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JOINT PRESS CONFERENCE

President Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda and President Museveni of the Republic of Uganda

At the end of a two-day official working visit to Uganda by the Rwandan President, Their Excellencies Presidents Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of Uganda addressed a joint press conference at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe.

Proceedings were as follows:

Hon. Amama Mbabazi, Uganda's Minister for Regional Cooperation Your Excellency, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni,

Your Excellency, President Paul Kagame, you are welcome to this press conference where we have assembled both local and international press representatives. We shall read the joint communiqué first, and this will be followed by questions from the press to Your Excellencies. If you have no objections to this proposed agenda for this meeting, Your Excellencies, I will go ahead to read the joint communiqué.

JOINT COMMUNIQUE

1. At the invitation of H.E. President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni of the Republic of Uganda, H.E. President Paul Kagame of the Republic of Rwanda paid a two-day official working visit to Uganda.

2. The two Heads of State met in a cordial atmosphere, reflecting the historical brotherly relations existing between the peoples of Uganda and Rwanda.

3. The two Heads of State held fruitful discussions and reviewed areas of mutual interest including bilateral, regional and international issues.

4. On bilateral issues, the two Heads of State stressed the need to consolidate further the relations between the two countries. They agreed on the need to explore new ways and means to further strengthen and deepen relations.

5. The two Heads of State held extensive discussions on the problems affecting the region. On the Democratic Republic of Congo, they reiterated their strong commitment to the implementation of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement and resolved to work together for its full and expeditious implementation.

6. On the recent clashes between the UPDF and RPA, in Kisangani, the two leaders regretted these unfortunate developments which were a setback to the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement. In this regard, the two Heads of State reaffirmed their commitment to the demilitarization of the city of Kisangani and called on other parties to the Ceasefire Agreement to reciprocate and not take advantage of Rwanda and Uganda's withdrawal from Kisangani.

7. The two Heads of State called upon the United Nations to fully deploy MONUC observers to support the Ceasefire Agreement and to provide necessary and adequate resources to the facilitator of the National Dialogue and to the JMC to enable them discharge the important tasks assigned to them under the Ceasefire Agreement.

8. At the end of his visit, President Paul Kagame expressed gratitude to President Museveni and the people of Uganda for the warm reception and cordial hospitality extended to him and his delegation during their stay in Uganda.

9. President Kagame extended an invitation to President Museveni to visit Rwanda. The invitation was gladly accepted. The dates will be communicated through diplomatic channels.

Thank You.

Questions and Answers.

Rugenera Pierre-Desire, Rwanda TV News:(Question translated into English from Kinyarwanda) After what happened in Kisangani, and what has transpired over the last two days between Your two Excellencies, what can you tell the people of Rwanda is the way forward.

President Paul Kagame :(Answer translated into English from Kinyarwanda)
What is important is that President Museveni and I met for talks with the intention of reaching a conclusion on how to iron-out the problems that caused the fighting in Kisangani. The talks have gone well. We have discussed the issues exhaustively. We have acknowledged that the problems did exist and we have agreed on solutions for them. But most significantly, we have been looking forward to how our two countries can once again revive the excellent relations that existed before these difficulties emerged. Rwandans and Ugandans should be confident and hopeful because we are committed not to allow these problems to happen again.

Ali Mutasa, BBC Kiswahili: People are dying to know, those I have spoken to about the Kisangani question, and everybody you ask, either on the street or other places, they say only two people know what happened in Kisangani: President Museveni and President Kagame. Now what really happened in Kisangani? What was the cause of this fight between two allies?

President Museveni
What we agreed in the meeting here, was that in this meeting we would not spend our time doing post-mortems. The post-mortem will be done by a committee led by Ministers and some Army Officers. We just concentrated on the way forward, as the President was saying. The way forward is the important thing, while not forgetting the post-mortem.

Reuters: Looking to the future, what assurances can you give us that we will never again see Uganda and Rwanda fighting each other in Congo.

President Kagame
The assurance is in the fact that we have been able to have a good meeting between the two of us. We have discussed at length the importance of overcoming these difficulties that caused the tensions in the past. We have focused on moving forward and we have also asked people to look into what happened in the past that perpetuated this kind of situation for the time it was there. We have also suggested that there be mechanisms in place to address any future problems before they develop into any form of clashes or violence such as those that took place in Kisangani. I think we have reinforced our commitment and the belief that the two brotherly countries should continue to work together, and I have no doubts that our commitments will be fulfilled.

Linus Kaikai, SABC: Your Excellencies how do you explain the fact that the fighting between your two countries occurred in a third country? What does this say of your mission in Congo? Has the mission and interest changed maybe to commercial perspectives?

President Museveni
We regretted fighting, not only in a third country, but between our two countries was regrettable. So that is why first of all the post-mortem will be done by our people. That is A of our meeting. B, is the way forward. The way forward which is clear, and with a clear mechanism for handling things. So you can't go into the details now of whether it was commercial or whatever causes without doing a post-mortem. That will be pre-judging the issue.

Tamale Mirundi, The Voice Newspaper: Media reports say that we lost the case in The Hague. I would like to know what this implies for the future of our presence in Congo.

President Museveni
That was a lie. We actually won the case. But The Monitor is The Monitor. You don't have to waste your time with it.Hon. Wapakhabulo is the Lawyer, he can answer the question better.

Hon. James Wapakhabulo
The case against Uganda in the International Court of Justice in The Hague was that 1. Uganda should withdraw immediately its troops from Kisangani and Congo as a whole, and 2. Pay reparations for damage caused. These were to be in form of interim orders pending the determination of the earlier case which Kabila filed against Uganda last year.

However, the International Court decided that yes, Uganda should withdraw from Congo, but in accordance with UN resolutions, which means they sent the case back to Lusaka because the Security Council decided last week that Uganda and Rwanda should withdraw from the Congo in accordance with the Lusaka timetable. So in effect, there was a status quo, we won.

Richard Mulondo, Radio Sanyu: According to your communiqué you say that you agreed on a number of issues. I am interested in the specifics. Your Excellency President Yoweri Museveni, you are on record as having said that the differences between Uganda and Rwanda at that time were on strategy. I would like to know whether in your new way forward, you have harmonized your positions.

President Museveni
We harmonized all issues, but you see unfortunately we don't always work for the press. You know we are working for the solution, not for the press. So, it is not possible to talk about all those in detail. The communiqué is good enough for now. Thank you very much.

Entebbe. 2nd July, 2000.

© The Government of Rwanda.