SOUTH Africa has expelled three Rwandan diplomats it linked to a raid
on an exiled Rwandan general’s Johannesburg home, and Rwanda has
retaliated by ordering out six South African envoys, officials said on
Friday.
The row strained ties between the two countries involved
in efforts to bring peace to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo,
where South Africa has troops in a United Nations brigade that fought
last year against rebels whom UN experts said received support from
Rwanda. Kigali denied backing the Congolese rebels.
 |
| Rwanda's President Paul Kagame in Addis Ababa in October 2013. |
Late on
Monday, armed men broke into the Johannesburg home of former Rwandan
army chief Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, an exiled critic of Rwandan
President Paul Kagame.
Gen Nyamwasa, who survived an assassination attempt in Johannesburg in 2010, was not in the house at the time.
A
diplomatic source, who asked not to be named, said South African
security services had tracked the attackers. "It was very clear that
they were intelligence personnel attached to the Rwandan embassy," the
source added.
Three diplomats from the Rwandan mission in Pretoria
were ordered out of the country in 48 hours this week. Kigali’s
tit-for-tat expulsions followed on Friday.
Rwandan Foreign
Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said in a comment on her Twitter account
that the country had expelled six South African diplomats "in
reciprocity and concern" at South Africa’s "harbouring of dissidents
responsible for terrorist attacks in Rwanda".
South African police
have also been investigating the New Year’s Eve murder in an luxury
Sandton hotel of another exiled Kagame opponent, former Rwandan spy
chief Patrick Karegeya.
Exiled Rwandan opposition members have
accused Mr Kagame and his government of being responsible for Karegeya’s
death and for attacks on Gen Nyamwasa and other overseas-based critics.
They deny Kigali’s charges that they are behind "terrorist" attacks in Rwanda.
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