The opinions expressed in the article below appeared in the NRM Newspaper mouth piece
known as THE NEW VISION...and therefore political observer believe that it pretty
much express the wishes and the aspirations of the NRM dictatorial regime in Kampala
in one way or another.
The unpreccedented concerted effort to Demonise the Sudan by the regime in Kampala (
thus justifying an attack on the Sudan by the US and Britian ), is rather self evident
at this point for all to see.
Matek
Can Sudan Be Trusted?
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New Vision (Kampala)
OPINION
August 4, 2004
Posted to the web August 4, 2004
John Kakande
Kampala
THE international media has over the past week or so focused mainly on two major
issues: the US presidential election campaigns and the crisis in the Sudan's western
region of Darfur.
The two events are in a way connected. Some people in the US and other countries are
against re-election of President George Bush because they disagreed with the decision
to send American troops to Afghanistan and Iraq to remove regimes linked with
international terrorists. Bush stands accused of acting unilaterally and bypassing the
UN. Bush's rival Senator John Kerry, has argued that he favours multilateralism in the
war against terrorism and dealing with other global issues.
While multilateralism is ideal, it has often resulted into disastrous inaction. The
Rwanda genocide in which one million Tutsi and moderate Hutu were killed was the
disastrous failure of multilateralism. The crisis in Darfur also demonstrates that
multilateralism, though preferred, won't guarantee timely and decisive action to end
tragedies anywhere in the world. The UN and African Union appear totally impotent to
any timely and decisive intervention. Although it has called the situation in Darfur
the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the UN is not bold enough to affirm that what
is taking place is indeed genocide. On the other hand, international human rights
NGOs, the US and UK have affirmed that the Darfur tragedy bears the symptoms of
genocide. Documented evidence point to ethnic cleansing in the region sanctioned by
the Khartoum authorities.
Grave as the situation in Darfur is, still some of the members of the Security
Council, notably China and Russia, last week opposed a resolution, which specifically
made reference to a threat of 'sanctions' against Sudan. The resolution drawn up by US
and co-sponsored by Britain, France, Spain, Germany and Romania was adopted after the
word 'sanctions' was dropped. The Khartoum regime, knowing that the UN is a paper
tiger, has arrogantly vowed to stop any 'foreign' intervention in Darfur. The Sudanese
regime knows that neither the US nor Britain can, at this material moment,
unilaterally intervene in Darfur when both Bush and Tony Blair are fighting for their
political survival over the Iraq war.
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Uganda
Sudan
Although it is now cooperating with Uganda in the war against Kony terrorism, the
Khartoum regime should not be trusted. The Darfur tragedy shows that as long as the
Sudan regime is not under threat of military action from the US or other world powers,
it would not hesitate to act ruthlessly against its own citizens and neighbours.
Uganda must therefore exert pressure on Khartoum to kill or hand-over all the LRA
terrorists, not just Joseph Kony, in order to end the terrorism in northern Uganda
before the US presidential elections.
In event of a radical shift in the US foreign policy in favour of a multilateral
approach, Sudan would most certainly resume sponsorship of terrorism and scuttle the
on-going peace talks with the Sudan People's Liberation Army.
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