Ugandan govt, rebels quarrels threaten Juba talks
July 22, 2006 (KAMPALA) — A war of words has erupted between the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) delegations in Juba, threatening to derail the peace talks intended to end the 20-year-long northern conflict.
According to the new vision report released on Saturday, the LRA team renewed its accusations against the government and the Uganda People’s Defense Force (UPDF) on Friday by alleging, among other things, that one of the colonels on the government team abducted a detainee from a prison in Gulu, shot him and chopped off his head.
The statement was released by Obonyo Olweny, the LRA team spokesman, at a press briefing without naming the accused colonel.
The LRA team’s comment came after the government’s team leader, Ruhakana Rugunda, said earlier a member of the LRA delegation commanded the rebels who chopped and cooked people in the Patong massacre in 2002.
Responding to the fresh LRA attacks, Rugunda said, “LRA should stop the habit of making baseless allegations to grab newspaper headlines and in a desperate attempt to cleanse their image.”
“They should concentrate on peace talks to ensure a thorough and speedy conclusion of the comprehensive peace agreement so that the people of northern Uganda and other affected areas can live in peace and lead a productive normal life,” he said.
He denied accusations of his team breaching the rules of the talks by issuing statements against LRA.
Rugunda said it was LRA which violated the rules by distributing the statement to the press. “We have not initiated any allegation at all,” he noted.
He again refuted accusations of sectarianism in UPDF after the LRA claimed that five generals were from one ethnic group.
“UPDF is a professional national army. It recognizes people’s training, skills, and professionalism. It does not work on the basis of people’s tribes.”
He also denied allegations that UPDF was using ex-LRA combatants to commit abuses. “Former LRA combatants who wish and qualify to join the army are recruited, given training and deployed. They, therefore, cannot commit any crimes when they are part of UPDF.”
As the ongoing peace talks, initiated by southern Sudan authority, went into the ninth day, the Ugandan government has rejected the ceasefire request of the LRA, saying the rebels may take advantage of it by regrouping and re-launching the insurgency as they did in the previous ceasefires.
The latest peace attempt following a dozen of such failed efforts before is seen a historic change to end one of the longest conflicts in Africa that has left tens of thousands of people dead and over 1.4 million homeless in northern Uganda.
(Xinhua/ST)