TAKE A GANDER AT UGANDA:

Uganda pledges support for war in Iraq (Sapa-AP, March 23 2003)

The Ugandan government has publicly declared its support for the US-led war in Iraq and said it will provide any support needed.

The "Cabinet, sitting under the chairmanship of (President) Yoweri Museveni, decided to support the US-led coalition war against Iraq," Foreign Minister James Waphakabulo said in a statement released late pn Saturday.

"Cabinet also decided that if the need arises Uganda will be ready to assist in any way possible."

It was not clear what support Uganda, a poor East African nation, could offer the US-led coalition.

The government supports the war because the "potential link between terrorism and weapons of mass destruction poses a very serious threat to international peace and security," the statement said.

Museveni, who seized power in 1986 after leading a five-year bush war, is regarded as a US ally and the United States is the second largest bilateral donor to Uganda.

Uganda is the third African country to publicly support US military action against Iraq, following Horn of Africa countries Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Ethiopia has granted US aircraft over-flight rights and access to its air bases.

A predominantly Christian nation in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia has two main air bases, one outside the capital Addis Ababa and the other 320km to the east in Dire Dawa.

Eritrea, which gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year guerrilla war, has offered the United States the use of Assab and Massawa ports - both of which are on the Red Sea - but it is not known whether this has been accepted.

Uganda--with its successful promotion of abstinence to combat AIDs and support like this for the war--and Ethiopia are examples of how the spread of Christianity is transforming even some of the previously most hopeless portions of the Third World and bringing them into the Western World. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 24, 2003 11:33 AM