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Rwandan troops have prevented about 200 of their citizens from traveling to Uganda to attend a Christian pilgrimage, a Ugandan government official said Monday between two neighbors.
Rwandans sought to attend the annual commemoration of Martyrs Day in Uganda, but were turned back, the official said.
"More than 200 Rwandans who came to attend the martyrs day were arrested by the army and were fired," Janinah Busingye, an official in Katuna, the border town of Rwanda, told AFP on Monday.
"This is the extent to which the situation between Uganda and Rwanda has deteriorated and the right of worship of peoples is now compromised."
She added that pilgrims from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi used the same route to enter Uganda via Rwanda and had no problems.
A 66-year-old pilgrim, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that she had gone to the border with a large group, but that the entrance was denied.
"We were told that we could not go to Uganda for security reasons," she told AFP.
On June 3, the Martyrs' Day commemorates the execution of 45 converts to Christianity in the 1880s.
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Their death was ordered by the king of Buganda, which was now part of Uganda.
Among them, 22 of its pages, converted to Catholicism and burned alive June 3, 1886. They are beatified by the Holy See in 1920 and canonized in 1964 by Pope Paul VI.
Several hundred Rwandans generally travel to Uganda for the event, according to tourism figures.
But Rwanda closed its border with Uganda in February, blocking a key regional trade route, as hostilities between President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni ended.
Tensions between the two former leaders, who were close allies, have been increasing for months as both countries exchange accusations of political interference and espionage.
The force prevented Rwandan traders from crossing the border into Uganda, where many work during the day.
In late May, Ugandan police accused Rwandan soldiers of entering the country and killing two men, but Rwanda said the incident occurred on its soil.
The Rwandan Minister for East African Affairs, Olivier Nduhungirehe, said he was unaware of the specific case of pilgrims but said at the time. AFP: "What I know is that our travel advice is still in effect for all Rwandan citizens traveling to Uganda."
Museveni did not attend the commemorations, which take place in a shrine in Namugongo, just outside the capital Kampala.
He was represented by Vice President Edward Sekandi.
The Catholic Archbishop of Rwanda, Antoine Kambanda, presided at a mbad Monday afternoon for the pilgrims who failed to reach Uganda.
The service was held at St. Charles Lwanga parish in Kigali, a church named after one of the martyrs.
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