New Delhi
2 May 2007
A delegation from Uganda led by its Minister of Internal Affairs
Ruhakana Rugunda will arrive this week on a "goodwill mission" to clarify to the
government and people of India that the African nation was not racist and it was safe to
invest in Uganda.
Sources told this newspaper that Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was
sending the delegation to convey condolences from the people of Uganda to the family of
Devangkumar Shaileshkumar Raval. Raval was stoned to death by a mob last month as
the protests against denotification of a part of Mabira Forest (about 7,100 hectares) for
sugarcane cultivation, by a mill operated by The Mehta Group, turned violent. A resident
of Ahmedabad, Raval (23) worked as a sales representative with Translink (U) Ltd, a
company importing products of Johnson & Johnson and Nestle.
A representative of The Indian Association Uganda, Mr Sanjiv Patel, told this newspaper
over the telephone from Ugandan capital Kampala that the delegation will travel to
Ahmedabad and call on the family of Mr Raval. The government of Uganda, The Indian
Association Uganda and others have collected over Rs 10 lakh for handing over to the
family. "This visit is to clarify to the government and people of India that the Indian
community is safe and to also tell how Indians are a part of socio economic
developmenty of Uganda ... also to assure that situation is very normal," he said.
Besides Mr Sanjiv Patel, the delegation will include Sanjay Tanna, a member of
parliament from Tororo municipality; National Resistance Movement Deputy National
Treasurer Parminder Singh Katongole; and a representative of Translink company that
employed Raval.
Union Minister of State of External Affairs Anand Sharma was in constant touch with
Uganda at the highest level after the outbreak of violence. He has said that measures
have since been taken by Kampala for the safety of Indian nationals, persons of Indian
origin and their business establishments. The violence was reminiscent of the anti-India
sentiments that gripped Uganda in the early 1970s. Asians constituted the largest non-
indigenous ethnic group in Uganda until 1972 when former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin
expelled over 50,000 Asians who were engaged in trade and industry.
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