Rwanda denies involvement with LRA

The Rwandan government has denied claims by Uganda linking it to the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) which is active in northern Uganda. Since June this year, the LRA has stepped up attacks in the region, sparking a fresh wave of displacements where some 490,000 people already live in displaced people's camps. The Ugandan government has accused Rwanda of allowing Ugandan rebels to shelter within its territory "to move freely and maintain contact with the LRA". Ugandan presidential media adviser John Nagenda also told IRIN on Wednesday that these rebels -who, he said, are ex-Ugandan military men - were also maintaining contact with Colonel Kiiza Besigye. Besigye was President Yoweri Museveni's main rival in the 2001 presidential elections and is currently living in exile. However, Rwandan government spokesman Joseph Bideri dismissed the claims as a "sign of desperation" resulting from Uganda's "failure" to deal with the LRA over the last 16 years. "We treat these allegations with all the contempt they deserve," the Rwanda News Agency (RNA) quoted him as saying. President Yoweri Museveni, who is the commander-in-chief of Uganda's army, recently went to the northern town of Gulu to personally supervise the military operation against the LRA, Nagenda said. "For Rwanda to think that we are desperate is really a misunderstanding of what is happening in Uganda today," he added. "If the president is supervising the war in the north, then Rwanda should know this means business." The accusations come just before a crucial meeting of parliamentarians from Uganda and Rwanda aimed at exerting pressure on both countries to normalise their relations. Relations soured during the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The MPs, meeting within the framework of the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace (Amani), are due to gather in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Thursday.