A mini summit of the International Conference for the Great Lakes region in Angola’s capital Luanda last week provided the setting for efforts to defuse escalating tension between Rwanda and South Africa.

At the end of the two-day summit, convened by President José Eduardo dos Santos, ICGLR’s chairperson, the two countries had agreed to find mutual ways to ease the festering diplomatic row that has seen three Rwandan diplomats expelled from South Africa, and Rwanda retaliate by expelling six South African diplomats.

The spat was over the security of Rwandan dissidents living in South Africa that President Paul Kagame’s administration has been accused of going after.
Rwanda has denied these accusations.

READ: South Africa, Rwanda agree to resolve diplomatic row

“With regards to relations between South Africa and the Republic of Rwanda, the matter was discussed by the summit and there was agreement that the two countries must discuss the issue and find a mutually agreeable solution,” said a statement from the Office of the President in Pretoria.

The standoff, which began in early March, had got the region on edge and stirred concern that a complete breakdown of relations between the two capitals could play out in fragile eastern DR Congo.

READ: Kigali, Pretoria row could spill into Congo

Rwanda maintains high social and security interests in this part of Congo that has been scarred by endless conflict.

South Africa is an integral part of the Force Intervention Brigade, the UN’s first-ever “offensive” combat force, which is credited with defeating the M23 rebels that Rwanda was accused of backing.

The brigade has also been credited with returning Goma, North Kivu’s capital, and its precincts to relative normalcy. By doing so, analysts say Pretoria has undercut Kigali’s supposed influence in what is known as the eastern gateway to the vast, abundantly endowed country.

With Kigali showing no signs of compromise, it is believed Pretoria reached out to Kampala to bridge some sort of rapprochement to forestall any unnecessary escalation that could misrepresent it as a bully. That is why it is unsurprising Kigali has remained mum since. According to them, they had done more than they could to resolve the matter.

“Rwanda believes that they are undertaking some action and we as South Africa have an international obligation that when people come to us for refugee status we’ve got to give them. There was an agreement that the two countries should meet and that has been accepted,” President Jacob Zuma told his country’s public broadcaster.

Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo told BBC Kinyarwanda service on March 27 in London: “The diplomatic issues between Rwanda and South Africa are simple: There are Rwandan dissidents who are exiled in South Africa. These (Kayumba Nyamwasa and Patrick Karegeya) fled at a time they were wanted by the judiciary. We requested South Africa to send them home to be tried and the country explained to us why they can’t extradite them and we understood each other.

Started talking

“After some time, these men started collaborating with people to destabilise the country. That was in 2010. We again started talking to South Africa over the issue. Fleeing the country was fine, but when people cross the line and start engaging in terrorist activities, it becomes a problem,” she said.

“Grenades have so far killed 18 people in the country since 2010, over 470 have sustained injuries. This is really the problem at hand and we are discussing it with South Africa. We have evidence that they are the ones behind these attacks. Our intelligence services have the evidence, suspects who were arrested in these actions confessed. There is no doubt about that. We discussed this with South Africa on these issues.”

She said Kigali have shared this with Pretoria, “including their involvement in bad politics with an aim of unsettling the government.”
“This is where the real problem is,” she said.

On whether the Rwanda government has been hunting down the dissidents she said: “We need to separate things. Unless there is something new I don’t know, the South African government says investigations are still ongoing.”

Ms Mushikiwabo spoke out on the attacks, including the killing of Patrick Karegeya, saying that Rwanda is not concerned with the security of the exiles in South Africa.

“Our diplomats were expelled in a manner that was not right. What we did was to expel their diplomats in reciprocity, until we get explanations. Some of our diplomats had not spent even three weeks in South Africa. It was not right to accuse someone who doesn’t even know their way around of engaging in such activities.

“We were not happy about South Africa’s actions,” she said.