Relations unaffected by UN human rights vote

Uganda's recent vote in favour of a UN resolution expressing concern over the human rights situation in neighbouring Sudan, will have little effect on the good relations currently enjoyed by the two countries, government officials in Kampala have said. The United Nations Commission on Human Rights on 19 April narrowly adopted a resolution expressing concern over human rights abuses in Sudan, including the use of children as soldiers, forced displacement, arbitrary detention, torture, and summary and arbitrary executions. Uganda was the only African country to vote in favour of the resolution, adopted by a vote of 25 in favour and 24 opposed, with four abstentions. Shaban Bantariza, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) Director of Information and Public Relations, told IRIN on Friday that Uganda's vote in favour had not affected an agreement signed between Kampala and the Sudanese government in March, empowering the Ugandan army to attack the bases of the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in southern Sudan. "For us, our bilateral defence agreement was not affected by the UN vote. It [the vote] happened at another level of intergovernmental interaction," Bantariza said. "The politicians on both sides have been kind enough to allow the military to continue with their operations," he added. Muhammad Dirdiery, charge d'affaires at the Sudanese embassy in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, told IRIN on Monday that Khartoum had requested an explanation from Uganda for its vote on the resolution. "We have approached Uganda and requested an explanation, bearing in mind we are helping them fight terrorism in their own country," he said. A Ugandan foreign ministry spokesman told IRIN on Friday that Uganda had been "very consistent" in its stand on the human rights situation in southern Sudan. "There is nothing like a quarrel between Uganda and Sudan. It is only in that particular issue that our positions were not quite in unison," the spokesman said. "We shouldn't confuse the Uganda-Sudan bilateral relations with specific issues like human rights. Uganda has been consistent on the issue of human rights, and it is in this context that we voted the way we voted. Our position has always been there. This is nothing new," he added. The spokesman, who declined to be named, said the vote had not affected bilateral relations, which had significantly improved in recent months, adding that the Sudanese foreign minister was currently in Kampala, leading a delegation from Khartoum to discuss matters of interest to both countries with Ugandan authorities. Sudan and Uganda severed diplomatic relations in 1995, with both countries accusing each other of backing the other's rebel groups. Uganda accused Khartoum supporting the LRA, while and Sudan claimed Kampala was assisting the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army. Bantariza confirmed the extension of the expiry date of "Operation Iron Fist", as the Ugandan army's anti-LRA offensive in Sudan has been dubbed, by a month from the initial deadline of 18 April. The new expiration date was still subject to a ministerial meetings, which would eventually decide when to terminate the operation, depending on the situation on the ground, he said. "I know it was signed but I have no details," The New Vision government-owned newspaper quoted Muhammad Siraj al-Din, the Sudanese charge d'affaires in Kampala, as saying on Wednesday. Meanwhile, the recent return to Uganda of some 1,300 former rebels of the Uganda National Rescue Front-II (UNRF-II), who have been sheltered in Sudan, has also been seen in the context of improved diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Ugandan media reported this week that the former UNRF-II fighters and their leader, Ali Bamuze, said they had renounced rebellion and returned their weapons on arrival from Sudan, where they had been living in exile. According to Bantariza, the ex-soldiers from former President Idi Amin's government, which was overthrown in 1979, subsequently fought President Yoweri Museveni's government, but were eventually "flushed out" of Uganda in 1997. The group was allowed back into Uganda under the provisions of a presidential amnesty, for those who renounce rebellion, according to Bantariza. Bantariza said some of them who were still in "good shape" would be integrated into the army. "We cannot do a wholesale integration into the army. Only some who are capable. A number of them are quite old, which makes them not good soldiers," he said.