Ngongo
Platinum Member
- Sep 20, 2008
- 21,459
- 38,182
Dar es Salaam/Kigali. Rwanda has finally given the nod to President Jakaya Kikwetes choice of ambassador to that country, ending speculation that President Paul Kagames government would not endorse Dars diplomat.
The Cabinet confirmed Mr Ali Iddi Siwa as Tanzanias new envoy in Rwanda on Wednesday, The Citizen has established. According to a copy of the Cabinet resolution, the Kigali government unanimously approved Mr Siwa during a meeting chaired by President Kagame.
President Kikwete appointed Mr Siwa earlier this year but he could not report to his new work station immediately because protocol demands that the host country confirms the candidate.
Local newspaper Mtanzania reported last week that Rwanda had declined to confirm the ambassador-elect allegedly because of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries. But a senior diplomat in President Kagames inner circle, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Citizen that the process was delayed because all top officials were busy with the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the genocide in the past two months.
We have no reason to reject the newly-appointed Tanzanian ambassador to Rwanda, our source said on the phone. We have our own means of doing things as a sovereign country.
Rwandas cabinet also confirmed five other ambassadors--representing Romania, Belarus, India, Congo Brazaville and Hungary.
Mr Siwa is taking up the assignment at a time relations between the two countries have turned sour because of the security issue in the Democratic Republic of Congo and President Kikwetes advice on negotiations with the Hutu rebels last year.
He replaces Dr Marwa Matiko, whose term ended officially last year. Before his appointment, Mr Siwa was the diplomatic officer at Tanzanias embassy in Germany.
In another development, The Citizen has reliably established that Rwanda recently demanded that President Kagame meet President Kikwete to sort out diplomatic tensions.
The Rwandans reportedly wanted former President Benjamin Mkapa present at the meeting but Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe demanded that Tanzania should first be told what President Kagame and Mr Mkapa discussed.
The Citizen has learnt that the meeting between the two leaders, which was supposed to take place in Brussels last month, flopped after Mr Membe refused to clear it. During his leadership, President Mkapa mediated between Rwanda and Uganda in Mwanza in 2000 and ended up averting a deadly war.
Rwandan and Ugandan troops fought in Eastern Congo about 14 years ago and Mr Kagame and Mr Museveni have also deployed their troops to fight rebels in that region.
Tanzania recently invited President Kagame to attend the Golden Jubilee of the Union but the Rwandan strongman did not turn up.
President Kagame also skipped the East African Heads of State Summit in Arusha--a move seen as evidence of the tension between Kigali and Dar es Salaam.
Source: The Citizen
The Cabinet confirmed Mr Ali Iddi Siwa as Tanzanias new envoy in Rwanda on Wednesday, The Citizen has established. According to a copy of the Cabinet resolution, the Kigali government unanimously approved Mr Siwa during a meeting chaired by President Kagame.
President Kikwete appointed Mr Siwa earlier this year but he could not report to his new work station immediately because protocol demands that the host country confirms the candidate.
Local newspaper Mtanzania reported last week that Rwanda had declined to confirm the ambassador-elect allegedly because of strained diplomatic relations between the two countries. But a senior diplomat in President Kagames inner circle, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Citizen that the process was delayed because all top officials were busy with the commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the genocide in the past two months.
We have no reason to reject the newly-appointed Tanzanian ambassador to Rwanda, our source said on the phone. We have our own means of doing things as a sovereign country.
Rwandas cabinet also confirmed five other ambassadors--representing Romania, Belarus, India, Congo Brazaville and Hungary.
Mr Siwa is taking up the assignment at a time relations between the two countries have turned sour because of the security issue in the Democratic Republic of Congo and President Kikwetes advice on negotiations with the Hutu rebels last year.
He replaces Dr Marwa Matiko, whose term ended officially last year. Before his appointment, Mr Siwa was the diplomatic officer at Tanzanias embassy in Germany.
In another development, The Citizen has reliably established that Rwanda recently demanded that President Kagame meet President Kikwete to sort out diplomatic tensions.
The Rwandans reportedly wanted former President Benjamin Mkapa present at the meeting but Foreign Affairs Minister Bernard Membe demanded that Tanzania should first be told what President Kagame and Mr Mkapa discussed.
The Citizen has learnt that the meeting between the two leaders, which was supposed to take place in Brussels last month, flopped after Mr Membe refused to clear it. During his leadership, President Mkapa mediated between Rwanda and Uganda in Mwanza in 2000 and ended up averting a deadly war.
Rwandan and Ugandan troops fought in Eastern Congo about 14 years ago and Mr Kagame and Mr Museveni have also deployed their troops to fight rebels in that region.
Tanzania recently invited President Kagame to attend the Golden Jubilee of the Union but the Rwandan strongman did not turn up.
President Kagame also skipped the East African Heads of State Summit in Arusha--a move seen as evidence of the tension between Kigali and Dar es Salaam.
Source: The Citizen
