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http://www.mg.co.za/mg/za/news.html
Uganda demands
security guaranteesOWN CORRESPONDENT, Kampala | Friday 11.50pm.
UGANDAN President Yoweri Museveni said Friday that a peaceful settlement to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) would require security guarantees to Kampala and Kigali.
"We are ready (for peace) any time. The Ugandan army is ready to withdraw even tomorrow. But let us have a peace agreement that will guarantee (an end to) the problems we have been facing in the past five years," Museveni told a news conference here.
Uganda and Rwanda are backing rebels fighting to topple the government of President Laurent Kabila in Kinshasa. Museveni claims that that Ugandan troops were deployed in the DRC to prevent genocide against ethnic Tutsis both in Rwanda and the DRC.
"Last year, we were 2 000 kilometres inside Congo when we were putting Kabila into power," Museveni said, adding that Kabila had approached Uganda in 1996.
"Kabila told us: 'I can work with you. I have a problem with Mobutu (Sese Seko, the former Zairean dictator). I can see you have your grievances with Mobutu ... My grievance is that I am out of power,'" Museveni recounted.
The president added: "We said: 'Since we have a common interest we shall work together'. So we helped Kabila to go to power. But when he got power, he said: 'Your problems are not our problems'. We said: 'If that's how things are ...' So a new problem started."
Kabila's uprising against Mobutu ended in victory in May 1997. Museveni said that Kabila is now "rearming" the same killers who prompted Uganda to intervene in the DRC in 1996-97.
Meanwhile, Kabila has said he stands by his refusal to negotiate with rebels despite a plea from Zambia's president, who was due to host a peace summit next week. The summit has now been postponed indefinitely. -- APF