Ugandan negotiators say no truce until peace deal agreed

July 20, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan government negotiators said Thursday they won’t agree a cease-fire with rebels in their 20-year war until a comprehensive peace agreement is sealed, fearing rebel forces will exploit a truce to cause trouble again.

“We are not going to make that mistake again,” Capt. Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the government negotiating team, told The Associated Press by telephone from neighboring southern Sudan, where the talks are underway.

Government negotiators were reluctant to work out details and sign a cease-fire agreement now because the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army used past truces to regroup, rearm, loot food, strengthen a network of collaborators and launch fresh attacks, Ankunda said.

“Both sides agree on the need for…a cease-fire, but the Uganda Government position is that this will be signed and officially declared once a comprehensive agreement on all other issues has been reached,” Ankunda said. “Then fighting will permanently and unequivocally cease.”

Past peace efforts have failed because of mistrust and bitter hostilities between rebels and the government. Attempts by religious leaders to mediate between the two sides have also failed.

Peace negotiators have now begun to discuss a political settlement to the brutal conflict, including the reconstruction of areas hardest hit by the conflict in northern and eastern Uganda, Ankunda said.

The autonomous government of southern Sudan is mediating the peace talks in its capital, Juba.

Southern Sudan is pushing to resolve the insurgency in neighboring northern Uganda because it wants to secure its own territory as it prepares for reconstruction after its own, 21-year civil war. The LRA set up rear bases in Sudan and Congo, and its fighters have been accused of attacking civilians and threatening stability in those countries.

The rebel group is made up of the remnants of a northern rebellion that began after Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, took power in 1986. They replenish their ranks by abducting children and forcing them to become fighters, porters or concubines.

Rebel leader Joseph Kony and four of his key commanders have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor. They are believed to be hiding in rear bases they set up in the Garamba National Park, in lawless eastern Congo.

The chief mediator has arranged for government officials, former rebel commanders and Acholi tribal leaders from northern Uganda to meet the rebel high command at an unspecified location in the bush, said Ankunda and rebel spokesman Obonyo Olweny.

(AP/ST)