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Uganda Undecided On Rwanda Sanctions

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
December 4, 2004
Posted to the web December 3, 2004

By Frank Nyakairu
Kampala
The Uganda government has said it is considering whether to support the UN
sanctions against Rwanda, for invading DR Congo in violation of the US
sponsored tripartite agreement.
The Minister of State for Regional Cooperation, Mr Nshimye Sebutulo, said on
Thursday that Uganda blames Rwanda for handling "such a matter of regional
interest unilaterally."
"We are still considering whether to support, not to support or to abstain from
voting on the Rwanda sanctions."
In the agreement signed in Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania, two weeks ago, Rwanda,
Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo agreed to end hostilities and
address any related problem through the US sponsored treaty.
"We appreciate the genuine and justifiable threat of the Interahamwe on the
Rwanda government, but we are saying it should have been handled through the
tripartite arrangement to which Uganda and the DRC are party," Nshimye said.
Rwanda's Hutu militias, blamed for most of the killings of Rwandan Tutsi and
moderate Hutu in the 1994 genocide, fled into the mineral-rich DR Congo, where
they are believed to be training to distabilise Rwanda.
The UN accused Rwanda of illegally invading Congo again after the Rwandan
troops pulled out of the vast central African republic last year.
On Wednesday, the DRC made a regional appeal to support sanctions against
Rwanda.
The UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, on Thursday, said Rwanda should not
interrupt the DR Congo's political transition under the pretext of fighting the
Interahamwe.
In an emergency session in New York, the UN discussed the security situation in
the DR Congo and her appeal for sanctions against Rwanda for invading her
territory.
The UN has not given what they resolved on the matter.
"The Secretary-General is very disturbed by the increasing tension between the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda, particularly by indications
from Rwanda, of military operations on DRC territory against ex-FAR/Interahamwe
elements, which Rwanda maintains are a threat to its security," UN spokesman Mr
Fred Eckhard said.
"The Secretary-General calls on the government of Rwanda to refrain from any
military action on the Democratic Republic of Congo territory."

   

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