Rwanda President Paul Kagame has said that he is not about to tell Rwandans to start traveling to Uganda again because he has no control over their safety while here.
Since closing the Gatuna border in February last year, Rwandan security forces have been blocking Rwandans including workers and students from crossing to Uganda following a protracted diplomatic dispute.
Kigali accuses Uganda of supporting Rwandan rebels, arresting and harassment of Rwandan nationals and economic sabotage.
As a result, Rwanda has since February last year imposed a trade embargo on Uganda and stopped her citizens from crossing over to Uganda.
On its part, Kampala accuses Kigali of slapping a trade embargo on Uganda; aggressive espionage; closing the Gatuna border; uprooting prominent Ugandans from the Rwandan economy and orchestrating a hate campaign against Uganda and its officials.
Kagame made the remarks on Wednesday at the annual Diplomatic Luncheon he hosted at state house in Kigali and attended by diplomats and representatives of International organizations designated to Rwanda where he talked about a number of issues including his chairmanship of the East Africa community.
This perhaps gave the clearest hint on the progress of the efforts to resolve the dispute between Rwanda and Uganda, indicating the two countries are far from reaching a resolution. Kagame told diplomats “there is always going to be work to do”.
“We have had hundreds of Rwandans arrested in Uganda. And we have raised this matter with Ugandan authorities. We have families of hundreds of families coming and appealing to us asking why don’t you ask Uganda to release our people,” he said.
He told Rwandans “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.”
He added those released have “been dying as they arrive back home. If you do a postmortem you find they have been tortured very badly.”
Kagame revealed that he and Museveni will be going back to Luanda, Angola soon to review the progress in implementing what was agreed in the first meeting in August last year.
In a veiled attack against Museveni who keeps lecturing African leaders about the need for integration, Kagame said: “integration of regions and communities doesn’t happen just because you are making a slogan about it.”
He said Ugandans can freely go to Rwanda and that “they have been coming. And the only border that is closed is Gatuna. Kagitumba and Cyanika and other places are being used.”
Next month will make it a full year since Rwanda decided to close the Gatuna border with Uganda. Rwanda accuses Uganda of facilitating and harbouring dissidents plotting to bring down Kagame’s government.
On the other hand, Uganda accuses Rwanda of infiltrating her security and intelligence agencies to carry out espionage activities.
