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| Africa: East |
| Uganda hopes Sudanese peace deal will help to end LRA scourge |
| 2004-01-14 |
| UGANDA HAS called for the establishment of a government in southern Sudan following the signing of a wealth-sharing deal between the Khartoum government and the Sudanese Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) in Kenya last week. Defence Minister, Amama Mbabazi, told The EastAfrican that in the interest of stability in the region, it was important that the SPLA and Khartoum move quickly to set up a government so that terrorist groups such as Joseph Kony’s Lords Resistance Army (LRA) do not use the territories as a spring board for their belligerent actions. "We the National Resistance Movement [NRM], the government and the people of Uganda are very happy that the hopes for peace in Sudan look good now," he said, adding that the apparent progress in the Sudan peace talks could signal an end to Uganda’s northern rebellion. The 20-year-old war in southern Sudan has been interminably linked to the 17-year old-war in northern Uganda. At one point or another, both Khartoum and Kampala have admitted to fighting proxy wars across the border. Another official said the weath-sharing deal "has implications for Uganda because the terrorism and lynching of civilians in northern Uganda emanate from Sudan. We expect they will control their territory effectively," said the official. The establishment of a government in southern Sudan is also expected to curb small arms trafficking. Since the mid 1980s, the war in northern Uganda has proven a difficult one to manage. Although several rebel groups which came into being after President Yoweri Museveni came to power in 1986, have been uprooted, the LRA has been the most slippery, mainly because of their alliance with the Sudan government. Many of the LRA bases are in southern Sudan, where the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces cannot reach. Whenever the LRA rebels are cornered in Uganda they retreat to southern Sudan to regroup and get more weapons. Major Shaban Bantariza, army spokesman, said recently that most of the LRA fighters had retreated to Sudan following hot pursuit by the UPDF. Both the Uganda and Sudan governments signed an agreement in 1999 to cease their support to the rebels in their territories. But accusations have arisen several times that support was still going on. As recently as September and October last year, the Ministry of Defence reported recovering ammunition from the LRA bearing Arabic insignia. Uganda has never hidden its sympathies for the SPLA. The language between Kampala and Khartoum has been diplomatic ever since the two governments resumed normal relations in December 2002. To this end, Ugandan officials have been saying that they do not believe the recently confiscated arms and food supplies from Sudan originated from official sources, but from "rebel" Sudanese military leaders. Uganda and Sudan signed an agreement in March 2002 which gave the Ugandan army permission to follow the LRA inside Sudanese territory. But Kony is now believed to be hiding further inside Sudan. Army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza said: "If southern Sudan gets a government, then it will no longer serve as a haven for our criminals. The SPLA controls southern Sudan but it is not a government. We are not co-operating with any authority there." The signing of the agreement to share the oil wealth extracted from southern Sudan is considered important because it was one of the major causes of the conflict between the two sides. The deal – under which the sides will split the revenue from the 250,000 barrels-a-day oil in half – was signed in Naivasha, Kenya, on December 7 by vice President Ali Osman Taha and SPLA leader, John Garang, who described it as "truly irreversible." So far, all the money has been going to the north. For Taha, the signing of the accord spelled "the end of a long episode of war and conflict in (the) country." He further said, "We desire to go on with this process regardless of other hurdles ahead." These hurdles include the outstanding matter of who should control three disputed areas: the central states of Abyei, the Southern Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains. Both government and rebels have laid claim to the regions. "We shall discuss these issues and reach an agreement on these areas soon," Garang told journalists. The latest round of Sudanese peace talks began in June 2002, in the southern Kenyan town of Machakos – and culminated in the signing of the Machakos Protocol a month later. This agreement provides for a six-year transition period in Sudan after the signing of a final peace deal. During the interim period, an autonomous administration will govern southern Sudan. People in the south will be allowed to vote on independence from the north when the transition ends. The protocol also stipulates that Islamic or sharia law will only apply in the Muslim north of the country. Sharia banking, which does not allow the charging of interest, will continue in the north, with western-style banking being permitted in the south. A new national currency will be created. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 SLM, LRA, SPLA and MJE. Shouldn't this post be under Pakistan? |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-1-14 11:24:43 AM |