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France Calls for Talks to End War

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
July 16, 2004
Posted to the web July 16, 2004

By Milton Olupot
Kampala
FRANCE has called for peace talks between the Government and the Lord's
Resistance Army rebels to end the 18-year long insurgency in the North.
During the French National Day "The Bastille Day" celebrations at the embassy
in Kampala on Wednesday, French envoy Jean Pierre Thiant said, "We cannot talk
about this country without evoking the tragedy in the north.
"A solution must be found now.
Even if it means negotiating grudgingly, it will be the honour of the
Government of Uganda to finally install peace in the north," he said, adding
that it was unacceptable for 1.8 million people to live in camps.
"Whereas the international community is moved by the situation in Sudan's
Darfour and rightly so, the martyrdom of the Acholi has gone on in silence," he
lamented.
Thiant said while Uganda had a quality elite class capable of helping the
country take off economically, graft remained a bottleneck.
"It is not acceptable that public funds are embezzled and luxurious investments
sprout from corruption, while poverty remains high," he said.
International cooperation state minister Maj. Tom Butime congratulated France
and thanked the country for its continued assistance to Uganda.
He said France contributes 23% of EU's support to Uganda.
Thiant said Uganda should embrace multipartyism, adding that France found it
wrong to say there was no democracy in Uganda.
He, however, said democracy was a difficult undertaking but it was viable in
France because the citizens participated in the life of their country by voting
and because elections were free and fair.

   

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