Uganda’s State Minister for Regional Affairs Philemon Mateke has defended himself following the allegations that he supports Rwandan rebels.
In a phone interview with Uganda Radio Network (URN) on Wednesday, Mateke said he has no capacity to support Rwanda adding that the Rwandan officials are just malicious.
“When officials in Rwanda want to eliminate someone they start accusing them of such,” the 76-old minister said.
Adding, “It’s not true, rubbish. Am I a Rwandese? Am I going to be a mercenary? Do I have capacity? Those people are very malicious as they have always been. When they want to eliminate a person, normally these are the excuses they give, you know their job is to eliminate people, but I am not their citizen.”
The claims against Mateke were tabled last Friday in the Kampala meeting between Uganda and Rwanda as evidence that the country was supporting groups that want to overthrow the Kigali administration.
The same claims were repeated in a lengthy interview in which Oliver Nduhungirehe, Rwanda’s State Minister for the East African Affairs, stated that the attackers had left phones at the scene showing contacts with Mateke. The interview was published in the New Times Rwanda on Wednesday, December 18, 2019.
The attack referred to happened in Kinigi sector, Musanze District, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Up to 14 people lost their lives and 16 others sustained injuries during the same attack, in which attackers used machetes and hammers.
“The evidence gathered from the crime scene, including phone handsets, from assailants showed that they were in coordination with Uganda’s State Minister for Regional Affairs Philemon Mateke,” Nduhungirehe said.
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