Kampala — Rwandan President Paul Kagame in an exclusive interview with Sunday Vision said relations with Uganda have been fully restored.

Asked how we would rate present relations between the two countries, whose armies fought each other in the Democratic Republic of Congo ten years ago, he said: "Very good".

Pressed to analyse what had caused the rift, Kagame smiled and said: "I don't think I'll go into this. Going into that is a disservice to the level of friendship we have again attained."

The Rwandan leader, who took over the EAC chairmanship last week, said he wanted to remove the obstacles to trade and investment in East Africa by reducing the number of corruption-breeding weighbridges and check points.

"Why should you have 10 weighbridges between Katuna and Malaba? Why should you keep weighing these trucks? We should limit the number of weighbridges to maybe two per country, one at the entrance and one at the exit."

The new EAC chairman also wants the borders within the East African Community to be open 24 hours a day so as to remove the inefficiencies and speed up delivery.

"We should leave the border open 24 hours a day. We might start by extending the opening times gradually, one or two hours at a time."

He narrated how one early morning he arrived at the Rwandan-Ugandan border crossing of Katuna and found his customs officers still sleeping. "People on the Ugandan side had woken up. The engines of the trucks had started running. But they could not move. People 100m away, across the border, were still sleeping because Uganda is one hour ahead! It does not make sense at all."

In a bid to foster closer relations with neighbouring countries and attract skills, Rwanda has also abolished work permits for professionals from Uganda and other EAC countries.

"We waived work permits for skilled people from East Africa, such as teachers, doctors, engineers and agronomists. There are many Ugandans working here."

On the international level, Kagame lashed out at the Spanish judge who recently indicted 40 Rwanda Patriotic Front soldiers for mass killings, and the French judge who earlier implicated him in the death of former president Juvenal Habyarimana.

"There is a big question about the so-called universal jurisdiction exercised by those judges, who are mainly abusing it. It is associated with another type of injustice, where the western world and their systems are full of arrogance and inconsistencies."

He wondered what gave a judge in France or Spain the right to try cases in Rwanda.

"Do you envisage a Rwandan judge trying Europeans for cases they were involved in while in Rwanda? Does justice have a definition where might is right, where it is Europe that can try Africa and not the other way around?"

In no uncertain terms, Kagame warned that his government would start investigating and indicting powerful European politicians and military commanders if the cases went ahead.

"Of course, those countries are running a danger and causing a judiciary case. Imagine if our judges started operating under the same so-called universal jurisdiction and indicting ministers or generals in Belgium or France or Spain. We have some of them on record of having been involved here."

Asked who he had in mind, he said: "This is not a subject to this discussion. You will get to know it when it comes out."