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KAMPALA, Nov 24 (AFP) - Dissident Ugandan National Federal Movement (NFM) leader Martin Kato has been arrested and is reportedly being held at a military barracks near Kampala, the vernacular daily Munno reported here on Tuesday.
Munno (My Friend), partly owned by the Catholic Church, said that Kato, who is also commander of the NFM's military wing, National Federal Army (NFA), was arrested on November 16 near Kampala and taken to Makindye military barracks, four kilometres (nearly three miles) south of the capital.
Kato, 54, claims to command thousands of fighters who have vowed to topple President Yoweri Museveni's government. He has been urging authorities to demobilise soldiers of Rwandan origin from the Ugandan army, and to remove Rwandan nationals from key positions in the government.
In one of the pamphlets which he had been circulating around Kampala, the ex-detainee, who has been referring to Museveni as a Rwandan national, also accused Rwandan refugees of having "infiltrated and engaged in Uganda's internal affairs, grabbed our economy, occupied land and killed and maimed our people for too long."
Kato was released on bail by the Ugandan High Court on May 11 this year, along with eight others who were among 42 people arrested in August 1988 and charged with treason.
In the small neighbouring highland nation of Rwanda, a democratic transition is under way alongside a bid to establish peace between the authorities and the Rwandan Patriotic Front, an armed rebel movement from the country's Tutsi minority consisting partly of exiles who had served in the Ugandan army.
eo/lto/nb AFP AFP SEQN-0162
