South Africa Wednesday warned it would not be used as a battleground to settle political scores by foreign nations after it expelled Rwandan diplomats suspected of masterminding attacks on dissidents. "As the South African government, we want to send a very stern warning to anybody anywhere in the world that our country will not be used as a springboard to do illegal activities," Justice Minister Jeff Radebe told reporters.
Last week, Pretoria expelled three Rwandan diplomats and one from Burundi after the botched assassination of an exiled opponent of Rwanda's strongman Paul Kagame on its soil. Radebe said the government had declared the envoys "persona non grata", adding they had "violated their diplomatic privileges." In retaliation, Rwanda expelled six South African diplomats.
"Any individual or groups of people who abuse our human rights dispensation... will face the full might of the law," added Radebe. A group of armed men raided the Johannesburg house of ex-army general Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa last week, according to the opposition Rwanda National Congress. He and his wife were not at home. Nyamwasa has already survived two assassination attempts. Diplomatic relations between South Africa and Rwanda have been strained since Kigali's former intelligence chief Patrick Karegeya, who was also exiled in South Africa, was found strangled to death in a luxury Johannesburg hotel on New Year's Day.
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