Uganda takes step to diffuse feud with Rwanda
Kampala, Uganda (PANA) – A military court in Kampala on Tuesday released seven Rwandan nationals, many of whom have been held for about a year and lie at the centre of the ongoing disagreement between the two countries.
The seven were arrested from different parts of Uganda by the military’s intelligence arm, which accused them of spying on Uganda on behalf of Rwanda, unlawful possession of firearms and related charges.
Rwanda in February last year cut off ties with Uganda, blocking merchandise from its neighbour to the north and advising its citizens not to travel to Uganda, citing persecution of Rwandans in Uganda.
It also accused the government of Uganda of hosting and backing groups that aim to cause regime change in Rwanda.
For a long time, Uganda refused to publicly respond to the accusations by Rwanda and did not release dozens of Rwandans that it was accused of holding, many reportedly without being charged in courts of law.
It was only last month that Uganda’s foreign affairs minister came out to say that the Rwandan nationals had been arrested for infiltrating Uganda’s security forces.
By the time the minister made that statement, follow-up talks resulting from a deal signed by Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagame in Luanda, Angola, in August 2019, were stuttering.
But then things picked up speed, unexpectedly. As the year drew to a close, Museveni sent a special envoy to Kagame, and afterwards both presidents sent out tweets saying that considerable progress had been made in the direction of normalizing relations between the two countries.
The man Museveni sent to Kagame is Adonia Ayebare, Uganda’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York, but who before that was Uganda’s representative to Rwanda. He is also of mixed Uganda/Rwanda blood and is said to have a distant familial relationship with Kagame.
Strangely, Ayebare is a brother of Brig. Abel Kandiho, the head of the intelligence arm of Uganda’s army who has been heavily reviled by Rwanda for arresting its citizens.
When the military court heard Tuesday that the State of Uganda had lost interest in the case of the seven Rwandans, hopes rose that the latest efforts would very likely bear fruit and relations between the two countries will soon normalize.
-0- PANA EM/AR 7Jan2020
