Signing of Uganda’s peace deal delayed – govt

March 25, 2008 (KAMPALA) — Uganda said Tuesday the signing of a final peace agreement between the government and Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, rebels would be delayed by a week.

Both sides were slated to sign an overall peace deal by March 28. The new signing date is April 3, according to Chris Magezi, the government’s peace delegation spokesman.

The Lord’s Resistance Army has waged 20 years of war in northern Uganda and is notorious for raping and mutilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands. A ceasefire was struck in August 2006, paving the way for peace talks in the south Sudanese capital Juba that have lagged for over a year and a half.

Both the LRA and the talks’ mediator, south Sudan vice-president Riek Machar, asked for the delay, Magezi told AFP.

“The LRA requested for more time to discuss with leadership in the bush on the final text of the agreement,” he said. “The chief mediator requested for more time to make preparations for the final peace agreement signing ceremony.”

The government has previously said it had been given assurances by the LRA its veteran leader Joseph Kony would attend the signing in Juba. But the group’s chief negotiator has since said the rebel leader won’t come out of hiding unless a war crimes arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court is lifted.

Kony is currently believed to be hiding in the Central African Republic.

(AFP)