From reading Uganda’s newspapers, one gets the feeling that there is little to no willingness on the part of Uganda’s officials to normalize relations with Rwanda despite efforts by mediators, Angola and DRC. Uganda’s officials insist on their talking points about the border and the subsequent disruptions of trade rather addressing than the root causes of these issues, which are Uganda’s decades-long attempts to destabilize her neighbour, Rwanda. The Daily Monitor’s recent article titled, “Katuna border remains closed two years since talks started”, in which misinformation abounds, attempts to misrepresent the causes of the persisting tensions between the two countries. The first lie of the Daily Monitor is that Uganda’s withdrawal of a passport it had issued to a Rwanda National Congress terror group official was the remaining obstacle in the process of normalising relations. “This action must be verified and confirmed by the Ad-Hoc Ministerial Commission for the implementation of the memorandum of understanding of Luanda… Once this recommendation is fulfilled and reported to the heads of states, the facilitators will convene within 15 days, a summit in Gatuna/Katuna for the solemn re-opening of the borders and subsequent normalisation of the relations between the two countries,” the Daily Monitor writes about the February 21, 2020, Summit at Gatuna and in passing about Ms Charlotte Mukankusi. Mukankusi is the representative of the Rwanda National Congress (RNC), a terror group responsible for a series of grenade attacks that targeted Kigali’s residents in 2010. President Museveni admitted to having “accidentally” met with Mukankusi and other RNC officials as they were planning and coordinating the destabilization of Rwanda. Moreover, the withdrawal of Mukankusi’s Ugandan passport was never mentioned in the communique issued after the Gatuna quadripartite summit. The core issue which required verification and confirmation by the Ad-Hoc Ministerial Commission was “allegations of the Republic of Rwanda about action from its [Uganda’s] territory by forces hostiles to the Government of Rwanda,” according to the post summit communique. “If these allegations are proved, the Ugandan Government will take all measures to stop it and prevent it from happening again,” the communique further reads, adding that Uganda had exactly “one month” to verify these allegations. A year has passed and Ugandan newspapers are still unwilling to hold their Government to account. Instead, they have committed to distracting their audience from the recommendations of the Gatuna Summit, which is the only existing framework for resolving whatever concerns Uganda may have about the “boarder crisis”. It turns out Uganda’s main concern has never been about accusations of espionage for which Uganda has always failed to provide evidence and its President himself acknowledged in a letter to his Rwandan counterpart that they were mere “rumours.” The major “stumbling block” has never changed. It is Uganda’s suicidal commitment to supporting forces hell bent on destabilizing Rwanda and the continued harrasment, detention and dumping of innocent Rwandans. Once these issues are addressed, an ad-hoc ministerial commission will verify that Uganda has effectively stopped this scheme with the RNC and other groups that it recruits and a summit of Heads of State will take place within 15 days after the said commission has shared its findings. The Daily Monitor should stop taking its readers for fools and tell them the truth instead of mocking its motto of “truth every day.”
