SPLA soldiers, Ugandan traders in timber dispute
Nov 4, 2005 (KAMPALA) — A dispute has erupted between some Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) commanders and Ugandan traders invited to do business in Sudan.
According to the Ugandan The Monitor, the SPLA commanders took the law in their hands, beat up the businessmen, confiscated their timber worth Shs20 million.
As a result of the misunderstandings. The Ugandans fled leaving sawing machinery worth Shs300 million in Maridi County near Yei.
The Ugandans under Erimu Company, one of the affected parties, have opened an assault and theft case at Oraba Police station in Koboko and at the CID headquarters in Kampala.
The company has offices in Ntinda, and manufactures office and household furniture but entered into an agreement with the SPLM in 2003 to harvest timber in exchange for provision of uniforms to the police in the New Sudan administration of Yei.
The Ugandan army, the Inspector General of Police in Southern Sudan, Makuel Deng, the Director of Forestry Utilisation and Saw mills in the Southern Sudan government, Majak Arop Kuol and SPLA top commanders met over the issue but failed to resolve it, according to the documents obtained by Daily Monitor.
Erimu’s Managing Director, Mr Moses Kyayiise and the company’s technical consultant, Mr John Semukuye, were assaulted by a group with links to the SPLA commanders while trying to retrieve their timber from the gang and have written to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs calling on it to intervene.
The timber had been impounded by the Executive Director of Maridi County, Samuel Rizigi Elionai, but was forccibly removed from the police on the orders of Col. Pascal Ayan, an SPLA Commander, who apparently runs a timber business in the southern Sudan. Ayan could not be reached for a comment.
“We seek the intervention of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to determine the issue of ownership and our timber and our fate as investors in Southern Sudan,” Kyayiise’s letter addressed to the PS Mr Charles Onen said.
(The Monitor/ST)