Journalist detained in immigration row

Ugandan authorities on Tuesday arrested a Rwandan journalist Themistocle Hakizimana who was on a delegation accompanying the head of UNHCR Sadako Ogata on her East and Central African tour, according to media sources. The Ugandan press on Wednesday reported that the Rwandan cameraman, who works for Reuters, was arrested at State House, Kampala, and handed over to police for questioning about an allegedly forged passport. “The so-called Reuters journalist was arrested by the Presidential protection unit on the request of the police and immigration after discovering that he presented a forged passport,” Uganda’s Presidential Press Secretary Hope Kivengere told IRIN. “Our people became suspicious when they found out that his name was not on the list of the UNHCR delegation that was going to meet the president,” she explained. “The immigration authorities have decided to deport him to the last point of embarkation which was Bujumbura, Burundi, and that will depend on the availability of the next flight,” she added. Rwandan authorities insist that the journalist was arrested because he was a Rwandan national. “His crime is that he is Rwandan,” government spokesman Joseph Bideri said. “I personally checked with director of immigration about his passport and found out that it was genuine. Why don’t the Ugandan authorities check with the immigration here before throwing the man in prison,” he asked.