Sudan FM said to receive Uganda’s pledge of no support to Darfur rebels
April 14, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Karti on Wednesday concluded a two-day visit to Uganda, eliciting a pledge from its President Yoweri Museveni that his country will not provide support to rebel groups from Sudan’s war-battered region of Darfur.
Official spokesperson of the foreign affairs ministry Khalid Moussa told reporters after Karti’s return from Kampala on Wednesday that The Ugandan President Museveni that his government would not provide any support to the Darfur rebel groups.
Moussa further said that Museveni reiterated his country’s commitment to enforce decisions of the African Summit in support to the peace process in Sudan, including working with the international community to lift sanctions and drop international debt on Sudan.
The reported pledges come one week after the Sudanese government accused Uganda of working to undermine ongoing peace talks with Darfur rebel groups in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar.
According to the Sudanese state minister Amin Hassan Omar, who heads Sudan’sdelegation for the Doha peaceprocess Uganda was hosting members of Darfur rebel groups, particularly the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), which he said was engaged in meetings in Uganda with other political forces to secure support for its fighters on the ground. Omar said that Uganda does not hide its hostility towards his country.
JEM and the Liberation and Justice movement (LJM) are the two rebel groups engaged in the peace talks in Doha though the former recently suspended its participation against the background of the referendum the Sudanese government’s intent to hold on the administrative makeup of Darfur.
Ali Karti, who delivered a written message from Sudan’s president Omar Al-Bashir to Museveni, his country appreciates the Ugandan President’s pledges, adding that the two countries had agreed to open a new chapter of cooperation, intensify joint meetings and support the peace process between north and south Sudan.
Sudan President Omar Al-Bashir this month reiterated denial
of a long-standing accusation that his government was providing support to the notorious Ugandan rebels Lord Resistance Army (LRA). He said in an interview with South Sudan T.V from Juba that any allegations of a relationship between Khartoum and LRA were not based on truth.
(ST)