Gen Nyamwasa group scoffs at Rwanda’s attack claims
The Rwanda National Congress (RNC) Secretary General Gervais Condo. Courtesy photo
Kampala. The Rwanda National Congress (RNC), a group that Rwanda alleges is plotting to overthrow the Kigali government with Uganda’s support, has said it should not be drawn into the simmering conflict between the two countries.
RNC Secretary General Gervais Condo on Tuesday told Daily Monitor that Rwanda has had bad relations with all her neighbours even before their organisation was formed.
“It’s not RNC that has caused wrangles between Rwanda and its neighbours. Rwanda has problems with Burundi, Tanzania, DR Congo and now Uganda. This can’t be RNC,” Mr Condo said by telephone from the United States.
Rwandan foreign affairs minister, Dr Richard Sezibera, said at a press conference in Kigali yesterday that RNC operates subversive cells in Uganda.
“They are a group which is on the way to disappearing. They have no sensible agenda, they have no ideology and they have no leadership. It will disappear. But our challenge-It’s acting with the support of some people in Uganda,” Dr Sezibera charged.
In response, Mr Condo described Dr Sezibera’s remarks as “disgraceful and ridiculous.”
“At first, he dismissed RNC. He said it does not exist but he is now saying we have no agenda! Let him do his homework well,” Mr Condo charged.
He said the closure of the Katuna border by Rwanda is diversionary. “Whenever they have an internal problem, they want to divert the attention,” he said.
When asked which internal problem Rwanda is facing, Mr Condo said “it’s dictatorship”.
Dr Sezibera said Rwanda has issued arrest warrants for some of the RNC leaders including Maj Gen Kayumba Nyamwasa, former Rwandan army chief of staff, who has survived two assassination attempts in South Africa.
Sour relations
Rwanda has had sour relations with her neighbours in the last five years. In 2013, Kigali government was accused of aiding M23 rebels to overthrow the government of DR Congo President Joseph Kabila who retired after the January elections.
In 2014, Tanzania and Rwanda almost went to war after President Jakaya Kikwete told President Kagame to talk to the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda, a dissident group active in the eastern DRC.
Rwanda and Burundi have cut off diplomatic ties after President Pierre Nkurunziza accused Kigali of supporting the attempted coup against him in 2015 when the coup leader, Gen Godefroid Niyombare said he was “dismissing President Pierre Nkurunziza” following the 2015 Burundi unrest.
