News Articles on Sudan - Uganda negotiations

Copyright 1999 Africa News Service, Inc. 
Africa News 
December 9, 1999 

HEADLINE: Uganda; Museveni, Bashir To End War 

BYLINE: Sebidde Kiryowa and Agencies, New Vision (Kampala) 

Nairobi - Uganda and Sudan on Wednesday agreed to take steps to end years of rebel activity which has cost tens of thousands of lives on their remote, 400 km (250 mile) long border. 

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and Sudan's President Omar Hassan al- Bashir were due to sign the formal agreement later, after a day of talks in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the meeting's organisers said.

"President Al-Bashir and President Museveni have taken an important step to restoring diplomatic relations and encouraging peace in their countries," said a statement released by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who mediated in the talks. Uganda and Sudan have for years accused each other of allowing rebel groups to operate from their respective territories. 

Sudan accuses Uganda of giving sanctuary to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) while Uganda says Sudan harbours rebels from the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). 

The statement from the Carter Centre, faxed to Museveni's press secretary, said late last evening that Museveni and Bashir agreed to respect each country's sovereignty in accordance with the UN and OAU charters. 

It said they agreed to renounce the use of force to resolve differences, promising "to take steps to prevent any hostile actions against each other." 

They also agreed "to disarm and disband terrorist groups, preventing acts of terrorism or hostile actions that might originate in either country's territory, endangering the security of the other." The statement said the leaders agreed to cease "military or logistical support" to any rebel, opposition or hostile elements from either territories." 

The presidents also agreed to promote regional peace without prejudicing or interfering with IGAD's role in ending war in Sudan, the statement said. The two countries also agreed to "refrain from hostile and negative propaganda campaigns against each other" and to return all prisoners of war to their respective nations.  

The statement said the leaders agreed to locate and return abductees to their families, "especially children, who have been abducted in the past." They agreed to honour international laws governing refugees and facilitate the resettlement of refugees in accordance with UNHCR regulations. 

They also agreed to offer amnesty and reintegration assistance to all former combatants who renounce the use of force. They said, "If all terms of the agreement are honoured, by the end of February 2000, ambassadors will be exchanged and full diplomatic relations restored," the agreement said. 

The statement added: "As soon as practical, a joint ministerial committee will be established with at least three subcommittees, to deal with political, security and humanitarian issues." 

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Copyright 1999 International Herald Tribune 
International Herald Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France) 

December 9, 1999, Thursday 

HEADLINE: Sudan and Uganda Sign Peace Accord 

BYLINE: By Karl Vick; Washington Post Service 

DATELINE: NAIROBI 

The leaders of two of Africa's most bitter antagonists, Sudan and Uganda, signed a surprise peace deal Wednesday, each vowing to stop supporting rebel groups trying to topple the other nation's government. 

The agreement was brokered here by former President Jimmy Carter of the United States, who looked on as President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda shook hands with General Omar Hassan Ahmad Bashir, the president of Sudan. 

It was a handshake that, in the often bloody politics of East Africa, was a bit like the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, pressing the flesh with Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, only a good deal less expected. Mr. Carter called it ''a wonderful step toward peace and reconciliation.'' 

The rival presidents pledged to restore diplomatic relations broken off five years ago as each country accused the other of aiding armed rebellions operating across the 250-mile border that the nations share. The agreement obliges each to disarm and disband ''terrorist'' groups operating on their soil. 

Sudan has provided a base of operations for the infamous Lord's Resistance Army, a group notorious for abducting as many as 20,000 children in Uganda's northern-most region and forcing them to fight, often after being drugged or sexually abused. Sudan has also been accused of providing material support to a second Ugandan rebel group, the shadowy Allied Democratic Forces, which operates on Uganda's western frontier with Congo. 

Uganda in turn has provided bases and material support for the Sudan Peoples Liberation Army, which has been fighting a 16-year civil war in southern Sudan against the Khartoum government. 

When the U.S. Congress earlier in the decade voted millions for tents, radios and other ''nonlethal'' aid to the Sudanese rebels, the aid was funneled through neighboring countries including Uganda. 

The 11-point agreement, signed Wednesday in Nairobi and witnessed by President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, lays out a specific timetable for the resumption of diplomatic relations. 

Each nation agreed to post diplomats in the other's capital within a month and to reopen a full embassy by the end of February. 

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