Uganda rebel leaders say not attending peace talks
July 12, 2006 (NABANGA) — Talks to end one of Africa’s most brutal conflicts were thrown into doubt on Wednesday after the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) said its leaders would not attend negotiations with Ugandan officials.
Kampala wants LRA leader Joseph Kony or his deputy Vincent Otti to attend the talks, which had been due to start on Wednesday in Juba, the capital of neighbouring south Sudan.
“I cannot go to Juba myself. Let this delegation go. We have blessed them to negotiate with the Ugandan government with a full mandate. … I will go to Juba sooner or later,” Otti told reporters.
He was speaking in Nabanga where he had met south Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar, who has led efforts to mediate an end to the 19-year uprising in northern Uganda by the LRA.
Otti added that Kony would sign a peace agreement himself if talks went well.
Analysts say Otti and Kony fear arrest if they attend the talks in person. Kony and four of his top aides are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
An eight-man Ugandan team led by Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda was due in Juba on Tuesday, but was waiting for an invitation from Machar.
A Ugandan government spokesman declined to comment on the LRA’s refusal to send senior delegates, and said it was still waiting for a breifing from Machar’s latest meeting.
South Sudan’s regional government says it wants to broker an end to the LRA’s insurgency, which has killed tens of thousands, uprooted nearly 2 million people in northern Uganda alone and destabilised southern Sudan.
Kony’s fighters have been accused of attacking villages in southern Sudan and Uganda’s military has brought its long war against the LRA into Sudan by pursuing rebels across the border.
If a deal is thrashed out, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has offered amnesty to Kony, despite a legal obligation to catch the wanted men. Museveni has also extended a deadline for an agreement from July 31 to Sept. 12.
The LRA are infamous for slaughtering civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping some 25,000 children. In a rare interview last month, Kony denied committing atrocities, called for peace and described himself as a freedom fighter.
(Reuters)