Defence ministers to push for extradition treaty

The defence ministers of Uganda and Rwanda have agreed to push for the establishment of a bilateral extradition treaty as a mechanism to deal with dissidents who threaten the security of one or other of the two countries. Amama Mbabazi of Uganda and his Rwandan counterpart, Col Emmanuel Habyarimana, at the weekend resolved that the extradition treaty would conform to international best practice. "The ministers agreed to ask their ministries of justice and foreign affairs to press ahead with work on an extradition treaty between the two countries conforming to international best practice," said a joint communiqué issued after the meeting facilitated by British government and held in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, on Sunday. According to the communiqué, the ministers agreed that satisfactory progress had been made on the agreements reached at the Kabale and London meetings. They also commended the work of the Joint Verification and Investigation Committee (JVIC) set up in November last year for the implementation of relevant aspects of the agreement. During the meeting at the weekend, the two ministers and their delegations reviewed the progress made since their meeting in Kabale on 29 October 2001 and the meeting of Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda in London on 6 November 2001, and to prepare for the meeting of their two presidents on 14 February with the UK Secretary of State for International Development. The ministers noted in particular the progress made to achieve transparency and mutual trust over the issue of dissidents in each other's countries, and tasked the JVIC to continue, and enhance its efforts in this regard. They reconfirmed their commitment never to allow their territories to be used by dissidents to destabilise either country, and to pursue the goal of their relocation to third countries with the continuing assistance of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The ministers further noted that there had been a total of 15 verification and investigation visits: seven in Uganda; seven in Rwanda and one in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. "These visits had been conducted in a transparent and professional manner, to the satisfaction to date in tension between the two countries, and expressed gratitude to the UK and other third party countries involved in these visits," the communiqué noted. It was agreed that while the UK would retain a coordinating role as regards arranging a third-party presence on these visits, defence advisers from other missions who had joined the third-party presence on previous visits could be requested to take the lead third-party role on future visits. A further review of the verification and inspection mechanisms would be held in three months.