Uganda plans to hold peace talks with LRA rebels
June 28, 2006 (KAMPALA) — The Ugandan government announced plans to send an advance mission to southern Sudan to prepare the ground for possible peace talks with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
The decision was seen as a key indication of Kampala’s willingness to reach a peaceful settlement to the fighting in northern Uganda, which the United Nations says is a forgotten humanitarian crisis.
President Yoweri Museveni has given full backing to the peace initiative, which was launched by the southern Sudan government with the aim of ending a two-decade war with the LRA that has devastated swathes of northern Uganda and southern Sudan.
The LRA, which is infamous for atrocities against civilians, particularly children, has vowed to overthrow Museveni’s government.
“The invitation has been sent to us and we are preparing to send a technical team to meet with (south Sudan’s) president, Salva Kiir, and also sort out issues to do with the format of the talks, the agenda, the composition of delegations and other procedural issues,” said foreign affairs permanent secretary James Mugume.
He did not say when the team would travel.
LRA leader Joseph Kony said in a rare interview with Britain’s The Times newspaper that he was ready for talks and rejected accusations that he had committed atrocities.
Riak Machar, deputy head of south Sudan’s autonomous regional government, has been holding a series of meetings with LRA officials. But he has said little about what progress has been made in laying the groundwork for government-rebel peace talks.
Mugume said the Ugandan technical team wanted to see if the LRA were serious about peace talks.
Several attempts to launch peace negotiations in the past have floundered due to mistrust.
Officials said the participation of five LRA top commanders, including Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti, who both face International Criminal Courts (ICC) arrest warrants, would have to be clarified before face-to-face talks could take place.
South Sudan has appealed to the ICC to work out a formula to ensure its warrants do not scupper the latest peace efforts, which are being supported by several European Union states.
In his interview with The Times, Kony denied allegations that he was a “terrorist” and said he was ready for conclusive talks.
“I am a freedom fighter who is fighting for freedom in Uganda. I am not a terrorist,” Kony told newspaper, in what was billed as the first-ever media interview with Africa’s most wanted man.
“If Museveni can agree to talk with me it is only a very good thing, which I know will bring peace to the people of Uganda,” Kony said.
“Nobody here is reluctant to go for talks but it is a question of interest. We have interests that we follow. We are looking at many issues. For example, we must make sure that we are not taken for a ride,” Mugume told AFP.
Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet and mystic, has for 18 years led the LRA in its fight to create a government in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.
But the group has become infamous for its brutal tactics, particularly the kidnapping of children — girls to be sex slaves and boys to be fighters.
“That is not true. Its just propaganda,” Kony explained. “Museveni went into the villages and cut off the ears of the people, telling the people that it was the work of the LRA. I cannot cut the ear of my brother, I cannot kill the eye of my brother.”
“I did not kill the civilian of Uganda. I kill the soldier of Museveni,” he said, denying accusations that he conscripted children by force.
“I don’t have acres of maize, of onion, of cabbages. I don’t have food. If I abducted children like that, here in the bush, what do they eat?” he asked.
Early this month, the global police organisation Interpol issued arrest notices for the five LRA commanders, informing police forces in its 184 member states they had been indicted by the ICC.
Sudan is not party to the international treaty that created the ICC and southern Sudanese officials have rejected criticism from human rights groups and others about meeting Kony and other war crimes indictees.
(ST)