Uganda’s Museveni urges Islamic countries to resolve Darfur crisis
June 19, 2008 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan president urged Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) member states to exert efforts to end the five year conflict in Sudan’s Darfur “where Arabs are in conflict with black Africans.”
Reacting to calls to support Palestinian cause, Museveni said OIC member states must also intervene in the conflicts in Darfur and that in Southern Sudan whose peace now needs to be consolidated. He added that failure to resolve the Darfur issue would undermine the unity of the organisation.
“You can’t expect black people to be killed and we keep quiet,” he warned the OIC ministers on Thursday.
He further reminded the delegates that most of Africa’s liberation fighters, including himself, had supported the Palestinian cause.
“In the same way we support Palestine, we support the conflict between blacks and Arabs in Sudan to be resolved. We can’t support Palestine and keep quiet when the black people are being killed. OIC should resolve it.”
Since 2003, according to the UN experts, Darfur crisis killed over 30000 people and displaced around 2.5 million.
Since the rejection of LRA leader, Joseph Kony, to sign a deal with Ugandan government, president Museveni steps up criticism against the Sudanese government.
On April 30, he lashed out at Khartoum saying is works to destabilise his government. He further said that U army is not fighting the rebel LRA but the Sudanese army.
In the past the Ugandan government accused regularly Khartoum of supplying arms, food and to shelter Kony to fight his government. But Kampala had stopped these accusation following the signing of a peace deal between Sudanese government and the former rebel SPLA in January 2005.
However in November 2006, Uganda renewed its allegations saying that Khartoum had created “Sudan LRA” and ordered it to attack civilians in the region.
(ST)