Uganda to support South Sudan integration

By Taddeo Bwambale

UGANDA will support the Republic of South Sudan in its bid to join regional bodies on the continent, President Yoweri has promised.

Addressing a press conference at State House in Entebbe on Friday, Museveni said Uganda and South Sudan shared a common cause of championing Pan-Africanism.

“Uganda will support the membership of South Sudan in East Africa and all regional bodies,” he said. “The SPLA were Pan-Africanists out of power, and now that they are in government, we shall help them live up to their aspirations.”

He paid tribute to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and its fallen leader, Dr John Garang, whom he described as a comrade in the struggle for Pan-Africanism.

Museveni said the people of South Sudan had a right of self-determination, and urged the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir to end hostility against the south.
“Bashir must stop organising aggression against the south. He should also deal with the agreements in the north,” he said.

“The word Sudan means ‘land of black people’. Sudan is an Afro-Arab country. The mistake of the Khartoum government was to manage it as an Arab county,” he said.

President Museveni and Salva Kir during the singing of national anthems at the end of the State visit 

Museveni explained that the secession of the south to form a new country was a result of the failure by the Khartoum government to promote unity, in accordance with agreements overseen by the UN and Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

“The people of Sudan voted twice. For anyone to go against their wishes he must be out of his mind. Uganda cannot support people who are out of their minds,” Museveni said.

Responding to incidents where Ugandan traders are attacked in South Sudan, President Salva Kiir said such acts were never organised by his government or a specific group. He attributed such acts to effects of war the country has suffered.

“We are a new country and many people have suffered trauma as they come out of war. We always apologise whenever such cases arise but it never the intention of government,” he said.

The South Sudan leader ends his two-day state visit to Uganda, his first since his country seceded from the Khartoum government after the July 9 referendum.