U.N.’s Egeland may meet Lord’s Resistance chief
Nov 11, 2006 (JUBA, Sudan) — U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland met negotiators from the Ugandan government and the Lord’s Resistance Army on Saturday, hoping to give fresh impetus to peace talks aimed at ending the rebels’ 20-year insurgency.
Egeland, speaking in the south Sudanese capital of Juba where the Uganda talks are being hosted, also said he would consider meeting reclusive LRA leader Joseph Kony. Rebel negotiators have said Kony wanted to meet Egeland.
“I am here to help (make) progress in Northern Uganda. … We are having problems and we need more progress in the peace talks in Juba,” Egeland told journalists on what is to be his last visit to Sudan as U.N. humanitarian coordinator.
“If I can help prolong the cessation of hostilities and help the protection of civilians, this may happen … There are no fixed conditions because this is a judgment call,” he said, referring to the prospect of a meeting with Kony.
The Ugandan government and the rebels this month signed an extension of an August truce that many hope will help end one of Africa’s longest wars. The insurgency has left tens of thousands of people dead and uprooted nearly 2 million.
The deal guarantees the rebels’ security at two remote locations in south Sudan while peace talks continue. Egeland said he hoped rebels would start to assemble at the “safe zones”, which they are supposed to reach by Dec. 1.
“We are securing now some specific support for the assembly points so there will be better provision of water and food … as we believe the LRA will begin to assemble,” Egeland said.
The LRA has complained the assembly areas lack clean water and food, and said Uganda’s army was surrounding them. Kony and other senior commanders have refused to quit their hideouts on the Sudan/Congo border to join talks themselves, fearing arrest.
Egeland said $4 million had been secured from donors to fund the south Sudan mediation and provision of food at assembly points. The United Nations would provide helicopters to the cessation of hostilities monitoring team.
The Hague-based International Criminal Court wants to try the LRA leadership for war crimes including killing civilians, rape and abducting children to swell their ranks.
Kony, a self-proclaimed mystic, wants to rule Uganda by the Biblical Ten Commandments and is opposed to President Yoweri Museveni’s government.
SOUTHERN PEACE, DARFUR
Egeland, who leaves his post in December, will also review implementation of a south Sudan peace deal to end more than two decades of north-south civil war, which many complain has been slow. Impasses remain over the division of oil wealth and the borders of the oil-rich areas.
Khartoum’s Oil Ministry says it produces around 330,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude, a figure the southern government disputes, insisting it is around 500,000 bpd. Under the deal the southern government is due about 50 percent of oil revenues.
Around 90 percent of Sudan’s crude is in the south. A petroleum commission formed under the accord should mediate disputes and decide new contracts, but it is not functioning.
So the southern government instead has redrawn the south’s oil blocks and is selling them off to potential bidders, ignoring the commission and previous contracts made with the northern Oil Ministry.
The oil dispute is straining the fragile peace.
Egeland, who has been outspoken over the conflict currently raging in Sudan’s west, next week will travel to Darfur.
Last month Khartoum expelled the top U.N. envoy in Sudan Jan Pronk for comments he made about rebels inflicting two major defeats on the army in Darfur.
(Reuters)