Minister of State for Internal Affairs Matia Kasaija of Uganda

Kampala THE Darfur incident in which a Ugandan police officer serving on the UN-AU peacekeeping mission was shot dead will not affect Uganda's participation in peacekeeping mission's world over, internal affairs state minister Matia Kasaija said yesterday.

Kasaija described the incident in which Inspector John Kennedy Oketcha was killed as unfortunate and should not be seen as reason to strain relations between the two countries.

Appearing to defend his ministry policy statement before the committee chaired by Matthias Kasamba (NRM), Kasaija said the Government had set aside a provisional fund of sh2b to facilitate the talks.

Junior internal affairs minister Matia Kasaija says Uganda's religious leaders - including the bishop of the Roman Catholic church, the archbishop of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Uganda - are holding diplomatic passports illegally.

Uganda is considered a source, transit route as well as a destination for children being trafficked from the Great Lakes countries," state minister for internal affairs Matia Kasaija said while opening the conference.

The State Minister for Internal Affairs Matia Kasaija was quoted by the state-owned New Vision daily on Tuesday as saying that the rebels, through the Amnesty Commission, had sent a memorandum to the government indicating its willingness to peace talks with the government.

Mr Kasaija said the passports were issued long before he joined the Ministry but promised to retrieve them from the men of God.

Mr Kasaija said government is planning to recall all diplomatic passports for review and crack down on masqueraders.

Talking about efforts to close the gap, Mr Kasaija said about 56,912 police officers need to be recruited to bring down the ratio to 1:527.

Mr Kasaija supported Mr Odwe’s graphic description of the situation pertaining in the Police Force.

Mr Kasaija said an extra Shs20 billion will be required to boost the wage bill of the force to at least Shs80 billion annually.

Kasaija was briefing journalists on the Government's efforts to fight child sacrifice and human trafficking.

But when contacted, the State Minister for Internal Affairs, Mr Matia Kasaija said he was hearing about cell sharing for the first time.

Mr Kasaija said the entire cost of the project was estimated at $56 million (over Shs 94.

Ultimate MediaThe minister of state for Internal Affairs, Matia Kasaija has warned warring parties in Bugweri bye election against any acts of violence and hooliganisms during campaigns and vote casting.

Kasaija says the government will not allow the repeat of the same incident and warns no matter which party the offender belongs, he/she will be arrested.

Ultimate Media The Minister of State for Internal Affairs, Matia Kasaija has said that all police officers are supposed to have identification tags while executing their duties and also for easy identification.

Kasaija was responding to concerns raised by MPs on the parliamentary committee on Defense and Internal Affairs over the poor conduct of some Police officers, especially traffic officers, who take advantage of not having identification tags to commit offences like bribery and extortion from unsuspecting motorists.