DATE=12/8/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SUDAN / UGANDA (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256973
BYLINE=JENNIFER WIENS
DATELINE=NAIROBI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The presidents of Uganda and Sudan say they
will try to normalize relations between their
countries. As Jennifer Wiens reports, the two leaders
signed the agreement during talks mediated by former
U-S President Jimmy Carter in the Kenyan capital,
Nairobi.
TEXT: The agreement between Sudan's president, Omar
Al Bashir, and Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni,
calls for both countries to stop supporting each
other's rebel groups, and to respect each country's
territorial integrity.
The 11-point accord also includes pledges to return
prisoners of war, to help locate and return refugees
and people who were abducted, and to offer amnesty to
combatants from both sides who renounce the use of
force.
The two leaders signed the agreement at a ceremony
also attended by Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi and
former U-S president Jimmy Carter. Mr. Carter oversaw
the negotiations between Uganda and Sudan after his U-
S based Carter Center was asked to mediate by the two
African leaders.
Mr. Carter says the agreement is a step toward peace
and reconciliation, and that the conflict between
Uganda and Sudan had been hindering peace efforts
throughout the region.
/// CARTER ACT ///
There has been serious problems between the two
countries along the border, which has not only
disturbed the people of the two countries, but
in some ways has made it more difficult to make
progress on peace in the whole region.
/// END ACT ///
Uganda and Sudan broke off relations in 1994, after
Uganda accused its neighbor of helping two rebel
groups - the Lord's Resistance Army and the Allied
Democratic Forces - that are trying to oust President
Museveni.
The rebellion in Uganda has claimed hundreds of lives,
and displaced thousands. Much of the rebel activity
is based in Uganda's north, near the Sudanese border.
The Sudan government says Uganda supports the biggest
Sudanese rebel group, the Sudan People's Liberation
Army (S-P-L-A). The S-P-L-A is fighting to gain
autonomy for Sudan's mainly Christian and animist
south from the predominantly Muslim north. That
rebellion has gone on for more than 15 years, with
thousands of lives lost due to fighting and famine.
Under this new accord, both countries say they will
make every effort to disband and disarm rebel or
terrorist groups that are hostile to the other nation.
The agreement also calls for both countries to open
diplomatic offices in each other's capitals after one
month if the terms of the accord are being honored.
(Signed)
NEB/JW/JWH/JP
08-Dec-1999 12:43 PM EDT (08-Dec-1999 1743 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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