News Analysis: After decades of enmity, Khartoum, Kampala search for normal ties

For over 50 years, the Sudanese-Ugandan ties have been characterized by tension and enmity, but presently Khartoum and Kampala seem to be searching for normal relations, Sudanese political analysts said on Tuesday.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has told the Sudanese Vice President Hassabo Mohamed Abdul-Rahman that Uganda has expelled prominent leaders of the Sudanese rebel groups which Khartoum accuses Uganda of supporting, local Sudanese media reported.

According to Sudan's Ashrouq net, Museveni held a prolonged meeting in Kampala on Monday with the Sudanese delegation which included senior Sudanese officials and experts.

The two sides thoroughly discussed the security issue, Obeid-Allah Mohamed Obeid-Allah, Sudan's State Minister at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters.

He said the two sides also discussed the future of cooperation between the two countries, noting that they have agreed to form a mechanism to follow up implementation of the outcome of the talks, particularly with regard to the security issue.

A breakthrough in the ties between Khartoum and Kampala was not expected due to the prolonged enmity and accumulating files of difference between the two countries.

To this end, Al-Najeeb Adam Gamar Eddin, editor-in-chief of Sudan's Al-Akhbar daily, regarded the new developments in the relationship between Sudan and Uganda as "surprising."

"No doubt it is a surprising development that we have not expected it to happen soon. However, I believe that many developments in the region have helped in this positive breakthrough in the relationship between Sudan and Uganda," Gamar Eddin said.

"If the presence of the Sudanese armed groups on the Ugandan territories was the essential point of difference between Khartoum and Kampala, it is also apparent that the weakness of those groups and their failure to topple the government in Khartoum was the reason which pushed Uganda to change its policies," he added.

He said "it is obvious that Uganda was betting on a losing horse and after it became sure of the weakness of those groups, it realized that it is not in its interest to pay the price of a tensed relationship with Khartoum."

In the meantime, Gamar Eddin believed that the recent closeness between the rivals in South Sudan pushed the Ugandan president Museveni to reconsider his regional stance, particularly that he supported South Sudan government against the South Sudanese rebels, led by former vice-president Riek Machar.

"A comprehensive peace deal is expected to be reached in South Sudan and bring back rebel leaders to participate in the government at the highest levels where Uganda would face a difficult situation due to its hostile stance against the South Sudanese rebels," Gamar Eddin noted.

Meanwhile, analysts said the recent development in the Sudanese-Ugandan relations is not separable from the developments in the Middle East, Africa and the Great Lakes regions which are witnessing tensions and conflicts between regional and international powers.

Al-Fatih Elsayed, Sudanese political analyst, told Xinhua that "the region is witnessing great transformations and sharp polarizations that necessitate the countries to try to deal with them in a manner that preserves their interests and achieves their stability."

He said the importance for the Sudanese political mentality to absorb these developments and utilize them in what would serve Sudan's ties within its regional framework.

"We observe intensive moves towards normalization of the Sudanese-American relations and before that there was a clear improvement in Sudan's ties with the Gulf states. Now there is the development in the Sudanese-Ugandan relations. These are interconnected matters," Elsayed said.

The tension in the Sudanese-Ugandan relations dates back to the early 1950s, but it has started escalating since 1982 when Uganda decided to support the rebel movement in South Sudan, led by the late leader of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) John Garang.

After president Museveni took power in Uganda in 1987, he continued the hostile policy against Sudan which reached its peak in 1995 when the two countries severed their diplomatic ties.

Additionally, when the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Luis Moreno-Ocampo issued an arrest warrant in July 2008 against the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for alleged war crime in the Darfur region, Uganda adopted a different position from that of the African consensus which rejected the warrant.

Uganda further refused to invite al-Bashir for the African Union summit in Kapmala in 2010, which further aggravated the difference between the two countries. Endit