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Uganda: UPDF Mission in
Somalia Blocked |
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Saturday, December
2nd, 2006 |
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Emmanuel Gyezaho and Jude Lugya
Kampala
UGANDA may not be able to send troops to Somalia after it
emerged that the UN Security Council has tightened the
enforcement of a 1992 arms embargo slapped on war torn country.
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While the Council has extended the
mandate of a group of experts monitoring the flow of arms in the
Horn of Africa for another six months, the development has put
in jeopardy Uganda's ominous deployment there and firmly
squashed its quest for lifting of the embargo.
Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told Parliament on Thursday
that Kampala was working with Washington and London to broker a
partial lifting of the embargo to facilitate effective troop
deployment under the auspices of the Intergovernmental Authority
on Development (Igad).
On Wednesday the Security Council unanimously adopted a
resolution stressing that States must comply with the embargo on
all delivery of weapons and military equipment to Somalia.
The resolution follows a November report by the Councils'
Somalia Monitoring group, which implicated Uganda and a host of
Igad subscribing nations of violating the embargo.
Uganda has distanced itself from any wrongdoing but the report
spoke of Ugandan military support to the Transitional Federal
Government, which is hanging onto power by a thread, through
combat troop deployment, military trainers and advisers.
Eritrea, Sudan and Ethiopia are also implicated.
However, Kiyonga has vehemently denied any UPDF deployment in
Somalia.
The report said all the ingredients were there for a violent,
widespread and protracted military conflict in Somalia, more so
as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which is fighting the
interim government, has stated its intention to violently oppose
any Igad or African Union military force.
"The contest is overwhelmingly military in nature, with rampant
arms flows to both sides," the report said.
"The arms flows are a premier part of a deliberate, ongoing and
broader military build-up taking place on both sides."
The monitoring group, however, also made a number of
recommendations for tightening the embargo, including a "total
border surveillance and interdiction effort involving a
combination of sea, air and land military forces as well as a
financial-assets freeze on all Somali-owned and -operated
businesses located inside and outside Somalia that are connected
to either side."
Meanwhile, any UPDF deployment to Somalia faces stiff
resistance, as Members of Parliament on Thursday said they would
not back it. Responding to a ministerial statement from Kiyonga
on Somalia, the legislators said any deployment there would be
an unnecessary "bloody venture."
"Our house [Uganda] is already on fire caused by electricity
shortage, the closure of Makerere University, shortage of drugs
in health centres. Do we have the capacity to look for more
problems?" Beti Kamya [Lubaga North] asked.
"Our history of deploying our troops to foreign lands has been
bloody and we have not benefited at all. We have been to Congo,
Rwanda and Sudan but the benefits are not palatable. We should
not risk going to Somalia," said Hussein Kyanjo [Makindye West].
However, Kiyonga said Uganda had a revolutionary obligation to
assist a fellow African state and was ready to move. "Uganda
will not be found wanting in respect to calls to assist fellow
African countries whenever the need arises. This will, however,
be in accordance with our domestic legal framework and the
international law," he said. |
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| Caynaba News
kama masuul aha afkaarta ay xanbaarsan yihiin qoraallada ay
akhristayaashu fekerkooda ku cabbirayaan. |
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11:00 GMT
