[allAfrica.com]


Kigali Wants UN to Probe Attack Claims

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
January 8, 2003
Posted to the web January 9, 2003

By Frank Nyakairu and Andrew M. Mwenda
Kampala
Rwanda government spokesman Joseph Bideri yesterday said they "have irrefutable
evidence" about treacherous plans by Uganda against them.
Bideri was responding to reports in the Monitor yesterday that a Congolese
rebel who fled Kampala recently claimed on Rwanda radio and television that
Uganda is training rebels (including Interahamwe) to attack its southern
neighbour.
Bideri said because of the military threat that Uganda is posing, Kigali has
decided to "involve third parties in the in the region and the wider
international community".
Bideri said that Rwanda would take the evidence before Britain that has been
involved in negotiating between the two countries.
However, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in charge of Regional Co-
operation Col. Kahinda Otafiire, yesterday challenged Rwanda to bring the said
evidence to a neutral party for verification before going to the United
Nations.
Jean Bosco Barihima, the president of the Patriotic Movement for the Liberation
of Eastern Congo, fled to Kigali on New Year's eve and has accused Uganda of
training his forces and other rebels to attack Rwanda.
"Let the British select a team which can come with Barihima and let him show us
where these training camps are," Otafiire said.
"These places they are talking about are refugee settlements manned by UNHCR,"
he said.
Barihima alleged that the Ugandan government has trained 2,000 anti-Rwanda
rebels in Nakivale in Mbarara and Kyangwali in Masindi.
"We have analysed his information and we have no doubt that this is true,"
Bideri said.
The UN and the British government have been active in attempts to resolve
simmering tensions between Rwanda and Uganda.
Asked if Rwanda had prepared to counter any threat, Bideri said: "Rwanda
Defence Forces are capable of containing whatever threat in whatever form as
they have demonstrated on several occasions before." Uganda accuses Rwanda of
harbouring dissident UPDF officers, colonels Samson Mande and Anthony
Kyakabale, and training anti-Uganda forces.
Ugandan and Rwandan forces clashed three times while in the DR Congo. Those
clashes soured the relationship between the former allies.

   

  =============================================================================
  Copyright © 2002 The Monitor. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
                         Global Media (allAfrica.com).
  =============================================================================