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Rwakitura, Uganda (AFP) April 16, 2011 Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Saturday lashed out at the West's military intervention in Libya and said Africa needed to coordinate its response. "The Europeans and Americans interfering in Africa is a new phenomenon. Africa has not had time to sit and react... we may meet in June this year and discuss this issue," Museveni told reporters. "Africa will work together and probably an extraordinary summit will be called and we will take a position on these Americans and Europeans coming to Africa without the permission of the AU (African Union)," he said. The AU, which was chaired by embattled Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi until last year and receives significant funding from the north African country, has stressed it was against NATO's air strikes. It has created a team tasked with brokering a ceasefire, an option the Western-backed Libyan rebels have flatly rejected. "I hear Americans saying Kadhafi must go. I have had problems with Kadhafi but when it came to foreign intervention in Africa, militarily we cannot entertain it," said Museveni, who is on a five-member AU panel on Libya.. "Can the European troops intervene in Africa? No, that we cannot allow it. If they want a new Vietnam they will get it. We defeated colonialism in the past and this will be defeated. It has happened but it has to be stopped." Kadhafi offered support to former dictator Idi Ami when the military strongmen faced a Tanzania backed coup. Not long after Amin was ousted in 1979, Kadhafi began supporting the National Resistance Army rebels led by Museveni. The Museveni - Kadhafi relationship was solid for many years, and the Ugandan capital has both a major road and an opulent mosque named after the embattled Libyan leader. The relationship has cooled of late however, largely because Museveni has dismissed Kadhafi's United States of Africa project, instead focusing on regional integration like the East African Community. In a cable published on the WikiLeaks website, Museveni told a former US ambassador to Kampala in 2009 that he feared Kadhafi may try to shoot down his plane while flying over Libyan airspace. Kadhafi has given financial support to Uganda's tribal monarchies. The Libyan embassy successfully sued a Kampala tabloid for publishing a series of stories that suggested Kadhafi had an affair with the Queen mother of the western Toro kingdom. This support has irked Museveni's government, which has a testy relationship with some kingdoms.
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![]() ![]() Ramallah, Palestinian Territories (AFP) April 16, 2011 Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas has told AFP he will visit France next week and Germany in May to seek advice on the creation of a Palestinian state. "We will ask the Europeans - I will go to France on 21st, and next month I will be in Germany .. to ask 'What shall we do?' because we want their advice," he said in the interview late on Friday conducted in English. "We will ask (French P ... read more |
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