Ugandan officials deny over 500 Rwandan refugees entry

Security officials in Mbarara district, southwestern Uganda, on Monday denied entry to some 580 Rwandan refugees who were reportedly expelled from Tanzania last month, the semi official 'New Vision' newspaper said. "They were expelled from Tanzania, but what is unclear is why they flock into Uganda when there is no war in Rwanda," the paper quoted the area's security secretary Stephen Rwakanuma as saying. The UNHCR in Kampala told IRIN on Wednesday it had registered 735 Rwandans from Tanzania since May and that these were refugees dispersed in Tanzanian villages during mass repatriation from the country in 1996. The refugees had been transferred recently to Nakivale refugee settlement in Mbarara district and sample interviews revealed that a majority come from the districts neighbouring Uganda, notably Karagwe, UNHCR said. The reasons given by the refugees for their flight included harassment from local authorities and destruction of their property by the local population in Tanzania, the agency added.