MUSEVENI PUSHES FOR SOUTH SUDAN ELECTION IN 2018

President Museveni has opposed a proposal by the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan 

percussion. President Museveni says an embargo will destroy the local force needed to build a strong integrate army

By FREDERIC MUSISI

KAMPALA.

 President Museveni has opposed a proposal by the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan. 
The UNSC had wanted an embargo targeting the principal protagonists in the South Sudan conflict, President Salva Kiir and his deputy Dr Riek Machar, as the only means of containing the volatile situation. However, Mr Museveni says an embargo will instead plunge the world’s youngest nation into more violence like it was witnessed in Somalia.

The President during a meeting with the UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, pitched for a three-pronged approach to the crisis; notably a regional protection force (in the transition period) to provide protection to Dr Machar who is distrustful of the government forces, brokering a truce especially in Juba, and thirdly elections to ensure democracy.“I don’t agree with the proposal on the arms embargo,” the President was quoted as saying in a statement circulated by press secretary Linda Nabusayi. “What is happening in South Sudan is sectarian politics where one partisan community is fighting the other. When you impose an embargo, you destroy the local force needed to build a strong integrated army,” the President said.“Work towards peace and elections. Elections will force them into alliances,” Mr Museveni advised.

The President also held back-to-back meetings with the US Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield and regional leaders under the auspices of the Inter-governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) led by Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn over the same matter. The meetings were convened separately at the sidelines of the 27th African Union summit in Kigali, Rwanda. 

The 15-member UN Security Council, the world body’s most powerful organ, last year, in a move aimed at finding a lasting solution to the hostilities between President Kiir and Dr Machar, which first exploded in December 2013, mooted sanctions that included an arms embargo, freezing of assets of all individuals involved in the conflict and a travel ban. The sanction would also apply to any individual seen frustrating the peace efforts.

Mr Ban, during the meeting, said the fighting which broke out last week in violation of the Addis-Ababa peace accord signed last year in Ethiopia, puts the UN in a “very difficult situation.” He called for the imposition of sanctions and the strengthening of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) in order to protect civilians. Nonetheless, he called on President Museveni as the guarantor of the peace process alongside the AU and IGAD to send out a clear unified message to the two warring factions. President Museveni said there is need for the integration of forces and a fund for resettlement and rehabilitation of demobilized militias and soldiers.

Mr Ban, later held separate talks with Mr Desalegn and Rwandan President Paul Kagame and urged them to support the arms embargo and targeted sanctions.
The meeting with Ms Greenfield also attended by Ms Gayle Smith, the administrator of the US government’s overseas development aid arm USAID, also deliberated implementation of the peace agreement in South Sudan and developing innovative financing mechanisms in support of AU peacekeeping initiatives.
US President Barack Obama last Friday told Congress that about 200 US forces were in Uganda waiting to be sent to South Sudan if required.

The spokesperson at the US embassy in Uganda, Mr Chris Brown, told this newspaper by telephone that: “The US troop were moved from Djibouti to Uganda to be close to Juba to protect US citizens and property in South Sudan.”Diplomatic sources in Kigali told Daily Monitor that a high level meeting was convened on Saturday night attended by leaders of the eight IGAD countries, Mr Ban, AU ad hoc committee on South Sudan, and President Salva Kiir’s representatives.

At the meeting, sources intimated that South Sudan representatives outrightly rejected the idea of the arms embargo, arguing that they are a young nation that needs to develop its military. However, the meeting came up with a nine-point programme including follow-up on earlier terms in the recent Addis-Ababa peace accord and appealing to the international community for humanitarian assistance.
According to the UN agency for refugees, UNHRC, the ensuing hostilities have displaced about 36,000 people internally, claimed lives of more than 300 and about 100,000 fled to neighboring countries including Uganda.

objection
At the meeting, sources intimated that South Sudan representatives out rightly rejected the idea of the arms embargo, arguing that they are a young nation that needs to develop its military.