Rwanda President Paul Kagame ask Uganda to stop funding rebel groups, the border will be open
Uganda handed 9 Rwandan nationals to Kigali on January 8th this year trying to resolve border impasse that has strained relations between the two East African countries.
The closure of the Katuna border which happened last year has greatly affected trade between the two East African countries.
Speaking at the annual diplomatic luncheon, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said that he cannot rush to open the border when Uganda is still holding hundreds of Rwandan in their prisons.
“We have had hundreds of Rwandans arrested in Uganda. And we have raised this matter with Ugandan authorities. We have families of hundreds coming and appealing to us asking why you don’t ask Uganda to release our people,” Kagame said.
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“Just stop going there because if you go there, I have no control. They may arrest you, and your families will come to me and say you have been arrested. And there is nothing I can do about it,” Kagame added.
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Kagame also revealed that there has been progressing in the talks with Uganda and vowed to continue with the move.
“But I think we are making progress as well. And we want to continue to make good progress, but there’s always going to be work to do,” Kagame said.
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However, Kagame says that he’s worried about the challenges contained in the quest to resolve the Rwanda-Uganda impasse claiming that some of the prisoners in Uganda are dying.
“Some of them have been dying as they arrive back home. And when they do post-mortem they find that it’s because they have been tortured very badly, in fact of the 9 we are talking about, a numbery of them are with the hospitals there, very sick and the ministry of health knows t
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Kagame then asked Uganda authorities to hold arresting Rwandans arguing that Rwanda has no offence against Uganda.
He adds that for those Uganda claims are criminals have not been tried in courts of law.
“Do us a favour! Just stop arresting Rwandans. Because most of those you have arrested have no case at all if they have a case, they haven’t even been put to courts for months and years,” Kagame said.
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Also, Kagame asked Uganda to stop associating allegedly with hostile groups which he claims are destabilising Rwanda with support from Uganda.
“If you stop associating with these groups that you’ve been giving support to destabilise our country, automatically the borders will be open,” Kagame said.
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Commenting on the matter, Executive Director Dialogue and Democracy Centre, Henry Kasacca says that Rwanda is asking too much from Uganda.
“The foreign policy of Rwanda towards Uganda and Uganda towards Rwanda has elements that perhaps have gone overboard to a point of breaking down the trust,” Kasacca said.
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“Many of the things that they have been doing, for example, the infiltration of the security system and then kidnapping some refugees and taking them back to Rwanda. Now those acts, if Uganda still detects those acts then Uganda will be saying Rwanda is not moving on those steps,
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Now this means those hoping for the normalization of the Uganda-Rwanda relations will have to wait a little longer as the two countries try to correct their differences.
