Sudanese mediators to hold talks with LRA rebels
July 28, 2006 (NABANGA, Sudan) — A southern Sudanese delegation arrived at Sudan’s border with Congo on Friday for talks with the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army, which has led a brutal 19-year insurgency in Uganda.
“We have to be patient. This is an ugly war with lots of ruthlessness, but this is our best opportunity ever for peace,” said Mario Giro, a member of the mediation team.
The 126-member delegation includes local officials and relatives of shadowy rebel leader Joseph Kony, who is under indictment by the International Criminal Court. His fighters are known for abducting thousands of children, forcing them to become fighters, porters or concubines.
The group has killed thousands of civilians and forced more than a million to flee.
It was not clear whether Kony would come out of hiding for the talks. Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has offered to protect him if the LRA agrees to give up its weapons. The LRA, however, has demanded that its fighters be incorporated into the national army.
The LRA’s political agenda is unclear, although Kony has called for Uganda to be governed according to the Bible’s Ten Commandments.
Uganda’s Interior Affairs Minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, said the ICC is “impotent” and that if peace talks go well the country will deal with Kony through “traditional and cultural mechanisms.”
A human rights group on Friday denounced any calls for amnesty.
“International law rejects impunity for serious crimes, such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture,” said a statement from New York-based Human Rights Watch.
The negotiations are an extension of talks being held in neighboring South Sudan under the mediation of South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar.
South Sudan is pushing to resolve the insurgency 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 rebellion that began after Museveni took power in 1986.
(ST/AP)