A Tanzanian court has ordered a notorious rebel leader
extradited to Uganda to face murder charges; however his appeal is
delaying the process.
Jamil Mukulu, head of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), is blamed
for a string of attacks in western Uganda and the
capital Kampala that killed 1,000 people between 1998 and 2000.
He is also wanted in connection to fighting in neighbouring Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC).
Uganda's government also alleges the ADF is linked
to Somalia's al Shabaab militants.
Mukulu, a Ugandan national who was arrested in Tanzania in
late April, was sent to a remand prison in Tanzania' s commercial capital
under tight security where he will be detained until his appeal.
Mukulu has been under U.N. sanctions since 2011 and rights groups say
the ADF has profited from lucrative cross-border trade in timber and minerals
in eastern DRC and is responsible for executions, kidnappings, torture and
rape.
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| Jamil Mukulu (seen above) is wanted in several African countries for committing atrocities |
The Congolese army launched a major operation against the
ADF last year, saying they had significantly weakened the group, leaving it
with as few as 50 fighters.
Reports allege that Mukulu, who eluded capture for nearly 20 years,
owns five houses in Iiala municipality of Dar es Salaam, as well as a fleet of
vehicles. It is also believed that while Nairobi Kenya has been Mukulu’s hub
for conducting ADF economic and financial activities, his cell based in the
Tanzanian coastal city of Tanga has been his base for travel, particularly to
the Middle East.
In 2012, a UN report found that Mukulu was using a Tanzanian passport for some
years, according to the Guardian newspaper of Tanzania. The report said Mukulu
conducted his illegal activities from a hotel called Nyavyamo, near Dar es
Salaam’s busy trading suburb of Kariakoo.
The report continued that Thomas Hamenyimana, who is a naturalised Tanzanian of
Burundian origin, allegedly owned the hotel, which was frequented by people
from DR Congo. Furthermore, and as reported by the Guardian newspaper, Jamil
Mukulu was also known as Julius Elius Mashauri, who claimed to have been born
in Bagamoyo in 1965. He applied and obtained a Tanzanian passport number AO
415126, under which he claimed he was a businessman resident in Bagamoyo,
Tanzania.
The UN report also claims Mukulu has houses in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and the
United Republic of Tanzania.
In July 2014, the UN finally blacklisted ADF as a terrorist organisation for
its recruitment and use of child soldiers, killing, maiming and sexually
abusing women and children, and attacks on UN peacekeepers. Before that, Mukulu
had been subjected to targeted UN travel sanctions and an asset freeze since
2011.
Mukulu and the ADF began staging attacks inside Uganda nearly twenty years ago
with the aim of overthrowing the Ugandan government and setting up an Islamic
system under Sharia law.
Mukulu was subsequently driven into DR Congo and there hadn’t been any attacks
inside Uganda for years.
Recently, however, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s urgency to wipe out ADF
has risen because of the threat, however small, it poses to the exploitation of
the newly discovered oil field in the Albertine basin that straddles the
Uganda-DR Congo border.