Uganda’s foreign policy in the 1990s

Museveni is said to have told then Rwanda president Habyarimana in 1988 to be careful with Tutsi NRA officer, Fred Rwigyema, saying he would cause him trouble.

1990: the RPF invades Rwanda
In 1979, Rwandan Tutsis in Uganda formed a body that they called the Rwandaise Alliance Nationale de Unite (RANU). These refugees had started pouring and settling in Uganda in 1959 after the overthrow of the Tutsi monarchy by Hutu officers.

In late 1987, the Rwandans in Uganda’s NRA had become the dominant members of RANU by virtue of their officer ranks in the Ugandan army. They influenced the change of RANU to the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The RPF was formed out of several groups, such as one by a Dr Rudasingwa, based in South Africa.

The first fully-fledged RPF meeting was held in Kampala in 1989. It was an acrimonious one. The delegates almost got into fist fights, as they exchanged bitter words.

Meanwhile, the Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana had taken note of the developments in Uganda in 1986, in which the NRA took state power and many Tutsi officers played a leading role in the 1981-1986 guerrilla war that brought Musveni to power. He expressed willingness to deal with the Tutsi in Uganda and invited them to visit their relatives who had stayed in Rwanda all through the 1960s until the 1980s. Exiled Tutsis from Uganda then started visiting Rwanda.

In 1988 at a ceremony in which the NRA, until then not formally constituted into an army in the conventional western staff college sense, finally gave western-type ranks to its officers. Museveni was given the rank of Lieutenant-General. Elly Tumwiine, the NRA commander, and Salim Saleh, Museveni’s brother, both became Major-Generals.

The guest of honour at this ceremony was President Habyarimana. In one of those ironies of history, it was given to Habyarimana to decorate the Deputy Minister of Defence and one of the senior Tutsi NRA officers, Fred Rwigyema, who was given the rank of Major-General.

Warning
In his usual tactless way, Museveni told Habyarimana to be careful with Rwigyema, casually quipping that “This man can cause you problems”, as Rwigyema, a long-time aide and one of the closest people to Museveni, cringed with embarrassment.

Meanwhile, in late 1989, strangers started appearing in Rwandan villages and towns toward the border with Uganda. These were RPF agents and scouts from Uganda. What were these Tutsi RPF intelligence officers and informers looking for in Rwanda in 1989?

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