Uganda accuses Sudan of current impasse on relations
KAMPALA, Aug 18 (AFP) — Uganda on Monday admitted that it had withdrawn its observers that were based in Sudan, and accused Khartoum of not being serious to undertake its obligations.
“It is true we have withdrawn our liaison officers, but this was prompted by Sudan, which decided not to allow them do their job in Juba,” army spokesman Major Shaban Bantariza said.
“The liaison officers were supposed to do their job from Juba, but unfortunately Sudan decided to remove them from there and instead take them to Khartoum,” he explained in reacting to reports suggesting differences between the two countries that had just mended relations.
Bantariza said that even those Sudanese officers deployed in Uganda to observe the border had refused to go to Gulu and had remained in Kampala.
“We told them that their work was in Gulu, not in Kampala, and if they could not go to northern Uganda, they should leave, so they decided to leave,” he said, adding: “If they are to report about our support of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), what quality of evidence will they have when they remain in Kampala?”
Sudanese Foreign minister Mustafa Ismail on Sunday confirmed that there were differences over liaison officers the two countries deployed to monitor common border positions.
The two officers from each country, according to Bantariza, were supposed to monitor activities in operation areas of either country, as a confidence building mechanism.
“Our officers were supposed to monitor activities in former LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) camps in Jabulain, Lubang Tek and Bin Rwot, not to be in Khartoum, while theirs were supposed to be in Gulu to monitor areas of operation in Kitgum, Arua and Nimule,” he added.
Bantariza said he was hopeful that the military protocol and agreement under which the two countries undertook to halt support to each other’s rebels would survive.
“None of us will benefit in undermining the protocol, for us we are still committed to it,” he said.
The protocol, signed in March 2002, allows Ugandan forces to track down the LRA inside Sudan, while an agreement in 1999 committed Uganda to ban activities of the SPLA.
Ugandan officials last month said Sudan had admitted that some Sudanese military officers had given assistance to the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony, but without the knowledge of the Khartoum government.
The LRA has been fighting Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s regime since 1988 to replace it with one based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.