KIGALI/KAMPALA – The Executive Director, Uganda Media Centre, Ofwono Opondo has revealed that the meeting slated to take place between Ugandan and Rwandan Government has been called off, further exposing the rocky relations between the two nations.
Taking to his twitter handle this afternoon, Ofwono wrote, “The media is hereby informed that the Second meeting of the Adhoc Commission on Luanda Memorandum of Understanding between Uganda and Rwanda scheduled for November 18, 2019 in Kampala has been postponed at the request of Rwanda. A new date will be communicated.”
Although Ofwono shied away from revealing the reason why the meeting was called off, the development comes at a time the two nations were recently involved in a diplomatic spat with Uganda writing a protest note after two of its citizens were gunned down by Rwanda Police on accusations that the deceased were caught smuggling tobacco into Rwanda.
Job Ebyarishaga and Bosco Tuhirwe were killed at Tabagwe village in Nyagatare District in Rwanda with the Rwandan Government accusing the duo of smuggling tobacco into their nation with Rwanda describing the deaths as a pity and that their death should serve as a tough lesson for Ugandans to know that every country has its own rules, handles crime in its own way and methods neighboring East African country.
The latest diplomatic row didn’t fall short of drama when Ugandan security authorities demanded Rwanda to present a postmortem as a condition of receiving the bodies, but were shocked when Rwandan authorities instead handed over the deceased’s death certificates, which didn’t go down well with the Ugandan authorities.
The Ugandan delegation was angered further when they realized that the death certificates were written in French and Kinyarwanda languages instead of English, prompting Uganda to decline to receive the bodies and demanded that the Rwandan officials first write a handover report.
In its protest note Ugandans Government noted, “The government of Uganda protests in the strongest terms the murder of its nationals by Rwandan security personnel. The alleged crime (smuggling) cannot justify this high handed and criminal act by Rwandan security personnel.”
This is another meeting that has failed to take place after the 16th September 2019 meet scheduled for Kigali to ease tension between the countries as part of the fulfillment of the peace agreement signed by President Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagane in Angola recently.
