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Uganda

Uganda: Kutesa explains UN mission

By John Odyek

Uganda has not asked the UN Security Council to allow it to re-invade the DR Congo to flush out the LRA rebels, the foreign affairs minister has said.

Sam Kutesa yesterday said MPs and the press got it wrong when they said he and defence minister Amama Mbabazi had gone to New York to ask the UN to allow the Uganda army re-enter Congo.

Kutesa said this during the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers of the states of the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa at Speke Resort munyonyo. The states are signatory to the March 2000 Nairobi Declaration on the fight against small arms and light weapons.

"We went to the UN to tell them that the LRA had moved from Uganda to Congo and they were about 200 in number. We were appealing to the international community to help us fight LRA. If they don't, the same atrocities they committed in Uganda will be committed in the area," Kutesa said.

"We were telling the region that together we could fight LRA. If we don't, LRA will gain strength to start attacks against Uganda," he said.

Kutesa, who opened the meeting, said there was a challenge on how to prevent arms from falling into illegal hands. He said there were weapons in the hands of criminals, warriors and cattle rustlers, such as the Karimojong, the Pokot, the Jie and insurgents bent on destabilising political order.