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By Sam Orikunda
Bushenyi: In the past three years, the Ugandan districts neighbouring Rwanda have had a difficult time.
Bodies of innocent Ugandans were repatriated from Rwanda in the presence of the media, and unfortunately, these would be young men who were struggling to do business and make ends meet.
The borders of Uganda and Rwanda were closed for almost two years until recently when they were reopened. I don’t know if they’re open fully or if people still go through struggles and huddles to leave Rwanda or leave Uganda.
The painful events of repatriating the bodies of young men who were shot dead by the Rwandan army who would be having young families didn’t convince the Rwandan army and its leadership to put a stop to shooting their innocent neighbours.
If Uganda didn’t have good leadership at that time, war would have erupted between Uganda and Rwanda. Look at the current bad events that are happening in Israel and Gaza even when the authorities in Israel say that they’re defending their own country, forgetting that the people who are being killed also deserve to live and could be having nothing to do with the ongoing conflict between the two neighbouring countries.
That same situation was likely to happen between Uganda and Rwanda but thank God, we have an understanding president. I have seen news running around social media that Rwanda has announced visa-free travel for all Africans who would like to travel to Rwanda. Whereas I do not know how this is going to work out, what I know for sure is that this will not last.
The countries that are neighbouring Rwanda include Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. All these have all had issues with Rwanda in the past.
In fact, as of today, the leaders of DRC do not see eye to eye with their Rwandan counterparts. So if the Congolese read this news which is running on social media and they throng to Rwanda what would happen to them? Would they come back alive? Based on what has happened to other Africans from the countries that are neighbouring Rwanda and who have forcefully entered Rwanda for business.
Many children in Uganda now are orphans and many women are widows because their parents or husbands were shot by merciless army officers of Rwanda’s national army.
Who will convince me that the reasons as to why those people were killed are no longer exist? Who will convince me that Rwanda’s national army will now see other Africans as brothers who should be treated well if not protected by them? By the way, Rwanda as a country has never come out to apologize to Ugandans who lost their relatives in those senseless killings.
It seems some African leaders are really not pan-Africanists like they sing every day. It seems some leaders within Africa do things for purposes of public relations (PR) not because they’re convinced and believe in pan-Africanism and I say this based on their past actions.
It’s only President Museveni who has walked the talk. He has often times offered a home to the suffering Africans and that’s why Uganda is a home to millions of refugees from different countries.
If indeed President Paul Kagame of Rwanda believes in Pan-Africanism, and if indeed he knows that the borders are man-made boundaries which were created by the imperialists as a way of fighting for the unity of Africans, then he wouldn’t have kept a deaf ear as Ugandans were being butchered at different border points.
If President Kagame honestly believed that Africa would develop if inter-trade between African countries was embraced then, Ugandan exports to Rwanda wouldn’t have been blocked at the Katuna border. Up to date, Ugandan businessmen are still servicing the loans of the goods that perished at the Katuna border.
The writer is a deputy RDC Sheema district
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Via, The Observer
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