Kigali - President Paul Kagame Wednesday said no one can carry out a coup in Rwanda, a central African country seen as model of reconstruction after the 1994 genocide.
Kagame was replying at a press conference to a question on former army chief of staff Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa who fled to South Africa earlier this week and who has in the past been suspected of wanting to overthrow the government.
"Nobody, absolutely nobody, not even Kayumba, can carry out a coup here. Think about it and you'll come to the conclusion no one can carry out a coup" in Rwanda, the president said.
"People can only dream about it, wish for it; I believe what I'm telling you," Kagame said.
"Let the people of Rwanda eat, drink, go to bed and sleep; we'll make sure that they wake up and continue their business," he added saying "there is no reason, no basis for a military coup".
In a statement made public Tuesday Rwanda's chief prosecutor Martin Ngoga accused Kayumba Nyamwasa of being behind acts aimed at destabilising the country, including grenade attacks that killed two people last month in Kigali.
The statement said Kayumba is working together with another former army officer who also sought refuge in South Africa, Patrick Karegeya, formerly in charge of external security.
Kagame insisted that no plan can rock "the solid foundation" built after the genocide, adding: "The country will continue to move fast, will continue to develop, will continue to grow".
He also said Karegeya, who fled the country more than two years ago, was travelling in countries bordering on Rwanda and preparing ways of destabilising his home country.
"We will be raising the matter with the countries in our region" and with South Africa, Kagame said but added he was not starting legal proceedings against any of these countries for the time being
He said the absence of an extradition treaty between Rwanda and South Africa does not mean Kayumba Nyamwasa and Karegeya can stay there undisturbed.
"An extradition treaty in one among many things which can be used," he told journalists.