Uganda calls on Italy to help put pressure on Sudan

KAMPALA, Aug 29, 2003 (Xinhua) — Ugandan Vice President Gilbert Bukenya has called upon the Italian government to help put pressure on the Sudan to stop supporting the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, reported Radio Uganda on Friday night.

Bukenya, now on a visit to Italy, was discussing the conflicts in northern Uganda, regional security as well as HIV/AIDS with Italian Minister for Agriculture Alfredo Mantica.

Bukenya said the LRA is a terrorist group that abducts and kills innocent civilians including children.

He told his host that the Ugandan government plans to make internally displaced persons camps more productive and self sufficient to improve the lives of the large number of people living there.

Mantica expressed hope that the peace agreement between the government of the Sudan and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army would go a long way in ending the insurgency and called on the Ugandan government to discourage local support for the LRA.

LRA rebels, based in the southern part of the Sudan, have fought the Ugandan government in the last 17 years, displacing over 800,000 northern Ugandans and abducting over 20,000 children.