Sex scandal fuels Uganda-Rwanda tensions

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/04/03/uganda.rwanda.reut/index.html

The story broke ahead of Tuesday's treason trial of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye, which was expected to strain ties even more.

Besigye, who lost elections in February to President Yoweri Museveni, is accused of training rebels in Rwanda.

The Kigali correspondent for Uganda's independent Sunday Monitor newspaper quoted Rwandan President Paul Kagame as denying for the first time that the rebel People's Redemption Army (PRA) even existed.

"PRA has been a creation of Uganda itself," he said. "Its existence and size is something that I know nothing about."

The Rwandan and Ugandan armies have clashed twice after invading Democratic Republic of Congo together in 1998, and the health of the Kampala-Kigali relationship is a top concern for diplomats working for peace in the Great Lakes region.

Until those clashes in 1999 and 2000 destroyed much of Congo's diamond city Kisangani, Rwanda's Kagame and Museveni had been close allies.

They attended the same boarding school in western Uganda, and Kagame became Museveni's intelligence chief during the bush war that propelled the older man to power to 1986.

In turn, Museveni backed Kagame -- a Rwandan exile -- when he led rebels to end Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

But they fell out over territory in mineral-rich eastern Congo, and despite withdrawing their troops, analysts say both still use proxy militias to compete for influence there.

Both have accused the other of aiding anti-government rebels, and both have expelled diplomats suspected of spying.