Kagame To Respect Peace Agreement

May 11, 2003

RWANDAN President Paul Kagame has said he will do whatever it takes to restore good relations with Uganda, writes <b>John Eremu.</b>

RWANDAN President Paul Kagame has said he will do whatever it takes to restore good relations with Uganda, writes John Eremu.
Kagame told the BBC that he was satisfied with the talks held with President Yoweri Museveni in London on Thursday.
Clare Short, the British Secretary of State for International Development, mediated the talks.
“I am very satisfied (with the talks) based on the atmosphere during our discussions, their seriousness, honesty and openness,” Kagame told BBC’s Anna Borzello.
He said it was not necessary for the once good neighbours to continue quarrelling.
“The kind of effort we are trying to put into resolving the problems is based on the background of having had very good relations. We shall do whatever it takes in our own possibilities to restore that relationship with Uganda,” Kagame said in a statement sent to The New Vision.
Relations between Kampala and Kigali have been tense since 1999 when troops from the two countries clashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where they support different rebel groups.
The two neighbours accuse each other of harbouring each other’s dissidents, an allegation they deny.
Kagame denied Rwanda had any troops in the DRC.
He said all of them were withdrawn in accordance with the Pretoria Agreement, but did not rule out the possibility of going back should there be security threats to Rwanda.
“We have withdrawn all our forces from Congo. Those allegations that we have been there are not based on any facts. It is not true, but we are very much concerned that the security threat to Rwanda is still there. We would want to work with the rest of the region and Congo itself, once it resolves its internal problems and has put the transitional government in place, to resolve that problem,” he said.
“If you go back into the whole history, you will agree with me that we are the victims not the aggressors,” he said.
Kagame was optimistic that the London talks will resolve the issue of allegations that Rwanda and Uganda supported dissidents against the other. Ends

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