Cape Town, 12 March. -(ANA) - South Africa delivered a diplomatic slap to Rwanda on Wednesday, warning it would not tolerate "criminal" attacks on its soil against Rwandan exiles that have drawn international criticism of President Paul Kagame's government.

Issuing a "stern warning" against such activities, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said Pretoria had evidence linking recent attacks by gunmen against exiled critics of Kagame to three Rwandan diplomats and one Burundian envoy who were expelled last week. But he offered no details.

In retaliation, Rwanda expelled six South African diplomats on Friday, straining ties between two African states which have been involved, in differing ways, in recent conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. South Africa has troops in a U.N. brigade that fought last year against Congo rebels whom U.N. experts said were backed by Rwanda. Kigali has denied this.

Rwanda's ambassador to South Africa said Pretoria had shown no proof of Kigali's involvement in the attacks against exiled opponents. Kagame's government has accused South Africa of sheltering "dissidents responsible for terrorist acts in Rwanda".

"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," Radebe told a news briefing in Cape Town.

But he added the two countries were maintaining diplomatic relations.

The row followed a raid by armed men early last week against the Johannesburg home of former Rwandan army chief General Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa, an exiled critic of Kagame, who also survived an assassination attempt in South Africa in 2010. He was not at home at the time of last week's attack.

South African police have also been investigating the New Year's Eve murder in a posh Johannesburg hotel of another exiled Kagame opponent, former Rwandan spy chief Patrick Karegeya.

Exiled Rwandan opposition members have accused Kagame and his government of being responsible for Karegeya's death and for the attacks on Nyamwasa and other overseas-based critics.

Kagame, who has won Western praise for rebuilding Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, denies his government ordered the attacks, but has said "traitors" should expect consequences, a remark that dismayed Western donors of the small Great Lakes state, including the United States.

Washington has expressed concern at what it says has been a series of "politically motivated murders of prominent Rwandan exiles". The row with South Africa is an embarrassment for Kagame as he prepares to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Rwanda's genocide next month.

"KAGAME PUSHES HIS LUCK"

The 1994 genocide in Rwanda saw Hutu soldiers and militia slaughter around 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis, while the international community largely stood by.

Critics say Kagame, who led his predominantly Tutsi rebel movement to power after the genocide and won support from Western powers as an ally in turbulent central Africa, has taken advantage of Western guilt over the genocide to increase persecution of opponents.

Last year, he faced criticism over U.N. experts' reports showing his government supported an insurgency in eastern Congo by Tutsi-led rebels of the M23 movement. Kagame has denied this, but the United States blocked military aid.

South African soldiers were among U.N. peacekeepers who helped subdue the M23 revolt last year.

"Mr Kagame has fought his way out of tougher corners than this damaging row with SA (South Africa). But sending hitmen abroad, if that is what he did, smacks of desperation," South Africa's leading business daily, Business Day, said in an editorial this week entitled "Kagame pushes his luck".

Rwandan High Commissioner to Pretoria, Vincent Karega, speaking from Kigali, said Rwanda had been presented with no evidence linking its personnel to the attacks on dissidents. "If there is any proof of Rwanda doing such a thing, we can react, but as far as we are concerned we haven't seen any proof."

Radebe said South Africa had evidence that the expelled diplomats had violated their diplomatic status by being associated with "illegal activities that have taken place where there were attempted murders, including a murder".

"We have evidence, that is why they have left," the South African minister said, but declined to give further details.

After meeting Kagame this week, the U.S. Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region, Russ Feingold, said Washington was very worried about the South Africa-Rwanda dispute.

"We await the investigations of any incidents of these kind and want to make sure that these two countries repair any problems that are occurring because they are both critical countries to the future of Africa," Feingold said. -(ANA)

AB/ANA/ 12 March 2014  - - -