Germany urges Ugandan Museveni to intervene in Darfur crisis

June 16, 2007 (KAMPALA) — On the second day of his visit to Germany, President Yoweri Museveni has been asked to intervene in the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur province, the Ugandan New vision reported.

The president was urged to “use his influence and contacts with the Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir to solve the crisis in Darfur,” read a statement from State House on Friday.

The appeal was made during the international prayer breakfast meeting, organized by the ruling CDU/CSU parliamentary party.

The organizer, Rudolf Decker, commended Museveni for his role in the peace process in Burundi and South Sudan. He said he was convinced his experience in regional conflict resolution would be useful in solving the Darfur crisis.

In his address, Museveni decried the fact that millions of the poor and sick, particularly in Africa, were denied human dignity.

“In today’s world, 854 million people do not have enough to eat. In a world of unprecedented wealth, almost two million children die each year for want of a glass of clean water and adequate sanitation,” he told the gathering of Christians.

“A total of 39.5 million people were living with HIV in 2006. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most affected part in the world, with 63 per cent of all people living with HIV in this region.”

He said many of the problems Africa faced were created by foreigners. “Since 500 years ago, the people that have been committing aggression and plunder against Africa have been both Christians and Muslims. Where were the popes and the arch-bishops of Canterbury when slavery went on for 300 years?” Museveni asked.

“The aggression today is in the form of greenhouse gases that cause climate change that will affect Africa most, yet they are generated by others.”

The president lauded China for giving unconditional aid to Africa. He referred to the story in the Bible of the Good Samaritan, the Pharisee and other religious people who refused to help a man in need.

“A Samaritan, who was not of the Jewish religion, is the one that helped the person in need. That is the story of China. Chinese communists, who are not Christians, did the Christian act of supporting Africa to fight colonialism without conditions in the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. As a consequence, the whole of Africa, including South Africa, is now free.”

In an apparent attack on the West, which demands transparency and accountability, the president continued: “Now that China has transformed its society, they are giving a lot of economic aid without conditions. This gets the “Christian” West worried! This is a mockery of the principles of the Christian religion. It should be a wake-up call for the Western Christians that had let their Christian principles to lie furrow.”

Museveni further called upon the rich countries to open up their markets for products from the developing nations. “I continue to call upon our development partners to assist developing countries by opening further their markets to our products and removing protectionism that renders our produce unable to compete. The less developed countries need a hand-up rather than handouts.”

German President Horst Kohler commended Uganda on its peacekeeping role in Somalia. He accepted to pay a visit to Uganda this year at the invitation of Museveni.

(The New Vision)