No entering hotels, worship areas without IDs - Museveni 

It is now a requirement for visitors to recreational places and all worship centres across the country to present their national identity cards before accessing the facilities to avoid harbouring suspected terrorists, President Museveni has directed. 

In a presidential address, Mr Museveni said enforcing identification of people accessing public places would prevent the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) rebels and other terrorists from getting space to carrying out attacks. 

“No strangers entering your church, please. Anybody you don’t know in your area must be challenged, isolated and reported to the police. Nobody should enter your bar because you drinkers know one another,” President Museveni said at Nakasero State Lodge yesterday. 
He added:“Then the hotels and real estates. [Check national] identity cards. For the markets and buses, you need to search people who are coming. There is no shortcut for the buses. But it will not take long…because they are desperate.”

 The President’s address come days after security forces arrested seven people they suspected to be terrorists. The police said they recovered six explosive devices that the suspects were going to use to carry out attacks. One of the explosives was destroyed by security operatives using controlled detonation techniques at Rubaga Miracle Centre Cathedral on Sunday.

Police accused the ADF of being behind the foiled attacks. 
The ADF started its operations in the mid-1990s in Uganda. A larger group later moved to Democratic Republic of Congo after they were defeated in Uganda, but they have maintained a presence of cells in Uganda.

President Museveni’s directives on worship centres would be challenging, especially in urban areas, where the congregants rarely know each other. 
Most Pentecostal churches invite everyone for prayers regardless of whether they are their members. Some churches organise more than three sessions a day, with more than 1,000 congregants in each.
Muslims too often pray at any mosque where the time of prayers finds them.
President Museveni directed the police to train hotel and lodge managers on how to document all the visitors.

“Police, train our people. No room without showing your ID card and making sure that my face is the one on the ID card. That is for hotels and lodges. When it comes to landlords, flats and so on...it is the same. So the moment you block these people from the hotels, from the lodges, from the estates that means they must stay with families in homes and many of these groups don’t have many sympathisers who are ready to risk keeping them,” he said.

President Museveni also said since they started Operation Shujaa in the eastern DRC in 2021, they have killed 567 rebels, captured 50 and recovered 157 guns. 
He said 207 abducted people have been rescued. 
Last week, Uganda and DRC strengthened their military ties to continue hunting the ADF rebels.

President Museveni said the DRC government has allowed his initial proposal to train and deploy local defence forces to protect villagers in areas where the UPDF is unable to deploy.
Initially, President Museveni had interested Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in training LDUs but he refused for fear that they would turn against his government. 
The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) and Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) agreed to cooperate in areas of training and defence industries for the benefit of both countries.
President Museveni ruled out giving amnesty to some ADF rebels even if they voluntarily surrender.

“Even if they surrender, especially the hardcore, who have been doing bad things. We can not just forgive them. They have to be held accountable. They have done so many bad things. Maybe they may not die, they may be sentenced to prison,” he said. 
He said the convicted rebels could later be given a pardon or punishment less than death. 

“I think there is still some advantage for them to surrender now. Otherwise they would die. We shall kill them. They have done bad things. They have provoked all this,” he said.
This is the first time President Museveni has declined to offer amnesty to ADF rebels. The UPDF has been telling ADF rebels to surrender and benefit from amnesty and several who handed themselves to government forces last month benefitted from the amnesty.
President Museveni urged the members of the public not to panic after the terror threats. 

“Don’t panic. This is the tail end of the ADF. It isn’t the beginning, it isn’t the expansion. It isn’t the growth [of ADF]. I saw members of Parliament panicking on TV. I saw someone from Bugabula saying they may come and do what. No. This is the tail end,” he said.