Sudan’s Garang says to “deal firmly” with Ugandan rebels
By Anne Mugisa, The New vision
KAMPALA, July 30, 2005 — First Vice-President 1st Lt-Gen John Garang has given Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels an ultimatum to leave southern Sudan.
Until Wednesday 27 July evening, Garang was a colonel, a rank he has held since 1983 when he deserted the Sudan army.
In an exclusive interview with the New Vision, Garang said he was going to deal firmly with the militias operating in southern Sudan, in order to rebuild the war-ravaged region. “Kony won’t be hiding there for long. It is not only Kony, but also all the militias who have been operating in the area. We need to provide peace, security and stability, so the militias including those that were formerly supported by the government, must be disbanded.”
Garang flew into the country aboard a chartered plane yesterday for a meeting with president Yoweri Museveni. The meeting took place at Rwakitura in Mbarara. Garang was met at Entebbe Airport by Vice-President Prof Gilbert Bukenya and the minister for regional cooperation, Nshimye Sebuturo. He flew to Rwakitura aboard President Museveni’s helicopter.
The former Sudanese People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) leader, who controlled southern Sudan before the peace deal with the Khartoum government, said the priority of his government was to resettle displaced people and remove camps of the internally displaced people and return the Sudanese refugees.
He said there were between three to four million Sudanese refugees outside the country who need to be returned and resettled.
He said his government had started rebuilding the infrastructure in the devastated region, which is home to over 12 million people.
Garang said in the next week, the 10 supervisors for the 10 southern Sudanese states would have taken office to oversee the building of the infrastructure.
The infrastructure to be rebuilt includes roads and railways in southern Sudan and those linking it with Uganda and Kenya, water facilities and financial institutions.