The Monitor (Kampala)
July 3, 2003
Posted to the web July 3, 2003
Emma Mutaizibwa
Kampala
Britain may soon step in to help resolve the 17-year-old conflict in northern Uganda following a motion that was passed in the House of Commons on June 25.
Mr Geoffrey Ekanya, the Tororo County MP who returned from Britain and the United States on Tuesday, told journalists at Parliament yesterday that the Reform Agenda had drafted the motion.
The motion called on Her Majesty's government to use its significant bilateral aid budget to Uganda and influence to search for a political solution to end the suffering in northern Uganda.
MP Simon Thomas (Plaid Cymru) moved the motion.
Ekanya, who also is the secretary general of the Reform Agenda, said that his trip overseas was to lobby for democratic reforms in the country.
In the UK, Ekanya met Mr Hillary Benn, a minister of State for International Development.
"Benn observed that there was growing pressure to speed up the democratisation process and called on the government to quickly impose political reform in the country and complete the exercise of the Constitutional Review Commission," Ekanya said.
Ekanya, who had travelled with MPs Nandala Mafabi (Budadiri West) and Wilfred Kajeke (Youth Eastern), met Ugandans living in the UK at the 40th exhibition campaign for political and human rights at the Commonwealth Institute in London.
Among those who were present were Ms Salamu Musumba (Bugabula South) and the exiled brother to Col. Noble Mayombo (CMI boss), Maj. Okwiri Rabwoni.
