More war drums, different drummers

By Peter Mwesige

Sudan closed its universities to send students to what President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir described as a decisive battle in the fight against southern-based armed opposition and Ugandan and Eritrean forces. "This will be a final battle to crush the SPLA [Sudanese People's Liberation Army] and expel Ugandans and Eritreans," Bashir said in an address to soldiers during a one-day visit to Juba.

The SPLA has been fighting the Khartoum regime for 15 years. SPLA leader John Garang has, however, lately changed the strategy, saying they are fighting for the liberation of the whole of Sudan. The Khartoum regime accuses Uganda of supporting the SPLA, a charge denied by Uganda which, at the same time, accuses Sudan of giving sanctuary and training as well as arms and ammunition to the northern rebels fighting President Yoweri Museveni's government. Sudan last month accused Uganda of invading parts of the southern state of Eastern Equatorial and targetting the towns of Torit, Liria and Juba.

Uganda's Minister of State for Defence Steven Kavuma was quoted in the government-owned paper The New Vision on Sunday as saying that Uganda has no troops in Sudan. He had earlier said the national army, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), was "prepared to defend Uganda's sovereignty and territorial integrity against aggression from any quarter".

Kavuma charged that "Sudan is hiding her embarrassment about recent incursions by the SPLA." The SPLA said last week that it had intensified the campaign to capture Juba, the biggest town in the south of Sudan. A spokesman said the general mobilisation announced by the government showed the extent the pressure of war was having on Khartoum.

Following the recent US bombings of Sudan and Afghanistan, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's press secretary told the media that the Ugandan leader had told US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that he was happy with the American move because Sudan supports terrorism. There have been a series of bomb attacks in Kampala in the last year, all of which authorities have blamed on Sudan-backed rebel forces. The attacks have claimed over 50 lives. Uganda and Sudan have been sabre-rattling since early 1995 when the two countries severed diplomatic relations after Kampala accused Khartoum of supporting rebels of the northern Uganda-based Lord's Resistance Army (LRA).

The latest war drums from Sudan come at a time when Uganda, along with Rwanda, is accused by the Democratic Republic of Congo of supporting rebels fighting to overthrow President Laurent Kabila's 16-month-old government. Uganda, which along with Rwanda, helped Kabila come to power after a seven-month rebellion against Mobutu Sese Seko, denies involvement in the conflict, although Museveni has said Uganda's forces in the Congo are there to protect the country's security interests.

The western Uganda-based rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) have bases in eastern Congo. Although before the fall out with Kampala Kabila had allowed Ugandan troops to enter Congo to pursue the ADF rebels, there are reports that he had also offered a corridor in the northwest for Sudan to drop arms to Ugandan rebels. Kabila, who now has troops from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia fighting alongside his own troops, is reported to have made a new alliance with Sudan's Al-Bashir. Critics have accused Museveni of attempting to establish a Tutsi empire in East and Central Africa, a charge which he described as ridiculous in a recent BBC interview.

Uganda's Ambassador to Egypt Ibrahim Mukiibi also dismissed the allegations. "Uganda has no such ambitions and they are not achievable," he told Al-Ahram Weekly. Mukiibi added that "the unfortunate thing is that Uganda has some unfriendly neighbours."

"Sudan has been one of our friendly neighbours, and now Congo," he said. "We had hoped that Mobutu was going to be replaced by a friendly government, but Kabila has started playing the same games as Mobutu, taking us back to square one."

But can Uganda afford to fight on two fronts? Observers say that the cost of such drawn out conflicts is too high for a country whose army is war-weary after fighting northern rebels for the last 10 years and rebels in the west for the last two years.

But Mukiibi said the government has no option. "What's the alternative? Should we abdicate our responsibility to protect our borders and the lives of our people?" he asked. "We are not war mongerers. We are not attacking anybody. We are only defending our security interests."

Museveni, Eritrean leader Issias Aferwerki, Ethiopian Premier Meles Zenawi, along with Rwandan strongman, Vice President Paul Kagame, have been lauded by the international community as the "new breed" of African leaders. However, the current armed conflicts in the region threaten to turn their stars.

The conflicts also threaten the dreams of closer economic cooperation in eastern and central Africa. "Underdevelopment is the common problem for the region," Mukiibi said. "We should be talking about economic cooperation and trade. But we are being diverted by the acts of these unfriendly regimes." For how long?