UK plans Museveni, Kagame meeting
Nov 30, 2004
A reconciliatory meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwanda counterpart Gen. Paul Kagame will take place in January, a British High Commission official has said.
By Felix Osike
A reconciliatory meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwanda counterpart Gen. Paul Kagame will take place in January, a British High Commission official has said.
Linda St. Cooke, the second secretary in charge of political and public affairs, said the meeting, brokered by Britain, had first been planned for December.
Sources said high on the agenda would be the tension over reports that Rwanda is training Ugandan dissidents.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs acting Permanent Secretary, James Mugume, said the venue and the date of the meeting had not been fixed.
Uganda last week expelled a Rwandan diplomat in Kampala Jimmy Uwuizeye, for what the foreign affairs ministry described as activities incompatible with his diplomatic status.
In retaliation, Rwanda expelled Uganda’s second secretary in Kigali, John Cliff Birungi, over similar allegations.
British Under Secretary for Africa Chris Muhlin said in August that the meeting between the two leaders would take place later this year in Kigali.
During the last meeting chaired by British Secretary for International Development Hillary Benn in London early this year, the two agreed to investigate and resolve all outstanding complaints against each other. Tension between Uganda and Rwanda heightened after their armies clashed thrice in 1999 and 2000 in the northeastern Congolese city of Kisangani.
Relations were strained further following allegations by Ugandan security officials that Rwanda supported the former presidential candidate Col. Kizza Besigye and the People’s Redemption Army (PRA) rebels to oust the Kampala regime.
Uganda accuses Besigye and renegade UPDF colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale of rebel recruitment. Mande, Kyakabale and 11 others were last year re-located to Sweden by the UNHCR.
A reconciliatory meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwanda counterpart Gen. Paul Kagame will take place in January, a British High Commission official has said.
Linda St. Cooke, the second secretary in charge of political and public affairs, said the meeting, brokered by Britain, had first been planned for December.
Sources said high on the agenda would be the tension over reports that Rwanda is training Ugandan dissidents.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs acting Permanent Secretary, James Mugume, said the venue and the date of the meeting had not been fixed.
Uganda last week expelled a Rwandan diplomat in Kampala Jimmy Uwuizeye, for what the foreign affairs ministry described as activities incompatible with his diplomatic status.
In retaliation, Rwanda expelled Uganda’s second secretary in Kigali, John Cliff Birungi, over similar allegations.
British Under Secretary for Africa Chris Muhlin said in August that the meeting between the two leaders would take place later this year in Kigali.
During the last meeting chaired by British Secretary for International Development Hillary Benn in London early this year, the two agreed to investigate and resolve all outstanding complaints against each other. Tension between Uganda and Rwanda heightened after their armies clashed thrice in 1999 and 2000 in the northeastern Congolese city of Kisangani.
Relations were strained further following allegations by Ugandan security officials that Rwanda supported the former presidential candidate Col. Kizza Besigye and the People’s Redemption Army (PRA) rebels to oust the Kampala regime.
Uganda accuses Besigye and renegade UPDF colonels Samson Mande and Anthony Kyakabale of rebel recruitment. Mande, Kyakabale and 11 others were last year re-located to Sweden by the UNHCR.