Presidents Museveni, Bashir in talks over LRA rebels
By Daniel Kalinaki
KAMPALA, June 07, 2004 (The Monitor) — President Museveni and Omar el Bashir of Sudan met yesterday to discuss the problem of Joseph Kony and his rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, The Monitor has learnt.
State House sources said the meeting, which ran alongside the on-going Comesa summit, was at the International Conference Centre.
“Obviously Kony will be at the centre of the discussions,” a military source told The Monitor.
“We’ve been having a lot of engagement with the Sudan government on the peace process in Southern Sudan and on Kony,” added the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The two presidents were expected to reaffirm their personal commitments to finding peaceful solutions to the war in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan after press reports indicated a temporary stalemate in the efforts.
The state-owned The New Vision reported at the weekend that Sudanese military authorities had barred a Ugandan government peace envoy, Ms Betty Bigombe, from meeting Kony – until the personal intervention of President Bashir, who gave her a jet that flew her to Juba in Southern Sudan.
A senior Uganda government official told The Monitor yesterday: “Bashir has been supportive to the peace process and will probably reiterate that in the meeting with Museveni.”
“President Museveni has also publicly indicated his willingness to talk peace with Kony so both Presidents have a common objective,” the official added.
Museveni received his Sudanese counterpart at Entebbe airport on Sunday afternoon and has replaced him as the head of the Common Market for East and Southern Africa, Comesa, at the end of the summit.
The meeting between the two presidents comes at a crucial time in the peace effort for Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. While an American-led peace initiative has seen Bashir’s government hold peace talks with the rebel Sudanese People’s Liberation Army in Naivasha, Kenya, Kony has remained “the missing piece in the jigsaw puzzle,” said the senior government official, who spoke to The Monitor on condition of anonymity.
The Sudan government offered support to Kony’s LRA in retaliation for Uganda’s support to the SPLA.