[Ugnet] Rwandan 'Corporals' Liberated Uganda

After the first clashes in Kisangani in 1999 between the Uganda Army and the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), President Yoweri Museveni addressed the Parliament of Uganda where he attacked the leadership in Rwanda, calling them every name in the book, at one point referring to the Rwandan leaders as "puppies".

This was reminiscent of another Ugandan leader before him whose tirades against a neighboring Head of State in the 1970's stunned the world. In the aftermath of the Gatuna incident where President Museveni's excess military guards and guns were returned to Uganda, an action taken after consultation and full involvement of President Museveni's Presidential Guard Brigade (PBG) commanders, Ugandan Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kuteesa described an incident he attributed to the Rwandan Security personnel as "Silly and infantile", in line with the Ugandan leadership's tradition of frontal verbal attack on neighbors at the slightest misunderstanding.

In spite of the protestations and accusations on the part of the Ugandan leaders, available and clearly documented evidence shows that there was nothing that the Rwandan security did that had not been agreed upon with their Ugandan counterpart. Indeed the most sensational of all the accusations is the act of reducing on President Museveni's convoy before he entered the territory of Rwanda. The order to reduce the number of vehicles and guns in President Museveni's convoy was issued by none other than his own Commander of the PGB, Lt. Col. Leo Kyanda, when he realized that what was happening was against what he himself and other Chiefs of Presidential Security had agreed upon in Kigali during their preparation briefings, with regard to the quantity and caliber of weapons that would be allowed during the Summit.

The Uganda government, however, has chosen to perpetuate the sense of mistrust and latent conflict by insisting on the line that Rwanda government security was responsible for the reduction on the Presidential convoy. Subsequently, opinions informed by this deliberate omission have been expressed, some of which are out rightly arrogant and derogatory to the people of Rwanda. Timothy Kalyegira, writing in the Wednesday June 8, 2005 Monitor demonstrates the typical arrogance that has been the hallmark of some among Ugandan politicians and commentators. Now we know that President Museveni's own convoy was never stopped at any point during this episode. The Rwandan Local Government Minister Protais Musoni was on hand to receive him at the border and he was accorded full Presidential escort from Gatuna by Rwanda Defence Forces alongside members of his own Presidential Protection Brigade (PGB). Yet Kalyegira seeks to portray what he would like his readers to bel ieve was a calculated move by the Government of Rwanda to humiliate President Museveni! He charges that "If insult wasn't already enough, injury was added to it when Museveni was met in Kigali by Rwanda's Minister of Local Government, D�sir� Nyandwi, a diplomatic slap in the face". If Mr. Kalyegira has elected to comment on the affairs of this region, then as a good journalist he needs to acquaint himself with who the players are: Mr. D�sir� Nyandwi is not a minister, he is a member of the Parliament of Rwanda; President Museveni, therefore, was received by Minister Protais Musoni at the Common border not in Kigali as Kalyegira claims.

While he does not explain why no other Head of State showed up at the FARA "Summit meeting in Entebbe on Monday, June 6", Kalyegira describes President Kagame's absence at the conference as an insult. Despite the fact that President Kagame was unable to attend the Entebbe (FARA) Conference, the Government of Uganda had dispatched the Minister of Transport and Communication, John Nasasira to meet him at the Airport in Entebbe. Whether it is Rwanda's Protais Musoni receiving President Museveni at the border in Gatuna or indeed Uganda's John Nasasira meeting President Kagame at Entebbe, there is nothing unusual for a Head of State to designate a senior government minister to receive a visiting president at the point of entry. Of course in Rwanda's case, President Kagame was hosting more than ten Heads of State and Government and most of them were received at Kanombe Airport in Kigali, by Rwandan cabinet ministers, let alone President Museveni whose entry poin t was over sixty kilometers from Kigali! The most revealing detail with regard to the arrogant attitude exemplified by Kalyegira and his ilk is the fact that to them, while it is acceptable for a Ugandan minister to meet President Kagame at Entebbe Airport, it is an insult for a Rwandan Minister to be assigned to meet President Museveni as he arrives in Rwanda! With this kind of attitudes, save for prostrating on the streets for Museveni, whatever else the Rwandans do will constitute an insult as far as Kalyegira and those who think like him are concerned. In an open attempt to whip up anti-Rwanda sentiments, Kalyegira retorts that "it was Uganda's Commander-in-Chief himself humiliated by the very privates, corporals and Sergeants who formed the rank and file of his NRA army". Much as Kalyegira would want to denigrate them, it is these Rwandan "corporals and sergeants who played the critical role in the liberation of Uganda, some twenty years ago, with some indeed, paying the ulti mate price.

While the people of Rwanda have moved on in the last eleven years with those in government and leadership positions viewing the relationship with Uganda from a wider perspective and the bigger picture, some in Uganda are stuck in time and still perceive the relations between the two countries from that NRA narrow prism, thus the call on Rwanda to go on her knees every time a misunderstanding arises between the two countries. The population of Rwanda is over eight million and the overwhelming percentage of those in government and other leadership positions know nothing about the NRA and indeed the Ugandan experience.

As a matter of fact the majority of the Rwandan people don't understand what this Ugandan fuss is all about; they simply can't figure out why the Uganda government should seek to lord it over them. If the issue with Uganda is the Rwandans who were hosted as refugees and have now returned home, the fact is that they probably constitute the smallest percentage of all the Rwandans categories that returned from the Diaspora in 1994. You can't for example compare the numbers of Rwandans who returned from Burundi or the then Zaire to the people who returned from Uganda. What about the Rwandans who never fled the country? Rwanda is a nation constituted by Banyarwanda, not just the few who returned from Uganda. Of course the jingoists among Ugandans will be quick to remind that Uganda after all supported the liberation struggle for Rwanda, led by the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF). While this may be true, the Uganda government was definitely supporting an organizati on the majority of whose leadership and members had physically participated in the NRA's own liberation of Uganda. Whatever support Uganda may have provided, it cannot compare with the ultimate sacrifice of the Rwandan youth who paid with their blood in the struggle to liberate Uganda. There were no Ugandans who died in the Rwandan liberation, because Uganda did not contribute any fighting forces to the Rwandan Patriotic Front. And talking of liberation wars, I have always wondered why Tanzania has never bullied Uganda around for their historical role in overthrowing Idi Amin 1979! It is probably a matter of attitude and manners.

Kalyegira's talk of Museveni sending his combat pilots for training with MIG-21 planes is hot air and I wonder if he has ever bothered to find out what the content and extent of training for the Rwandan Defence Forces, including the Air Force are. And where does the United States Deputy Secretary of State for Africa, Mr. Robert Zoellick's visit to Rwanda fit in this Rwanda-Uganda issue if Mr. Kalyegira is not fishing? It is indeed absurd that Kalyegira would seek to portray Mr. Zoellick's remarks in Rwanda as aimed against Uganda! When the American official stated that "there are people still threatening Rwanda and Rwanda needs to keep its safeguards", he was clearly referring to the Interahamwe militia and FDLR in the DRC, because the subject of the discussion was these elements. For Kalyegira to emphatically claim that the "people threatening Rwanda" that Mr. Zoellick referred to is Uganda, is quite some stretch of imagination! It gets more bizarre as he talks of America supporting "Rwanda in the event of a major fight with Uganda" and you wonder where all this is coming from.

And the killer : "Simultaneously during the same week, Museveni's sister-in-law, Jovia Saleh, wife of Lt. General Salim Saleh was flatly denied a visa to the United States by the American Embassy in Kampala". What does Rwanda have to do with the US refusal to issue Mrs. Saleh a visa, if Kalyegira is not one of those who believe that whatever is wrong with Uganda must be traced in Rwanda? Talk of diversion!

Ngando Rukara is a Researcher at Great Lakes Center in Kigali

[Ugnet] Rwandan 'Corporals' Liberated Uganda

Reply via email to