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The Monitor (Kampala)
October 9, 2003
Posted to the web October 9, 2003
Henry H. Ssali
Kampala
Uganda will never redeploy its troops in the DR Congo, President Yoweri Museveni has said.
"It's one battalion in Bundibugyo. The area [eastern DR Congo] is not well controlled, there are some remnants of ADF but we shall never go into Congo," he said yesterday at State House Nakasero.
The army recently deployed troops in the border district of Bundibugyo, fearing an attack by rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces who are reportedly re-grouping in eastern DR Congo.
Mr Museveni was meeting the Belgian vice Prime Minister Louis Michel.
Mr Michel, who also is the Belgian foreign minister, is on a week's peace tour of the Great Lakes region.
The Ugandan army withdrew from the DR Congo in May after nearly five years of operations.
According to government, one of the reasons the UPDF went into eastern DR Congo in 1998 at the start of the civil war in that country was to fight the ADF rebels who had rear bases in the area.
Michel was earlier in the DR Congo where he met President Joseph Kabila.
Museveni and Michel said they were optimistic the transitional government in the DR Congo would succeed.
"The formula of the transitional government is good and anybody interested in the future of Congo should be interested in elections and not warlords," Museveni said.
>From Uganda, Michel and his delegation will head to Rwanda and later Burundi.
Burundi is also on the road to peace after President Domitien Ndayizeye reached a power sharing agreement with rebel leader Pierre Nkurunziza in South Africa on Tuesday.
"South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma [who brokered the talks] rang me about the good development and we are all very happy," Museveni said.
Away from regional politics, Museveni discussed his favourite topic of attracting foreign investors.
"You should assist Belgian companies to come and invest here and process our commodities. Africa's backwardness comes from exporting raw materials where we lose 90 percent of the goods' value," he said.
One Belgian firm is already involved in fish processing.
