Entebbe, Uganda (CNN) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said Saturday that he will seek clarification from the Obama administration over possible sanctions against Iran to get a better understanding of the debate over the country’s contested nuclear program before making a decision on the dispute.

When asked what Uganda’s position is on the sanctions, Museveni said: “We are just students on this matter. It is a debate I have not been following.”

Museveni has recently sought guidance from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Iranian Foreign Minister Manounchehr Mottaki “to hear from them why they are in dispute over nuclear use.”

“Now I’m going to engage the United States to hear their version, then come back to and consult with our African brothers whom I represent on the U.N. Security Council,” Museveni said.

Uganda is a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Museveni, however, noted that Uganda will be not be pushed by any of its donors saying, “We are not agents of the West on the U.N. Security Council — we are representatives of Africa and we follow what Africa decides.”

Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who arrived in Uganda on Friday to seek support for his country’s controversial nuclear program, confirmed discussing the sanctions, which he described as a “joke.”

“We want Uganda to understand that our nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but Iran is being denied the right to develop it on baseless suspicions by the West,” Ahmadinejad said.

He warned that “if Obama goes ahead to push for sanctions on us, he would have unmasked the true cruel face of America, meaning policies have not changed and is just working on the brutal Bush policies.”

Earlier, during a state dinner, Ahmadinejad accused the West of trying to deny countries the right to nuclear energy.

Countries have the right to use nuclear energy and it’s treason to deny nations that right, he said, according to the Ugandan presidential press service.

Museveni, on the other hand, called for a “nuclear weapons-free world,” defending nations’ rights to have access to nuclear technology, but only for “peaceful purposes” such as medical uses.

“Nuclear weapons are dangerous for humanity — even more dangerous than all the other previous weapon systems,” Museveni said. “We should, therefore, work for a nuclear weapons-free world. This means that those who have these weapons should work to get rid of them under an internationally agreed and verifiable treaty.”

Iran has been under harsh criticism from the United States and its allies, who have called for tougher sanctions over its nuclear ambitions. The Islamic republic has said it intends to produce nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes, including civilian electricity and medical research.

Ahmadinejad arrived in Uganda on Friday to seek support for his country’s controversial nuclear program as he eyes the Uganda’s virgin oil sector. He is expected to sign various trade and investment deals in oil development, agriculture, health and real estate.

During a visit to Tehran last year, Museveni invited Iranian investors to build an oil refinery in Uganda’s northwest region, which is believed to hold at least 2 billion barrels of commercial oil. Museveni has said Uganda is looking for partners with technical expertise to set up a refinery. Oil-rich Iran will also fund a housing complex and a tractor assembly plant near the capital, Kampala.

Uganda was one of two African nations Ahmadinejad visited this week.

He also made a two-day trip to Zimbabwe, where he launched a tractor production line and attended a trade fair.

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said he and Ahmadinejad have the “same policy and same stance — anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist and a stance to protect our sovereignty and our right of ownership of our resources.”

Iran has economic agreements with more than a dozen African nations.

Uganda leader to engage US over Iran sanctions

(CNN) — An Oregon jury on Friday found the Boy Scouts of America liable for the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old boy more than 25 years ago, returning a verdict of $18.5 million in punitive damages.

The plaintiff, Kerry Lewis, now 38, allowed his name to be used publicly during the trial, according to his attorneys. He is among six men suing the Boy Scouts over allegations of sexual abuse.

Attorney Kelly Clark has said that when his clients were boys during the 1980s, the organization knew that at least one of them had been abused by former assistant Scoutmaster Timur Dykes. The 53-year-old convicted sex offender was released from prison in 2005 and paroled until 2013. He could not be reached on Friday.

Clark also alleged that though the scout leader was removed, he was allowed to stay on as a volunteer and the abuse continued. In 1983, Dykes told troop leaders he abused 17 scouts, according to plaintiff’s attorneys.

During the six-week trial, Clark produced documents that he said were part of an archive of previously secret Boy Scout files that chronicled decades of abuse of boys.

Earlier this month, jurors in Portland awarded Lewis $1.4 million after finding that the organization was negligent in allowing a Scout leader who was a sex offender to have contact with him. Under Oregon law, 60 percent of a punitive damages award goes to the state’s crime victims’ fund.

The Boy Scouts of America did not immediately respond to CNN’s requests for comment on Friday. However, lawyers for the organization have said it had not known about the scout leader’s record.

Once the Scouts did learn about it, the organization acted immediately and cooperated with police, the lawyers have said.

The Boy Scouts have acknowledged the organization does have confidential files, but said they are made confidential in order to protect people who are ineligible to be scout leaders, but who may not have done anything illegal.

A scouts spokesman has said that, in recent years, the organization has taken extensive measures to keep abusers out.

In a written statement earlier this month, the Scouts said the organization intends to appeal the initial verdict.

“We are gravely disappointed with the verdict,” it said. “We believe that the allegations made against our youth protection efforts are not valid.”

It added, “We are saddened by what happened to the plaintiff. The actions of the man who committed these crimes do not represent the values and ideals of the Boy Scouts of America.

“The safety of the young people currently in the Scouting program has never been in question during these legal proceedings. The case focused on a discussion about what society and the BSA knew about child abuse approximately three decades ago.

“This is a long-standing societal issue that every youth-serving organization must address. Based on the standard of care of that time, the BSA believes it acted responsibly and that the evidence presented during the trial does not justify the verdict.”

While holding the Boy Scouts of America 60 percent negligent, the jury said the Cascade Pacific Council — which oversees Scouting activities in the region — was 15 percent negligent and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 25 percent negligent.

The church has sponsored a number of Boy Scout troops, including the one to which the plaintiff belonged.

Steve English, a lawyer representing the church, has said the verdict has no impact on the church, since it settled the case out of court more than a year ago.

“The church absolutely condemns any kind of child abuse,” he said. “Because of the way the law is set up in Oregon, we thought it made sense both to help the victim and also to get this behind the victim and us to settle this case.”

$18.5M verdict in Boy Scout abuse case