On Monday last week the Rwandan government handed over the body of a Ugandan businessman shot the previous Monday while allegedly smuggling cigarette boxes into Rwanda, bringing the number of Ugandans killed in similar fashion since last year to five.
The latest victim, 35-year-old Sydney Muhereza, a resident of Kagogo village in Bigaaga parish, Butanda Sub-county in Kabale District, was gunned down by Rwandan security 5 km inside Rwanda, according to accounts received at the handing over of his body.
Muhereza ‘s body was handed over to Ugandan authorities on the border with Katuna, which has been closed since 28 February 2019. Rwanda closed both the Gatuna and Cyanika across the international border in the districts of Kabale and Kisoro respectively, saying that this was meant to pave the way for some reconstruction works; the latter was later reopened and is currently the only passage for cargo and passengers of all nationalities except Rwandans.
While the two governments have since embarked on shuttle diplomacy to normalize relationships, the ongoing killing of Ugandans who stray even an inch across the border puts the ongoing talks in sharp focus, especially without a clear timeline.
At Muhereza’s body handover on Monday, Jean Marie Chantel Viwanyiringira, head of the Rwandan delegation, was quoted as condemning the acts of illegal entry of Ugandans into Rwanda.
And with nations, as elsewhere, currently concerned with containing the increasing embers of concerns regarding coronavirus, authorities, both officially and unofficially, talk on the matter in hushed voices.
Diplomatic sources familiar with the ongoing discussions stated that more than once Kampala raised the issue of Ugandans’ wanton shooting saying they were illegally crossing into Rwanda and pressing for inquiries, but Kigali has claimed that the perpetrators are smugglers.
Publicly, both Minister of Foreign Affairs Sam Kutesa and President Museveni, allowed to comment on the normalization of relations between Kampala and Kigali, have so far avoided commenting on the killing of Ugandans, leaving the nation confused.
It was only in January that the President loosely commented on the matter when he donated Shs10 million to Teojen Ndagijimana ‘s relatives, a Ugandan national shot dead earlier on January 18 by Rwandan authorities.
President Museveni indicated in his speech at the Budget reading on Thursday that the country is stable “and nothing can disturb us here.”
“And we have been building a lot of capacity. When some people thought they would disturb Uganda, by crime and so on, they woke us up and we built a lot of capacity,” he said, After a long time, with no such veiled comments.
Attempts to reach Mr Kutesa for comment were futile for two days.
Diplomatic sources, however, claim that Uganda’s only demand is that the Gatuna border be reopened “as soon as possible,” while Rwanda’s on the other hand keeps changing now and then.
During the ad hoc ministerial commission’s botched meeting on the normalization of relations between the two governments on Thursday last week, sources indicated that Kigali was pressing for the release of all its citizens in detention centers in Uganda, and Kampala was pressing for the cessation of all support for dissidents against Kigali. It is worth noting that, right from the start of the breakdown of relations between the two governments early last year, these were among the sticking questions.
The latest meeting was the first since President Museveni ‘s fourth Quadripartite State Summit Heads, Paul Kagame from Rwanda, Joao Laurenco from Angola, and Felix Tshisekedi from the DRC on February 21 at the Katuna — Gatuna border. Sources say the February meeting was a breakthrough and the border reopening “very soon” before Covid-19 set in was a glimmer of hope.
But the Kigali delegation pressed last Thursday for Kampala to look into all of its demands before the border can be reopened.
The virtual meeting chaired by Mr Kutesa and attended by, among others, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Rwanda, Vincente Biruta; the Deputy Prime Minister of DR Congo, Gilbert Kankonde Malamba, and the Minister of External Relations of Angola, Tete Antonio, did not go well.
Mr Kutesa, who spoke mainly on behalf of the Ugandan delegation, also, with his Rwandan counterpart, uncharacteristically exchanged barbs on the prickly issues.
As Rwanda pressed for the release of all its nationals, Mr Kutesa said that there was a group of 130 inmates, forgiven by the president, who would be handed in. These were also handed in early this week. However, he found out that there was another group of 310 inmates held on capital offenses who were not about to be released and whose information they were going to share with Kigali, that is when the meeting broke down.
In passing, Ugandan authorities also expressed concern that there were Ugandans incarcerated in Rwandan jails. This, the Rwandan delegation countered that, unlike their nationals in Uganda, the Ugandans in question had been legally processed through the judicial system. However they committed to granting access to Ugandans in jails to the Ugandan High Commission in Kigali.
The meeting of the ad hoc ministerial commission comprising diplomatic and security officials from both sides was subsequently concluded without a joint communiqué reflecting the mood or the next move.
In the Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU) signed by President Museveni and President Kagame in August last year, the two governments agreed on the ad hoc commission for the normalization of relations.
Other key points included in the MoU included restarting cross-border activities between the two countries, including the movement of persons and goods, refraining from actions aimed at destabilizing or subversion in the other party’s and neighboring countries’ territories.
Several demands have arisen since the ad hoc commission’s first meeting last September, some of which have been met and others have not.
Although relations between the two governments have been on and off over the past few years, and the solution to the current standoff potentially lies in the Agreement of August Luanda; despite the complicated relationship between the two key leaders at loggerheads, the path to peace remains riddled with obstacles.
