Sudan/Uganda: the torch is burning between Khartoum and Kampala

By on June 9, 2010
Sudan asks for excuses and for a retraction to Uganda, which refused to invite the Sudanese president Omar El-Béchir to the next African Union summit in Kampala. The summit of the U.A is planned on July.

“The ability to invite the representatives to the African summit is not the privilege of the State host, but that of the African Union in coordination with the State host”, points out the Sudanese diplomacy.
For Edouard Bustin, professor at the Center of African Studies at the university of Boston, the refusal of Yoweri Musevini to accept Omar El-Béchir’s presence at the U.A has a relationship with the conference on the International Penal Court (IPC)in Kampala.
However, the question remains awkward for Uganda, underlines Mr. Bustin, who points out that the Ugandan representative at the conference of Kampala on the CPI was not able to express a clear position concerning the possible execution of the mandate against President El Béchir.
The relations between Uganda and Sudan “are dictated by mutual interests; they have a common border, they have troops which move from a territory to the other one”, explained professor Bustin, adding that the problem of the Lord Resistance Army (LRA), the Ugandan rebel group, “is a part of this complicated equation”
Uganda has its own concerns about the crime of aggression debated by the IPC, and Kampala could have some down feelings for its interventions in RDC, said professor Bustin.

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