Grace Matsiko
22 July 2008
Kampala — Sudan is sending its First Vice President, Gen. Salva Kiir to lobby President Yoweri Museveni to rally behind the country's leader, Gen. Omar al Bashir, indicted for war crimes in the Darfur region by the International Criminal Court.
Gen. Salva Kiir arrives in the country tomorrow, Wednesday for a meeting with President Museveni, Sudanese embassy officials in Kampala said yesterday.
"He is heading a committee to handle the indictment issue. He will have a meeting with President Museveni, one of the issues will be the ICC indictment," the country's deputy ambassador to Uganda, Mr Abd El Rahim El Siddig Mohamed told Daily Monitor yesterday."Other issues are going to be on the situation in South Sudan," he added.
Kampala and authorities in South Sudan have courted controversy recently, with the latter asking Uganda to withdraw its troops from its territory following what Sudanese authorities called unwarranted skirmishes.
Though the embassy officials did not mention Gen. Kiir's next destination after he's done with Mr Museveni, diplomatic sources said, he is expected to head to Tanzania for talks with President Jakaya Kikwete, the current chairman of the Africa Union.
Mr Museveni, an erstwhile foe of President Bashir is one of the regional leaders Sudan hopes to use to fight last week's indictment against the Sudanese President.Uganda is among the countries that have supported the suspension of ICC indictment against Bashir.
Sudan has warned that the indictment may derail the peace negotiations with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels mediated by the government of South Sudan in Juba. Mr El Siddig insists that the charges of genocide and crimes against humanity leveled against Gen. Bashir "are legally baseless".
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