Uganda meets mediators on LRA rebel stance
Aug 10, 2006 (JUBA) — Ugandan negotiators met southern Sudanese mediators on Thursday to reiterate their stance on a ceasefire after Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels rejected further peace talks without a government truce.
The LRA declared an immediate cessation of hostilities last week, but Kampala has said it will only follow suit as part of a comprehensive deal it wants to thrash out in south Sudan.
The spokesman for the Ugandan delegation in the southern Sudanese capital Juba said LRA representatives had stayed away from the talks venue on Thursday. “Instead, we met the local mediators and reiterated our position,” Captain Paddy Ankunda told Reuters. “They promised to help the LRA understand. … If they don’t see sense we will consult with Kampala before announcing what happens next.”
The head of the LRA delegation, Martin Ojur, said the rebels were sticking by their stance. “We are not going anywhere without a cessation of hostilities by the government,” he said.
Mediators from the autonomous southern Sudanese government were not immediately available for comment. The south’s regional administration says it wants to broker an end to the LRA’s 20-year war, which has uprooted nearly 2 million people in northern Uganda and destabilised south Sudan.
Kampala has repeatedly said it will only sign a cessation of hostilities as part of a final peace deal, accusing the rebels of using previous truces to regroup, recruit and re-arm.
“A ceasefire must have rules, procedures and monitors to record violations,” Ankunda said. “We need to put pen to paper on a comprehensive agreement. The LRA attitude does not add up.”
Uganda and southern Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar, the chief mediator of the talks, had wanted LRA leader Joseph Kony or his deputy Vincent Otti to attend in person.
But both men are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and have so far stayed at a hideout in lawless jungles of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
(Reuters)