Jeje To Meet RPA Chief Meet

BY Grace Matsiko and Felix Osike THE Army Commander, Lt. Gen. Jeje Odongo, is scheduled to meet Rwanda’s Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa, as part of the efforts to mend the strained relations between Uganda and Rwanda. Odongo yesterday told The New Vision the stand-off between the two countries would be resolved. “I am planning to meet the Rwanda Chief of Staff as a sequence of contacts to resolve this matter,” he said. He said the date and the location of the meeting were being worked out by officials from both countries. “There is a mutual wish to meet and talk. I have no doubt whatsoever in my mind that certainly it will be resolved,” he added. He said Uganda was not massing troops at her border with Rwanda as reported and said there would be no war between the two countries. “We are not moving in that direction. We have not deployed any troops beyond what was agreed,” he said. The Deputy Chief of Military Intelligence (CMI), Major James Mugira, and two other Ugandan officials left for Kigali last evening. This follows another scheduled meeting in Gabarone, Botswana, between Ugandan international affairs state minister Tom Butime and Rwanda’s finance minister Donald Kaberuka, the French news agency, AFP, said yesterday. The New Vision has established that the director of Information at the Movement Secretariat, Ofwono Opondo, yesterday traveled to Kabale to assess the situation at the border. It is not known if he was also to travel to Kigali. Maj. Mugira, who holds the portfolio of presidential assistant on defence affairs, was appointed by President Yoweri Museveni two weeks ago to head the Ugandan team to verify reports that Uganda and Rwanda were training dissidents against each other. The meetings in Gaborone and Kigali came amid reports increasing tension between the two countries. A member of the Ugandan delegation for the Global Coalition for Africa conference (GCA) in Botswana told AFP that a meeting was being arranged. The official, who asked not to be named, could not confirm that what he called “problems between the two countries” would be discussed during the ministers’ meeting. “There are problems between the two countries but I cannot confirm the agenda of the meeting,” the official said. Kagame’s office said the Rwandan leader would not attend the summit because of busy schedules at home. They said Kagame was represented by Kaberuka. “As far as I am concerned, he is not in Gaborone. He is in Kigali. This has nothing to do with the relations between the two countries,” Kagame’s office said. The media this week quoted Rwanda as saying Kagame would not meet Museveni unless the latter apologised for the remarks he made against him in a letter to a British minister Clare Short. This is the third time Kagame refuses to meet Museveni. Museveni said in his letter to Short that Kagame refused to meet him in Arusha, Tanzania and in the SMART Partnership meeting in Kampala. State House sources said last evening that Kagame had refused to take calls from Museveni for the last three weeks. Ends