Africa Focus: Ugandan legislators demand details on deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia

Ugandan legislators demanded for details of the terms and conditions for deployment of the country's troops to volatile Somalia before they endorse the peace keeping mission.

The legislators, who are mandated by the country's constitution to endorse the deployment of troops outside Uganda, wanted the government to give a detailed plan on the deployment and the source of the logistics to support the mission.

"The terms and conditions must be very clear before we support the deployment," Reagan Okumu, a legislator from the opposition Forum for Democratic Change was quoted by state-owned New Vision on Thursday as saying.

He further questioned whether the troops would be going for combat alongside Ethiopian troops or they would be neutral.

"We should have no association with Ethiopian forces. Uganda should look at being neutral if the government is to get support from Parliament," he advised.

Ethiopian troops in the past two weeks helped the Somali transitional government to rout the Union of Islamic Courts who had taken control of most of central and southern Somalia.

Uganda has been asked to play a key role in the deployment of peacekeepers in Somalia under the auspices of the African Union and Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a regional body that brings together Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

Rebecca Kadaga, the deputy speaker of parliament said government has not yet requested parliament to endorse the deployment.

President Yoweri Museveni, who met Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi here mid last year, said that cabinet had approved the deployment plan and was preparing to take a bill to parliament for endorsement.

Jalia Bintu from the ruling National Resistance Movement said she would support the deployment once the request is brought to Parliament.

Alice Alaso and Latif Sebaggala, both from the opposition FDC and Democratic Party respectively, said they would oppose the deployment, saying the problem of war-ravaged northern Uganda, cattle rustling in eastern Uganda and the Allied Democratic Forces rebels should be prioritized.

Museveni is reportedly planning to travel to Ethiopia to hold consultations with Zenawi and senior officials of the African Union based in Addis Ababa over the crisis in Somalia.

Source: Xinhua