Sylvia Juuko
20 November 2007
Kampala — PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame downplayed the clashes in eastern Congo, saying it would not affect investment flows in the region.
"Those problems in eastern Congo are residual. At one time they were much bigger but they are not major anymore," he said.
"In any case, they cannot stop investments in Uganda or Rwanda."
The presidents were jointly addressing a brief press conference after the opening of the three-day Commonwealth Business Forum at the Sheraton Kampala Hotel.
Museveni said the country had prospected for oil for the last 18 years near the Congolese border, despite the security problems. "Last year, we hit petroleum fields in that area near the border and those problems in Congo did not stop us," the President noted.
"If you look at Europe, the problem in Northern Ireland did not stop the UK from recovering from the Second World War. These problems in Congo can't stop investment. They are peripheral and not structural," he stated.
North Kivu has been the site of confrontations between the Congolese army, Rwandan Hutu rebels and insurgents led by dissident Laurent Nkunda, forcing 375,000 people to flee their homes, the UN says.
Although a peace deal officially ended DR Congo's war in 2002, Nkunda has never agreed to fully join the army, as former rebel units were supposed to.
Nkunda, a Congolese who once served in Rwanda's rebel forces, says his men are protecting the Tutsi in Congo from genocide.
President Paul Kagame hoped that the crisis in eastern Congo would be resolved. "Leaders of the region are working together to ensure that we deal with the root causes of those problems. I don't see that discouraging investments we intend to have in Rwanda or the region," Kagame said.
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