Govt denies sending troops to back South Sudan - Daily Monitor

Peaceful resolution. Defence minister Crispus Kiyonga says Uganda wants a peaceful solution to the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan.

The Uganda government yesterday said it had not sent any of its troops to the battle front to help South Sudan attack Sudan.

Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told MPs on the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee that it was unlikely that the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, hinted on a probable UPDF deployment in South Sudan when he addressed regional security chiefs at a meeting in Kampala two weeks ago.

“Although the conflict in Sudan has attracted our attention, we have not sent any troops there. Our position is that we should call for peace between South Sudan and Khartoum. We are going to use our position in the UN Security Council, African Union and East African Community to call for peace. Our message is clear: Let peace prevail.”
Dr Kiyonga was responding to a question by Shadow Defence Minister Hassan Kaps Fungaroo (Obongi) who asked the minister to clarify on Gen. Nyakairima’s reported comments that Uganda will be forced to intervene if the fighting between South Sudan and Sudan escalates into a full-scale war.

“I doubt Gen. Aronda would stand in the public and say that we are going to attack Khartoum,” Dr Kiyonga said.
While Dr Kiyonga told MPs that the government did not have any plans to intervene in the conflict, Daily Monitor last week quoted Gen. Aronda saying: “We will not sit by and do nothing. We will be involved having suffered a proxy war by Khartoum. Our people in northern Uganda suffered and intelligence information also indicates that the LRA are again in contact with Khartoum.”

Gen. Aronda was presenting a paper on the role of African militaries in promoting peace and security in East Africa and the Horn of Africa to senior army officers and other security experts from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.
“We have information that the government wants to send our troops to South Sudan. We are not even sure whether they have already sent the soldiers to help the South,” Mr Fungaroo said.

“We don’t want to have problems with Khartoum. Let Sudan and South Sudan resolve their problems. If indeed Gen. Aronda was misquoted, how come the government did not come out to correct the record?” he added.

On Monday, Sudan attacked South Sudan days after Khartoum announced that its military had forced the South’s troops out of the contested Heglig oil-rich region.

The assault followed statements by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan last week that his nation would drive the “insects” in the South out of power.

On Monday, Gen. Bashir insisted that a military approach was necessary, saying there would be no talks with the South Sudanese because they “do not understand anything but the language of the gun and ammunition”.
The international community has called for a ceasefire. Last week, Barack Obama asked Sudan and South Sudan to resume negotiations.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year after an independence vote, the culmination of a 2005 peace treaty after decades of war that killed more than two million people.

Meanwhile, the defence budget for this financial year has been increased to Shs1.2 trillion, citing increased spending pressures.

Dr Kiyonga who was presenting the Defence Budget for 2012/13 said the money allocated in the current budget was not enough, hence the need for an additional Shs211b in a supplementary request which is yet to be presented to Parliament.

However, the next year’s defence budget has reduced from Shs1.2trillion to Shs688b.

South Sudan is Uganda’s biggest export trading partner and if the fighting escalates to all-out warfare, the country is likely to lose billions of dollars and contend with another humanitarian crisis as refugees stream across the northern frontier. The bilateral trade between Uganda and South Sudan is highly asymmetric with the volume of exports from Uganda being disproportionately larger than the volume of exports from Sudan to Uganda and largely informal. There is also flourishing informal trading between communities across the borders.

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Peaceful resolution. Defence minister Crispus Kiyonga says Uganda wants a peaceful solution to the conflict between Sudan and South Sudan.

The Uganda government yesterday said it had not sent any of its troops to the battle front to help South Sudan attack Sudan.

Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told MPs on the Defence and Internal Affairs Committee that it was unlikely that the Chief of Defence Forces, Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, hinted on a probable UPDF deployment in South Sudan when he addressed regional security chiefs at a meeting in Kampala two weeks ago.

“Although the conflict in Sudan has attracted our attention, we have not sent any troops there. Our position is that we should call for peace between South Sudan and Khartoum. We are going to use our position in the UN Security Council, African Union and East African Community to call for peace. Our message is clear: Let peace prevail.”
Dr Kiyonga was responding to a question by Shadow Defence Minister Hassan Kaps Fungaroo (Obongi) who asked the minister to clarify on Gen. Nyakairima’s reported comments that Uganda will be forced to intervene if the fighting between South Sudan and Sudan escalates into a full-scale war.

“I doubt Gen. Aronda would stand in the public and say that we are going to attack Khartoum,” Dr Kiyonga said.
While Dr Kiyonga told MPs that the government did not have any plans to intervene in the conflict, Daily Monitor last week quoted Gen. Aronda saying: “We will not sit by and do nothing. We will be involved having suffered a proxy war by Khartoum. Our people in northern Uganda suffered and intelligence information also indicates that the LRA are again in contact with Khartoum.”

Gen. Aronda was presenting a paper on the role of African militaries in promoting peace and security in East Africa and the Horn of Africa to senior army officers and other security experts from Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.
“We have information that the government wants to send our troops to South Sudan. We are not even sure whether they have already sent the soldiers to help the South,” Mr Fungaroo said.

“We don’t want to have problems with Khartoum. Let Sudan and South Sudan resolve their problems. If indeed Gen. Aronda was misquoted, how come the government did not come out to correct the record?” he added.

On Monday, Sudan attacked South Sudan days after Khartoum announced that its military had forced the South’s troops out of the contested Heglig oil-rich region.

The assault followed statements by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan last week that his nation would drive the “insects” in the South out of power.

On Monday, Gen. Bashir insisted that a military approach was necessary, saying there would be no talks with the South Sudanese because they “do not understand anything but the language of the gun and ammunition”.
The international community has called for a ceasefire. Last week, Barack Obama asked Sudan and South Sudan to resume negotiations.

South Sudan broke away from Sudan in July last year after an independence vote, the culmination of a 2005 peace treaty after decades of war that killed more than two million people.

Meanwhile, the defence budget for this financial year has been increased to Shs1.2 trillion, citing increased spending pressures.

Dr Kiyonga who was presenting the Defence Budget for 2012/13 said the money allocated in the current budget was not enough, hence the need for an additional Shs211b in a supplementary request which is yet to be presented to Parliament.

However, the next year’s defence budget has reduced from Shs1.2trillion to Shs688b.

South Sudan is Uganda’s biggest export trading partner and if the fighting escalates to all-out warfare, the country is likely to lose billions of dollars and contend with another humanitarian crisis as refugees stream across the northern frontier. The bilateral trade between Uganda and South Sudan is highly asymmetric with the volume of exports from Uganda being disproportionately larger than the volume of exports from Sudan to Uganda and largely informal. There is also flourishing informal trading between communities across the borders.

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.