Kagame: ‘I Am Not About to Tell Rwandans to go to Uganda’

Rwanda President, Paul Kagame has told diplomats in Kigali that he is not about to tell his citizens to return  to Uganda because he has no control over their safety while here.

Addressing more than 60 diplomats at the home of the Presidency in Kigali on Wednesday evening, Kagame said there were still hundreds of Rwandans in Ugandan jails and that telling his people they were safe in Kampala would be a lie.

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 to those lecturing him about 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 year since Rwanda decided to close the Gatuna border with Uganda.

URN.