Ugandan govt, LRA to resume peace talks
April 15, 2007 (KAMPALA) — The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has agreed to resume peace talks with the Ugandan government in southern Sudan capital Juba on April 26, UN special envoy Joachim Chissano has said.
He disclosed that at the end of a two-day meeting between a Ugandan government delegation and Lord’s Resistance Army rebels at Ri Kwangbar on the border of southern Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The government delegation Friday flew to Ri Kwangba to meet LRA leaders to push forward the stalled peace talks.
This is the second time that the government delegation is meeting the LRA chiefs for face to face talks since the Juba peace initiative started in July 2006, but went stalled in January amid mutual mistrust.
The Kampala delegation and the rebels also agreed to extend the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, which had expired, to June 30this year.
The two sides also agreed that five countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, and the DRC, would act as observers during the peace negotiating process.
The main mediators were Chissano, former president of Mozambique, and Riek Machar, vice president of southern Sudan.
Chissano added that it had been agreed that Ri Kwangba acts as the LRA’s assembly point. On the issue of the LRA peace delegation in Juba, the meeting agreed that their security remains the responsibility of the government of southern Sudan.
The UN would, however, help “where possible”, he said. The talks are seen as a chance to end the 20-year-old LRA rebellion that has left tens of thousands of people dead and over1.4 million people homeless in northern Uganda.
(Xinhua)