SECRETARY POWELL: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I just had a very interesting meeting with opposition leaders, who were encouraging me and the United States to keep pressing on issues of pluralism in the political process; open dialogue, increased dialogue between opposition leaders and the government; a desire to be able to form political parties that can actually support candidates, and not just candidates who can�t be part of a political party, the ability to raise money and to do other things that would allow people to be active candidates in a democratic system.
I was impressed by the passion with which they presented their cases, and it gives me a pretty good background of thinking in Uganda, not just the government side, but also from the opposition side. To have a democracy, you really do have to have an opposition. You have to have people who are free to speak out. So, in the course of my visit I have tried to encourage the government; and I encouraged the opposition leaders, too, to continue to search for openness, and press for openness and provide openness in the democratic process so that all Ugandans can feel they have a role to play, and it will be a role that will be respected in determining the manner in which they will be governed.
Thank you very much.
QUESTION: (Inaudible)
SECRETARY POWELL: I think that it has to move at its own pace. Of course, countries like the United States are always encouraging nations around the world to move as fast as they possibly can toward a more open society, more open forms of democracy. But at the end of the day, it is not something the United States can impose on a country. We certainly can encourage that.
At the end of the day it will also be up to the government and opposition leaders and the people of Uganda to apply pressure through an open democratic process; and the sooner it becomes more open, the better it will be.
QUESTION: It has been a long time since the United States has sent food aid to the north of Sudan. What�s the thinking behind the timing? And how quickly can you get food to the families in this serious situation?
SECRETARY POWELL: There is a very desperate situation in the north, and we don�t use food aid as a political weapon, so there is not a political connection to the food aid. It is strictly because of the need in the north.
I can�t give you an exact timeline; I�m sure our officials with AID can do that. But it is important that we use our food aid to help people in need and not as a political weapon.
With respect to the Sudan, as I have said in the course of this visit, we have appointed a humanitarian coordinator for the Sudan -- Andrew Natsios, the Administrator of the Agency for International Development, and he will be working on that problem right away and is well involved in it already. In the near future we also expect to designate a special envoy to deal with other issues related to Sudan, the political issues and hopefully enter into a dialogue with the government that can start to bring an end with helping end this crisis.
QUESTION: (inaudible)
SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, there is a ship that is on the high seas that has food. Its destination was originally going to -- something happened with that one, so it�s available. How quickly the food can be gotten in I will have to let our experts tell you the answer to that.
Thank you.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, just one more. Do you have any reaction at this point to the horrible car bombings in Jerusalem today?
SECRETARY POWELL: It�s a tragedy. We are not going to get to the other elements of the Mitchell Report, the confidence building measures, which includes the issue of settlements, until the violence goes down. That means on both sides. Car bombings serve no purpose other than to frustrate the peace process, cause death to innocent people, injury to innocent people. I would hope that the leaders in the region would do everything to bring the violence under control.
As the Mitchell Commission said in its very opening set of recommendations, unconditional --unconditional -- cessation of violence. And when that occurs, or at least it goes down to some level far below what it is now, then we can begin engaging on all the confidence building measures; and then we can be on a path to full negotiations where all of the outstanding issues can be dealt with, final status negotiations.
There is a roadmap provided to both sides by the Mitchell Report. Ambassador Burns, my special assistant for the region now, is meeting with both Mr. Arafat and Mr. Sharon, although I don�t have a report of those meetings yet.
Thank you.