Uganda, LRA rebels to start talks next week in Sudan’s Juba
July 4, 2006 (JUBA) — Talks between the Government and the rebel Lords’ Resistance Army begin next week in Juba in Southern Sudan, an Ugandan official said Monday here.
The government of Southern Sudan led by Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar and the Udandan delegation, led by internal affairs minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda agreed in Juba,to start talks between the Government and LRA next week, reported the Uganda New Vision
Uganda is not putting any pre-conditions to the talks brokered by the southern Sudan government. “Our main interest is speedy conclusion of the talks and a peaceful end to the conflict” said Rugunda.
It was not immediately clear if Rugunda’s team, which included state minister for foreign affairs Okello Oryem, would meet with members of the LRA who have been in Juba since last month, awaiting a response from Kampala to south Sudan’s mediation offer.
Machar held groundbreaking talks with the elusive LRA supremo, Joseph Kony, in early May, at which the rebel leader said he was willing to talk peace.
At a meeting in Kampala, the UN, however, warned that the peace in northern Uganda would be shaky if the stakeholders circumvent justice to negotiate with Kony.
The representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons (UNOG-OHCHR), Dr. Walter Kalin, yesterday said the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment against Kony should continue as the Government goes for peace talks.
Walter, who travelled to Uganda for the workshop on the national policy for the displaced people, told journalists that the ICC indictment should go on as well as the peace negotiations.
Ugandan authorities in May said any direct talks remains uncertain as Kony, one of the world’s most wanted men, has been indicted for war crimes by the Hague-based ICC at Kampala’s request last year.
Four of his top lieutenants are also the subject of an international arrest notice from Interpol. The LRA rebellion, which started in 1988 in a bid to oust Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, has claimed thousands of lives and left millions displaced.
In a rare media interview released last week, Kony denied he was a terrorist and renewed his call for peace talks with Musevni’s government.
“I’m a freedom fighter who is fighting for freedom in Uganda. I am not a terrorist,” Kony told The Times newspaper of London.
The LRA purports to be fighting to replace Museveni’s government with one based on the Biblical 10 Commandments, but has become better known for atrocities, particularly killing and maiming thousands and kidnapping an estimated 25,000 children, mostly girls to be sex slaves and boys as fighters.
(ST/New Vision)