It is August 1997 and an unprecedented military operation is knocking the hell out of the Sudanese Peoples Armed Forces (SPAF) as it moves towards the southern capital of Juba.

The United States of America has organised and is financing a coalition of three countries: Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia.

These are the 'frontline states' against the 'spread of Islamic fundamentalism' from Khartoum.

Fighting on the side of these three nations is (who else!!) the rebel Sudanese Peoples' Liberation Army (SPLA), that has been fighting for the proverbial donkey's years.

Two mechanised divisions of the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies have joined the UPDF under Col. James Kazini, Commander of the Fourth Division in Gulu.

More than 200 tanks, heavy artillery pieces and anti personnel carriers (APCs) have been flown from Eritrea and Ethiopia to support the Ugandan army.

The offensive is led by an Eritrean brigadier.

The US considers Presidents Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Isias Afewaki (Eritrea) and Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia) the 'new breed of African leaders' and is giving them US$ 20m annually as 'non lethal-weapons military aid.'

It also considers the government of the Sudan led by Gen. Mohamed El Bashir in coalition with National Islamic Front (NIF) of Hassan Tourabi a danger to its security. The leader of Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, has been living in the Sudan.

The offensive has been so devastating for the SPAF to the extent that Kazini alone had laid an 8km ambush from Kaya to Yei and almost annihilated an entire SPAF division.

The Ethiopians and Eritrean armies have also inflicted heavy losses on the SPAF and the three armies are making preparations for the final military assault on Juba, which is within sight. President Museveni is the grand don of this operation. That is when the bloody telephones begin to ring!!

First on line is the leader of the United Grand Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Col. Muammer Gadaffi, a close friend of Museveni. Gadaffi tells Museveni of the 'Arab concern' that black African countries have joined hands to support a black rebel group against an Arab government. "Should we, as Arabs, also come together to defend our brothers?" Gadaffi asks.

A few minutes later, Hosin Mubarak of Egypt, who had just survived an assassination attempt in Ethiopia organised by the Sudan is on line from Cairo and reiterates Gadaffi's concerns.

Unwilling to create a rift between black Africans and Arab Africans, in the OAU, President Museveni calls off the offensive, to the chagrin of Afewaki who claims the Ugandan president did not consult his allies.

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