugee camps in Tanzania. On top of the above figures of the camp based refugees, it hosts another 42,000 Burundians who live amongst the host communities. With the return of relative peace in Burundi, around 2006 Tanzania embarked on convincing Burundian refugees to return home. The move involved the spontaneous closure and merger of camps climaxing into the closure of the last refugee camp in 2012. Those who were found to have had good reasons for not returning were taken to the USA. However, some of those who didn't want to return to Burundi started escaping to Uganda where they were welcomed and placed into the Nakivaale refugee camp. It is highly likely that some of those who opted to flee to Uganda were Rwandese who had all along claimed to be Burundians. 

The resurgence of a political turmoil of 2015 saw tens of thousands of Burundian citizen flee the country into neighbouring countries. Tanzania hosted the highest number (160,312) followed by Rwanda (72,007). Some of them simply used the two countries as transit routes to Uganda which does not border with Burundi. In January 2016, Uganda's Minister of Relief and Disaster Preparedness, Musa Echweru highlighted Uganda's concern for the strain that the Burundi crisis was putting on the country. He cited the 20 high profile former Burundi government officials that were being hosted. 

In the meantime, Tanzania was leading the efforts to bring peace in Burundi. In February 2017, Uganda hosted a delegation of Burundi government officials led by the Minister of Internal Affairs who had come to convince Burundian refugees to return home. Speaking at Nakivaale Refugee Camp, Uganda's Minister,  Hilary Onek, told refugees to prepare and return home. He went further to warn that those who would refuse to leave would be issued with documents for a 3 months extension after which they would have to leave the country. However, his Junior Minister, Musa Echweru, was quick to issue a statement assuring the refugees that no one would be returned to Burundi. Obviously, Museveni must have panicked and ordered Musa Echweru to embarrassingly contradict his line Minister. Since then, all refugee issues are handled by Musa Echweru. 

With a return of calmness in Burundi, in January 2018 Tanzania put a stop to receiving new arrivals of Burundi refugees. In March 2018, Tanzania and Burundi agreed to have all Burundian refugees repatriated. A deadline of December 31 was set for them to have left. The exercise did not take off until August 2019 when the two countries signed a Repatriation Pact at a rate of 2,000 per week. With a fresh deadline of December 31 for the Burundian refugees to have returned home from their three camps, some few refugees responded. However, a good number of them started escaping into Uganda. One of the earliest COVID-19 positive cases in Uganda was of a Burundian refugee who had been crossing to and from Tanzania even when Uganda had closed it border.

Since Uganda had completely abandoned the idea of repatriating Burundian refugees, their population swelled to 48,404. In some instances, even those who had earlier repatriated back home from Tanzania embarked on a fresh journey to Uganda. To consolidate the refugee harvest, Uganda arranged for Human Rights Watch to freely interview the Burundian refugees who had fled Tanzania to Uganda for its damming report of December 12, 2019. The voluntary repatriation exercise for Burundian refugees from Tanzania is still ongoing but at a slow speed. Last week the President of Burundi met his counterpart in Kigoma where the former appealed to Burundian refugees in Tanzania to voluntarily return home. It is this presidential working visit that has sparked off the fresh hike in influx of Burundian refugees into Uganda that Minister Echweru is using to blackmail Tanzania.

In Rwanda, a group of 331 Burundian refugees petitioned the President of Burundi in July seeking his help to return home. The President of Burundi accused Rwanda of preventing his citizens from returning home. Earlier during his swearing in ceremony in June, he had promised to work towards returning refugees home. Rwanda vehemently protested Burundi's accusations saying that since 2017 about 6,000 Burundian refugees had repatriated. Nonetheless, a tripartite agreement between Rwanda, Burundi and UNHCR was signed on August 13 setting the road map for repatriation of Burundian refugees. The first batch of 500 Burundian refugees from Mahama camp returned to Burundi on August 28 aboard 20 hired buses. The returnees are given a cash grant of USD 70 plus some start-up supplies and household items. The second batch of 507 returned on September 11 while the third batch of 511 arrived yesterday September 24. The exercise continues and the target is to have repatriated at least 8,000 Burundians by December 31. However, the response is very low as some of the refugees are reluctant to voluntarily repatriate.

From the above trend of events, it can be observed that while Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi are working towards the voluntary return home of Burundian citizens, in Uganda an environment is being created to attract the same refugees. With land scarcity and appalling economic conditions in Burundi, the question of Burundian refugees is more of an economic than a security issue. Museveni's so-called liberal refugee policy provides an opportunity for Burundian economic immigrants disguised as refugees. Those in Tanzania who don't want to repatriate are stealthy sneaking into Uganda where they are accorded a red carpet reception. Since the Uganda - Rwanda border is closed, those in Rwanda who have been stopped sneak into Tanzania from where they find their way into Uganda. Even those who are voluntarily repatriated back to Burundi stay for a short time before embarking on a journey to Uganda. This is not to mention the ordinary Burundians who are relocating to settle in Uganda under the cover of being refugees. 

Museveni's so-called liberal refugee policy is nothing but a scheme to attract donor funding, divert international attention from his military dictatorship, aid the immigration and settlement into Uganda of his Banyarwanda and use those refugees to destabilise their home countries. In June 2017, he hosted a Refugee Solidarity Summit that was graced by the UN Secretary General. It was more of a fundraising opportunity than addressing the plight of refugees. Out of his estimated USD 2b, only USD 350m was raised in pledges. He had estimated that he needed USD 8b for the next four years in order to continue his efforts in handling refugees. Seven months later, it became known that his claim of hosting 1.4m refugees was just fake. The files was deliberately inflated as has always been the case with his army, teachers, public servants etc. 

 A UN investigations revealed that over 300,000 refugees did not exist and that the total population was not 1.4 but 1.1 thus 25% less. The investigation further revealed that millions of Dollars had been lost in irregular payments for workers and logistics. No one was ever made to answer for these crimes and the matter was simply swept under the carpet. The scheme to attract more refugees was temporarily disrupted by the COVID-19 lockdown. As his Army's 2nd Division Commander, Brig. Francis Takirwa clearly put it on June 30, 2020;
"One might be tempted to say this is an area of gain; the more you have refugees coming in maybe the more you get funded. I have not been seeing refugees; I don't see them yet the hostilities have not ceased. This has to be investigated."

Therefore, Tanzania ought to know that for Museveni, the presence of refugees in Uganda is Museveni's lucrative economic and political ventures. Furthermore, Museveni thinks he can now blackmail Tanzania simply because he offered it the crude oil pipeline project. 

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Rehema
Patriot in Kampala,East Africa:Assalamu Alaikum

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