The government of Uganda has handed over 13 Rwanda national to the Rwanda High Commission.
While presiding over the handover ceremony in Kampala on Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kuteesa said that the practice of handing over the Rwandan nationals is purposely intended to bring peace in the region.
“It will be recalled that at the Quadripartite summit on 21st August 2019 in Luanda Angola their excellencies of Uganda and Rwanda concluded the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) concerning the normalization of the relation between two countries, ” said Kuteesa.
“In order to consolidate the rebuilding of goodwill as envisaged under the Luanda. Arising from the these discussions and as a further gesture of goodwill, the government of Uganda decided to release 13 more Rwandan nationals in addition to the nine that were released on 8th January 2020,” he added.
The 13 Rwandan nationals who were released have been categorised into four groups. The first category had three people who were deported for espionage and security related offences in 2019 but came back to Uganda and they were arrested. The second was comprised of the spouses of those in category one.
Third group was of those who were involved in criminal activities and repeated offenders and they were five suspects.
The fourth was of those who were under trial in General Court Martial for illegal possession of firearms and charges have been withdrawn. The two suspects reported themselves with their gun to UPDF at the border.
On the matter of whether Rwanda has also released some Ugandans detained in Rwanda, Kuteesa said that so far only two Ugandans have been released.
In the case of Ugandans that were killed in Rwanda, Noel Mucyo the first counsellor from Rwanda High Commission said that they were smugglers.
“The Ugandans who were killed in Rwanda were smugglers and our government issued the press statement, ” he said.
The development comes just days ahead of the planned meeting between President Yoweri Museveni and his Rwanda counterpart Paul Kagame which is scheduled for this Friday at the Katuna Border.
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