As the diplomatic ties between Uganda and Rwanda continue to deteriorate, President Yoweri Museveni has said that the neighboring country has no capacity to destabilize Uganda.
The president made the revelation on Saturday while commissioning five factories in Mukono.
“Those who want to destabilize our country do not know our capacity. It is very big. Once we mobilise, you can’t survive,”said Museveni.
Recently, Rwanda closed its Katuna-Gatuna border and issued a travel advisory for its citizens.
In a standoff, the country’s Foreign Affairs Minister Richard Sezibera, revealed that they opted to block their nationals from traveling to Uganda alleging continuous arrests, harassment, torture, illegal incarceration without consular access, deportation among others of its citizens.
He also said, “We’ve raised this issue with the Government of Uganda, that there are armed groups, individuals who head armed groups that are opposed to the Government of Rwanda, that have a violent agenda towards Rwanda who operate in Uganda; the RNC, some members of the FDLR, and so on and so forth…these are groups that have carried out (criminal) acts here in Rwanda and are based in Uganda.”
In the same vein, the Rwandan leader Paul Kagame has also come to highlight on the ongoing tension between the two East African countries.
Speaking at the 16th edition of the National Leadership Retreat today at Rwanda Defence Force Combat Training Centre in Gabiro, Gatsibo District, Kagame said his country had been provoked to take certain actions.
In one of his discussions, he said he raised the issue of some Rwandan bad elements in Uganda including businessman Tribert Rujugiro who “runs business in Uganda and bankrolls groups that seek to destabilize Rwanda” but Museveni refused to solve the issue diligently.
“We have been provoked, people have crossed our borders, killed our people and we have not responded. We were able to see someone wanted to drag us into this mess. When they have dragged you into this sort of problem,then you start looking the same.
“When I hear somebody say no one can destabilize their country, I agree. No one should actually be destabilizing that country but that country should also not be destabilizing others, I think it is a fair deal,”said Kagame.
He further noted that almost every week, there are people who are brought and dumped across the border, and when you asked some of them, they say they have been in prison for two years.
“There is the case of a man who has been in prison for two years after he refused to be recruited by RNC.”
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