Uganda rejects LRA’s call for South African mediation
Aug 18, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Uganda flatly rejected a call by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels for South African mediation as fragile peace talks aimed at ending Uganda’s brutal two-decade war resumed.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and his delegation to the negotiations said the LRA request — made on Wednesday — was unwarranted and instead expressed full confidence in lead mediator Riek Machar, vice president of autonomous southern Sudan.
“The government will not accept any new mediation whatever the description. That is part of their (LRA’s) plan to prolong the peace process (but) if the mediation asks other people to help them, then we have no problem,” Museveni told a press conference in Kampala.
“It is in the best interest of these terrorists not to cause any delays. The government of southern Sudan is the best chance of these terrorists to have a soft landing. We have gone to the extent of guaranteeing them amnesty if they come out,” he added.
Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the government delegation, earlier said south Sudan was well placed to mediate.
“We respect South Africa’s experience in conflict resolution but we do not see the urgency of involving new people given the progress we have made. We feel confident in the mediation of Riek Machar,” Ankunda he told AFP at the venue for the talks in Juba, the capital of southern Sudan.
“There is no need to have another mediator when Machar is doing a good job.”
Museveni renewed his appeal to LRA supremo Joseph Kony and his fighters to surrender under a government-granted amnesty, vowing not to betray them.
“I have assured Joseph Kony of protection if he agrees to come out of the bush through this process and I can again assure him now that I will not go back in my word because that is not our tradition,” he said.
Last October, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and three top commanders for war crimes.
The alleged atrocities include hacking of civilians, rape and killings at displaced people’s camps since the LRA took over a two-year-old insurgency in 1988.
Over the weekend the army said it had killed major general Raska Lukwiya in northern Uganda, reducing the war crimes fugitives to four.
There was no immediate reaction from the LRA as the talks resumed Friday after a three-day break for the rebels to mourn a slain commander.
The negotiations are now focused on forging a cessation of hostilities pact to pave the way for a formal ceasefire, and the LRA was expected on Friday to present position papers on reconciliation and accountability, officials said.
“We hope the talks will proceed well,” rebel spokesman Obonyo Olweny told AFP.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and some two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion among the Acholi ethnic minority in 1988.
Kony wants to replace Museveni’s government with one based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.
Several previous peace efforts have failed and the Juba talks are seen as the best chance yet to end a war described by the United Nations as one of the world’s worst and most forgotten humanitarian crises.
(ST/AFP)