Uganda extends deadline for rebel peace talks

July 10, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Uganda added more than a month to a deadline for thrashing out a peace deal with northern rebels on Monday, boosting landmark talks this week that will aim to end one of Africa’s most neglected wars.

Tentative discussions between Ugandan officials and representatives of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) are due to begin on Wednesday in Juba, in neighbouring southern Sudan.

If they go well, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has offered to protect LRA leader Joseph Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

In a surprise move, Museveni also extended his deadline for an agreement to be reached from July 31 to September 12.

“These extra weeks are to give the LRA time to consult,” said Captain Paddy Ankunda, Uganda’s spokesman on the talks.

There have been at least a dozen previous attempts to end the 20-year conflict, which has killed tens of thousands, uprooted nearly two million people in northern Uganda and destabilised southern Sudan.

(Reuters)