Kigali — BARELY a week after completing his sentence, a former Rwandan spy chief has fled the country. According to highly placed military sources, Colonel Patrick Karegeya sneaked out of the country over the weekend.

"It is true he managed to leave the Rwandan boundaries with part of his family members in disguise," a highly placed source told Daily Monitor in an interview on Monday.

Although various intelligence sources do not point to the same direction, the ex- External Security Organisation (ESO) boss could have used the laxity on the Rwandan border with neighbouring countries to flee.

"He must have used the porous Uganda-Rwanda border for his transit," said the military source who preferred anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

A top Rwanda official told Daily Monitor on Monday that Col Karegeya used an illegal crossing at Mulamba in the border district of Kabale.

The Defence and Army spokesman, Major Felix Kulayigye said Col. Karegeya's presence "is unknown to Ugandan authorities."

As head of the country's external security service, Col. Karegeya held a key position during Rwanda's occupation of neighbouring DR Congo.

He featured prominently in diplomatic squabbles that gripped Uganda and Rwanda between 1999 and 2001 when their armies clashed in DR Congo.

Intelligence organisations accused Col. Karegeya of infiltrating Uganda's security at the height of espionage accusations and counter accusations that almost led to war.

Until his release on November 15, Col. Karegeya, 46, who was also stripped of his military ranks in July, 2006 by the Military Tribunal, was convicted in the military court on charges of insubordination among others.

He last held the portfolio of the army spokesperson in the Rwanda Defence Forces before his arrest and subsequent detention in May, 2006 on the orders of the Chief of General Staff General James Kabarebe.

Prosecution accused him of defying General Kabarebe's instructions to report to office after he had been released from an earlier six-month detention on disciplinary grounds.

Once President Paul Kagame's closest confidant, Col. Karegeya completed his 18-month sentence last week. The army spokesman Major Jill Rutaremara said, "If a person leaves the army it is police to follow up the case.

We have no mandate to protect or guard Col. Karegeya because he is an ordinary Rwandan. He is a civilian whose whereabouts should be known by the police force".According to Col. Karegeya's wife Leah Karegeya, the former colonel is not with the family.