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Uganda: UPDF Free to Stay in Sudan - Salva Kiir
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New Vision (Kampala)
23 July 2008
Posted to the web 24 July 2008
Milton Olupot
Kampala
South Sudan's President Salva Kiir said his government has not expelled the UPDF from its territory.
He noted that the Ugandans were in Sudan as part of a protocol reached with the Khartoum government before they took power.
"When we took the administration of the south and found the UPDF there, we did not expel them because we respected the agreement which they reached with the government of Sudan," Kiir said in an exclusive interview with The New Vision.
"This is the position we maintain to date. We did not have any problems with the UPDF. We discussed it with President Museveni and we agreed that we put it to the chiefs of the two armies to go and settle it. It is an administrative issue."
On the LRA, Kiir, whose government mediated in the Juba talks, said he was still in favour of a peaceful solution although the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, had failed to turn up for the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement.
"The situation of the LRA cannot be solved militarily," he said. "That is why we have opted for a peaceful solution, unless Joseph Kony tells us the opposite; that he does not want to sign the agreement. All the cards are before him."
He, however, said they rejected Kony's demands for fresh talks, saying the present agreement was a good document.
"What we have rejected is the fact that he wants to pull out and start again from zero. The agreement that has been negotiated is something well-designed. If he does not want to sign it and he will go to wherever he wants to go, we in South Sudan will not follow him to start negotiating again."
He warned that if Kony pulled out and resumed the war, they would be forced to act. "We are not for a military solution. But if he attacks, I don't think people will sit with their hands folded and see what will happen."
On the ICC indictments against Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir, Kiir clarified that they preferred a solution from within.
"The government of Sudan has all the judicial authority to try cases from within Sudan for all those accused of human rights violations," he stressed.
"We do not want a president who is still serving as the head of state to be the first to be taken for investigation or trial before he is given an opportunity to settle the cases within his own country."
There was a difference, he said, between condoning the crimes committed and opposing the decision of the ICC, adding:
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"We are not opposed but it is the time that has not been well planned."
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