President Jakaya Kikwete meets his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame in
Kampala yesterday. The two leaders held talks on the sidelines of the
International Conference on the Great Lakes Region. PHOTO | STATE HOUSE
By The Citizen Reporters
Posted Thursday, September 5 2013 at 22:26
Posted Thursday, September 5 2013 at 22:26
In Summary
That assurance will raise the spirits of
citizens of the two nations who have in the recent past lived in fear of
troubled times as tension rose in Kigali and Dar es Salaam.
Dar es Salaam/Kampala. It was a day of great
relief yesterday for Tanzania and Rwanda after Presidents Jakaya Kikwete
and Paul Kagame held one-on-one talks to defuse diplomatic tensions
that have sparked ripples of alarm in the two East African Community
nations.
The two leaders met for just over an hour and held
private talks in Uganda on the sidelines of the International
Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR).
Their eagerly awaited meeting was held at Munyonyo
Commonwealth Resort in Kampala, according to a statement released by
the State House directorate of communications in Dar es Salaam.
Uganda’s permanent secretary in the ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Mr James Mugume, confirmed earlier that the two leaders
would meet under the aegis of President Yoweri Museveni as chairman of
the conference. Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda told Parliament last week
that Mr Kikwete had asked President Museveni to help resolve the
tensions between the two countries.
According to the State House statement, Mr Kikwete
and Mr Kagame “had fruitful talks and were all satisfied”. The two
presidents agreed to continue cooperating in building the “good and
historical” relations between the two countries, according to the
statement.
That assurance will raise the spirits of citizens
of the two nations who have in the recent past lived in fear of troubled
times as tension rose in Kigali and Dar es Salaam.
The crisis, triggered by President Kikwete’s
appeal to Rwanda to engage FDRL rebels in talks, started in May. Mr
Kikwete’s suggestion at a meeting of the Great Lakes countries, which
met on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, did not
go down well with Mr Kagame and other top Rwandese officials. They link
the FDRL with the 1994 genocide in which over 800,000 people were
killed.
The two leaders met on the heels of a fresh row
after Rwanda slapped a new transport charge on Tanzanian trucks. The
raising of the road toll from $152 to $500 and its timing was viewed as
retaliation for the mass expulsion of thousands of Rwandese citizens
from Kagera Region in an exercise to flush out illegal immigrants.
There were no further details about the
tete-a-tete but sources indicated that the two leaders were prevailed
upon by their colleagues to end hostilities and instead build on their
strengths. Other presidents attending the conference are Salva Kiir of
South Sudan and Joseph Kabila of DR-Congo. Kenyan President Uhuru
Kenyatta is also a member but did not attend as he was hosting Nigerian
counterpart Goodluck Jonathan in Nairobi.
Tanzania and Rwanda are key players in the search
for peace in the region and all players are keen to ensure they
cooperate and remain within the fold. “When you are the chairman, you
take responsibility to ensure that all the parties are happy, that you
are able to generate consensus and move forward,” Mr Mugume told the
Daily Monitor shortly before the presidents went into a closed-door
meeting. “We are all members of the Great Lakes Region. What we are
trying to do is resolve the issues so that we can get back on track.”
Mr Kagame arrived in Kampala on Wednesday night while Mr Kikwete and his entourage arrived yesterday morning from Dodoma.
source: The citizen
source: The citizen
