Uganda, Rwanda won’t go to war, says Kagame

President Paul Kagame. Photo |File

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Rwanda has continuously accused Uganda of arresting their people and holding them, sometimes incommunicado and without trial, something Mr Kagame told the German newspaper was not good.

Kampala. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has discounted the possibility of his country going to war with Uganda even though he maintained claims that Uganda backs armed groups against Rwanda. 

Mr Kagame said this during an interview with Taz, a German newspaper, on the sidelines of an international conference in Brussels, Belgium. 

In response to a question on the tense relations between Uganda and Rwanda, Mr Kagame said: “People fear fighting between us (Uganda and Rwanda). I don’t see it coming because I think Uganda understands the cost of it. We don’t want to go down that road because everyone will lose something.”

Mr Kagame, who is the current chairman of the East African Community (EAC), added: “We have seen Uganda getting involved in supporting (armed) groups against us because they think we don’t stand for the interests of Uganda. They just don’t appreciate that Rwanda has a different government and would wish Rwanda to pay allegiance to them, something like that.”

Asked about the warning of possible war that he issued to Uganda in April, Mr Kagame answered; “Yes (war will happen), if you cross the border. You can do whatever you want on your territory, like arresting people. But if they crossed our border and wanted to do things in our territory – that’s what I meant.”
Rwanda has continuously accused Uganda of arresting their people and holding them, sometimes incommunicado and without trial, something Mr Kagame told the German newspaper was not good.

He said Uganda should have used its own laws to try any Rwandan arrested instead of holding them for a long time on allegations of spying for Kigali but later release them.
“But the arrests have been indiscriminate: they arrest women, men, young people, they even picked some pupils from schools. The last time I met with (Ugandan president) Museveni I said these accusations have no credibility. Two hundred people were arrested, they failed to charge even one. That shows the magnitude of the problem,” he said.

Last month, President Museveni and Mr Kagame sat next to each other at the inauguration ceremony of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria.

The two heads of state were captured on live television chatting throughout the ceremony. It is not clear whether it is at this time that they discussed issues between their countries. 

Early this month, Rwanda opened the border to Ugandan trucks carrying goods to Kigali, which it had shut at the end of February, but its citizens continue to be restricted from travelling to Uganda.