Uganda will meet anyone LRA rebels send to talks

July 13, 2006 (JUBA) — A Ugandan delegation on its way to Sudan for talks with Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels will prove its commitment to peace by meeting whoever the insurgents send, the government said on Thursday.

Negotiations with the rebels scheduled for Wednesday failed to start when the north Ugandan rebel movement said it would not send its leaders to the talks in Juba, capital of south Sudan.

“Our delegation will travel to Juba and meet whoever is there, if that is what it takes to show the world we are serious about peace,” Ugandan government spokesman Robert Kabushenga said, without detailing when the team would leave Kampala.

Uganda wants either LRA leader Joseph Kony or his deputy Vincent Otti to attend the talks in person.

Both men are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and analysts say the fear of arrest could have prevented them from attending.

South Sudan’s vice president Riek Machar, who has spearheaded mediation to halt the two-decade-old civil war in northern Uganda, was optimistic the talks would occur.

“The talks are going to take place. The Ugandan delegation has been ready since last Friday … let them digest it and they will come,” Machar said, referring to the LRA team composition.

The LRA is a notoriously brutal group known for killing civilians, mutilating survivors and kidnapping some 25,000 children in their fight against President Yoweri Museveni.

Tens of thousands of people have died and nearly 2 million have been uprooted during the insurgency.

(Reuters)