Uganda to return to peace talks, despite LRA snub
Aug 4, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan negotiators said on Friday they will return to peace talks in south Sudan, despite the absence of a top Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander.
On Thursday, the rebels’ deputy chief Vincent Otti said he rejected a request by mediators to attend the negotiations in the southern capital Juba, saying he feared arrest.
“Government is pushing for peace, we are not going to be distracted by non-central issues,” said the head of Uganda’s delegation, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda.
“Preconditions are not part of our agenda … Definitely we want Otti to be there because it will help the decision-making mechanisms. But if he is not, our search for a peaceful solution … will continue,” Rugunda told a news conference.
He said Uganda’s delegation was waiting for the chief mediator, south Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar, to invite them back for the talks which began on July 14 and are due to resume on Monday.
The LRA launched one of the world’s most brutal insurrections from northern Uganda 20 years ago, killing and mutilating civilians, before moving to south Sudan and lately hiding out in the jungles of east Democratic Republic of Congo.
Otti and LRA leader Joseph Kony are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.
Speaking by satellite telephone from their forest camp on Thursday, Otti said the insistence he attend the talks was a “trap” and accused Machar of scheming to have him arrested.
Otti said he wanted talks to continue outside Sudan, and that he was losing faith in Machar, who left rebel representatives stranded at a remote outpost on the Sudan-Congo border on Wednesday when they failed to produce him.
Machar’s aides were not immediately available for comment.
Flanked by officials, security chiefs and two former top LRA combatants at Friday’s news conference in Kampala, Rugunda hailed Machar’s efforts at mediation.
Asked whether Uganda’s government would agree to changing the venue for the talks, Rugunda said: “The government of south Sudan has our full confidence … We think Juba is the best venue for the peace process in the circumstances.”
The war between the LRA and Kampala has uprooted nearly 2 million people and killed tens of thousands, as well as destabilising southern Sudan.
Uganda earlier this week said it welcomed a truce call by Kony, but stressed that it would only sign a ceasefire as part of a final peace agreement.
(Reuters)