Uganda rebels agree to mediation- SPLM official

Dec 18, 2005 (KHARTOUM) — Rebels in northern Uganda, wanted by a global war crimes tribunal, have agreed to accept mediation from Sudan’s southern government, dominated by the former rebel SPLM, an SPLM spokesman said on Sunday.

Walid Hamid, spokesman for the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), said the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), whose leaders are believed to be hiding in south Sudan, had responded through the Internet to an SPLM offer to mediate talks.

“The (southern) Vice President Riek Machar said that they have agreed for the government of southern Sudan to mediate,” though no further details were available, Hamid said.

The SPLM has had no direct contact with the LRA, he said.

The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued its first warrants for five top LRA leaders in October, which observers said ruled out the possibility of restarting failed peace talks between the group and the Ugandan government.

Senior SPLM sources said they had sought a face-to-face meeting with the LRA but were awaiting a reply.

The SPLM is the former rebel group which fought a bitter civil war for two decades for greater autonomy from the north, a goal it achieved in a peace deal in January. During the conflict Sudan accused Uganda of arming the SPLM and Kampala said Khartoum was arming the LRA.

In September the SPLM joined a new coalition government in Khartoum, prompting a new agreement allowing Ugandan troops to track LRA rebels in southern Sudan on foot and by helicopter.

The LRA has since kept on the move, attacking civilians more often in south Sudan and targeting international aid workers. On Friday the group killed 10 people on their way to market near the Uganda-Sudan border.

The Sudanese armed forces said on Sunday a new deal had been signed allowing SPLM forces to join the hunt for the LRA in the south. Previously only Ugandan and Sudanese army troops were involved in search operations.

“This does not mean that joint operations will happen,” said an armed forces spokesman in Khartoum. “Each force will still have their separate operations.”

The LRA, led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony, has kidnapped more than 20,000 children who are forced to become fighters and work as porters or sex slaves.

The cult-like group has no clear political aims and has terrorised communities in northern Uganda for almost two decades, forcing more than 1.6 million to flee their homes.

(Reuters)