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Rwanda: Gen Nyamwasa hits at Museveni’s pro-Kagame view


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Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, a Rwandan dissident and survivor of three assassination attempts in South Africa, has accused President Museveni of abetting authoritarianism in Rwanda.

In an interview, Nyamwasa describes Rwanda as an authoritarian regime that is persecuting the opposition at home and killing those in exile.

He said much as President Museveni doesn't handle Ugandan opposition politicians with brutish force the way President Paul Kagame does, the Ugandan leader preaches mayhem in Rwanda.

"Dr Kizza Besigye stayed in exile in South Africa for five years and when he returned to Uganda, the FDC branch in South Africa is still operational and the government of Uganda does not call them terrorists. President Museveni has not killed Col Kizza Besigye and Gen Mugisha Muntu, his [former] minister and army commander respectively. He has not killed Olara Otunnu, who was previously accused of calling for negotiations with [LRA's] Joseph Kony," he said.

Nyamwasa added: "Compare with President Kagame - incarceration of President Pasteur Bizimungu and the jubilation about the assassination of Col Patrick Karegeya."

Nyamwasa also pointed out that in more tolerant Uganda, the family of the late Col John Ogole, a former UNLA senior officer, has been promised assistance by the government to repatriate his body from London for a decent burial in his Lango home.

"Isn't it strange that one exudes kindness and empathy at home and preaches mayhem in the neighbourhood!" he said of Museveni.

Recently, President Museveni praised Rwanda as being stronger, politically, socially, militarily and economically. However, Nyamwasa seeks to remind President Museveni that during the Kisangani clashes between Ugandan and Rwandan armed forces in 1999 and 2000, the Ugandan leader described Kagame as treacherous, and later in a letter to Clare Short (British minister), categorised him as politically bankrupt.

Gen Nyamwasa was instrumental in the Kagame-led Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), which came to power in 1994, ending genocide in that country.


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