Uganda-LRA rebel talks adjourned to Monday

Aug 12, 2006 (JUBA) — Talks between Ugandan negotiators and Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) representatives were adjourned for two days on Saturday after both sides failed to agree terms for a cessation of hostilities, officials said.

The rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire a week ago but then refused to attend more talks hosted by the regional government of southern Sudan unless Kampala followed suit.

On Friday, LRA officials were summoned by south Sudan’s President Salva Kiir to explore ways of breaking the deadlock.

“The president gave us some wise counsel … about their experiences and challenges during his government’s 21-year struggle,” said LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny. “We have now been given two days to consult our principals on the way forward.”

Kampala says it will only sign a ceasefire as part of a comprehensive peace agreement, saying the elusive guerrilla group has used previous truces to regroup, recruit and re-arm.

“We are now going for a two-day recess,” the spokesman for the Ugandan delegation, Captain Paddy Ankunda, told Reuters.

“We are ready to continue discussions with the LRA then sign an agreement, after which we go into the implementation stage.”

South Sudan’s government says it wants to broker an end to the LRA’s 20-year insurrection, which has uprooted nearly two million people in northern Uganda and destabilised south Sudan.

Southern Sudan’s former rebels fought their own two-decade civil war with the northern government based in Khartoum, which ended in a peace deal last year.

(Reuters)