Museveni stirs up trouble in Sudan

Ugandan strongman Yoweri Museveni is stirring up trouble again. The death of John Garang, the Sudanese vice-president and former rebel leader, was almost universally seen as an accident. Not only did Garang's movement, the SPLA/M, acknolwedge that his helicopter crash was an accident, but so did his widow Rebecca.

Museveni decided to inflame things by insisting that the cause of the crash was 'not clear'. The crash occured as Garang was returning to Sudan from a meeting with Museveni.

"Some people say accident, it may be an accident, it may be something else," he provocatively and without evidence told a group of mourners in southern Sudan.

As if Sudan didn't have enough trouble with the riots that followed Garang's death, the last thing it needs is Museveni criminally reckless comments. It's not entirely inconceivable, though highly unlikely in my estimation, that the Sudanese regime had a hand in Garang's death. However, if Museveni has the slightest evidence to that effect, he should present it.

There are few governments to whom I am less likely to give the benefit of the doubt than the genocidal regime in Khartoum (which I've attacked more times than I can count). But if Garang's movement AND his widow both accept that it was an accident, Museveni should refrain from reckless speculation unless he has something concrete to present. To simply imply as much without backing up his inflammatory assertions only serves to destabilize Uganda's already shaky northern neighbor.