The South Sudan Speaker of parliament has today, Thursday, revealed that he never saw any letter from President Salva Kiir calling for the military intervention of the Uganda national defence forces in their country.
Manasseh Magok RundialJanuary 25, 2014 () — Speaker, Manaseh Magok Rundial, who paid a curtsey call to the Ugandan parliament, was forced to answer a few questions as regards the claims that President Kiir wrote to president Museveni seeking military aid following the attempted coup blamed on rebel leader, Riek Machar.
“Maybe the presidents spoke on phone but there was no letter to President Museveni I heard about,” Magok told members of the Ugandan parliament.
He emphasized that it was the decision of parliament to send the national army to help a sister in need.
What became more dramatic was the failure by the Chief of defence forces, Gen Katumba Wamala, and the minister for Defence, Gen Jeje Odongo, to present a copy of the said letter to Members of Parliaments public accounts committee.
The two generals, however, defended themselves, stating, that they cannot produce the letter since no copy was availed to them.
Only yesterday, while speaking at state house Entebbe, president Museveni praised the national army for being disciplined and for successfully aiding in the resolving of the South Sudan question noting:
“On deployment of forces in South Sudan, President Museveni said the UPDF was deployed with the mandate of IGAD after a request by the South Sudan Government to rescue civilians from being killed in a conflict that had seen many Southern Sudanese lose their lives,” a statement released by the President’s Special Assistant for Communications, Ms Sarah Kagingo, reads.
The question of UPDF deployment and the consequential military combat against South Sudan rebels has dominated hot discussions and debates among educated circles.
The rebels built on it to delay a ceasefire for so long and threatened not to proceed with peace talks if the Ugandan army is not withdrawn from their country.
