Uganda dismisses claims that some districts in N Uganda have expressed interest to be cut off from the rest of the country and join southern Sudan

AND, Kampala Bureau report June 22, 2006 by Gerald Businge:

The minister of defence, Crispus Kiyonga, has dismissed claims that some districts in northern Uganda have expressed interest to be cut off from the rest of the country and join southern Sudan.

Gulu local council vice-chairperson, Norbert Mao, said this week that people in northern Uganda have suffered because of war in the last twenty years and that as a result some districts want to separate from the South and form their own state.

He said that northern Uganda is closer to southern Sudan socially and economically than it is to southern Uganda.

Minister Kiyonga, however, says Uganda will remain as one country and that no one should even think of seceding from rest of the country because there is no need.

The minister says the northern Uganda war is almost over and local leaders in the area should start planning the reconstruction of the area.