Neighbours sign extradition treaty

Uganda and Rwanda have signed an extradition treaty applying to criminals in each others' country, a senior official of the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said. The ministry's permanent secretary, Julius Onen, said foreign ministers Sam Kutesa of Uganda and Charles Murigande of Rwanda signed the agreement on Friday in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. The agreement is seen as an effort to ease tensions that have existed between the two neighbours that almost went to war in 2000. Initially, Uganda and Rwanda fought as allies alongside Congolese rebels seeking to overthrow the government of Laurent-Désiré. However, Uganda and Rwanda fell out over differences in war strategy. Rwandan and Ugandan army units eventually fought battles in the Congolese town of Kisangani, after backing opposing armed Congolese factions in the anti-Kabila coalition. Relations between Kampala and Kigali deteriorated later following defections of senior army officers from both sides. Tension heightened again as each country accused the other of using these officers to plan subversive activities. The British government has been trying to ease the tensions by arranging meetings between the Rwandan and Ugandan presidents. It was not known whether over 1,169 Rwandans who fled their country in March, for fear of being brought to trial in the traditional "gacaca" courts, will be subject to the new treaty. The Rwandans are hosted at the Nakivale Refugee Camp, 300 km southwest of Kampala. Uganda announced last week it had rejected the application for refugee status of the Rwandans. Similarly, at least 5,000 Rwandan "asylum" seekers in Burundi were deported in June. In a related development, UN, Rwandan and Ugandan officials cancelled a Monday meeting that was to discuss the voluntary repatriation of Rwandan refugee from Uganda. The meeting was called off after Rwandan officials failed to show. In Kampala, the spokeswoman of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Roberta Russo, said the meeting was suppose to have been that of a Tripartite Commission (involving the agency) that had been meeting every six month to discuss the voluntary repatriation of over 14,000 Rwandan refugees in Uganda. An assistant commissioner of refugees in the Ugandan government, David Kazungu, said Rwandan ministers had prior scheduled engagements that coincided with the Tripartite Commission meeting. "We intend to have the meeting reconvened in Kampala some time in August," Kazungu said.