Uganda, Rwanda defence ministers pledge to resolve conflicts amicably

Rwanda and Uganda vowed on Monday to resolve their security concerns amicably and agreed they would not allow anti-government dissidents to operate from each other’s country, news organisations reported.
Their defence ministers, meeting in the southwestern Ugandan town of Kabale, agreed to relocate dissidents to third countries with the help of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. They also pledged to give each other prior notice of troop deployments near their common border and in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they support different local factions fighting the government in Kinshasa. Uganda agreed to withdraw from its border with Rwanda a battalion it had deployed in September after Ugandan army dissidents in Kigali, Rwanda, declared their intention to launch an armed struggle to topple Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, PANA reported.
The ministers agreed to put in place mechanisms for formal and regular contacts at all levels between the two countries. Both delegates also agreed that their presidents would on 6 Nov. in London discuss the contents of a letter Museveni wrote British Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short saying Kampala would increase defence spending to counter “threats from Kigali”, the Rwandan News Agency reported.
“Rwandan officials were irked by the contents of the letter in which Museveni called them ‘ideologically bankrupt,’ ” the agency reported.
The agreements, contained in a joint communique, were reached at a meeting of Rwandan Defence Minister Emmanuel Habyarimana and his Ugandan counterpart Amama Mbabazi, Rwandan Radio reported. Ugandan Radio also announced that its People’s Defence Forces commander, Jeje Odongo, and chief of military intelligence Nobel Mayombo, were present.
The meeting was convened amidst media reports that both countries were on the brink of war. Relations between them have been tense since the erstwhile allied armies clashed in the northeastern DRC town of Kisangani in 1999 and 2000.