Uganda rejects ceasefire with LRA rebels

July 19, 2006 (JUBA) — Ugandan negotiators have rejected a ceasefire call from Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels as a first step in talks to end one of Africa’s longest conflicts, officials said on Wednesday.

“In the past when we have declared a ceasefire the LRA has used these moments to recruit, reorganize, treat their sick and loot food,” the head of Uganda’s delegation, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, told a news conference.

“While we also want a cessation of hostilities, we think it should come after everything else has been concluded,” he added, stressing that talks would continue.

A ceasefire was the first item on the agenda at tentative discussions between the two sides that began on Sunday in Juba, capital of neighboring southern Sudan.

The south’s regional government says it wants to broker an end to the LRA’s two-decade insurgency, which has killed tens of thousands, uprooted nearly two million people in northern Uganda and destabilized southern Sudan.

But both sides appear completely at odds: the government offering amnesty in return for LRA surrender, and the rebels demanding compensation and the disbandment of Uganda’s army.

Kampala had wanted LRA leader Joseph Kony, or at least his deputy Vincent Otti, to attend the talks in person.

But both are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, and have so far remained hidden in the lawless jungles of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where they crossed last year from camps in southern Sudan.

Their fighters are notorious for massacring civilians, mutilating survivors and abducting more than 20,000 children.

Uganda has set a September 12 deadline for reaching a deal.

(Reuters)