The Ugandan government and the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army have pledged a truce, raising hopes of an end to one of Africa’s most vicious conflicts.
Negotiators from both sides are expected to sign a ceasefire accord today which is to pave the way for talks to end an 18-year insurgency that has cost thousands of lives and devastated the north of the country.
Neither President Yoweri Museveni nor the rebel’s mystic leader, Joseph Kony, are expected to attend the ceremony, prompting some scepticism that the deal really will herald a new era of peace.
However, both sides talked up the event as a genuine breakthrough which was brokered in the first face-to-face negotiations, unlike previous ceasefires that collapsed.
”This is a very important day because [both sides] have just agreed to sign the agreement to end hostility before this year ends,” Betty Bigombe, a chief negotiator and former government minister, told reporters.
The deal was given credibility by a rare public appearance by the rebels. Their delegation was led by a middle-ranking commander, Brigadier Sam Kolo. ”If the government continues showing us what it has just shown us, then the suffering will soon end,” he said.
It was unclear if either side had made concessions, and last-minute wrangling could delay or even sink the accord.
Analysts cautioned that Kony’s absence signalled the possibility of a split within the LRA between those who still followed a man who compares himself to Jesus and those who wanted to break away.
After enduring almost two decades of mayhem, people in northern Uganda were happy but cautious, scarcely daring to believe the promise of security and normality.
”We pray that the process goes to its logical conclusion,” Walter Ocholla, chairman of Gulu district, told the AFP news agency.
The Acholi Religious Leaders’ Peace Initiative, which has mediated in the conflict, hailed the announcement as great news.
The LRA has a reputation for being one of Africa’s most barbaric armed groups. An offshoot of a failed northern-led uprising, its guerrilla war targeted civilians in hit-and-run raids on villages and convoys.
Some victims had their noses, lips and ears chopped off. Others, notably children, were marched into the bush and forced to become fighters or sex slaves after an induction which typically involved beating a fellow captive to death.
Ethnic Acholis like most of their victims, the rebels had no ideology or political agenda beyond a desire to overthrow Museveni and rule Uganda by the 10 commandments, edicts they themselves openly flouted.
The leader, Kony, is a self-styled prophet who often operated from bases in southern Sudan. The Sudanese government denied Ugandan accusations that it supplied the LRA.
Museveni repeatedly vowed to crush the LRA but even with helicopters his under-equipped forces proved unable to catch small, fast-moving bands of rebels.
For their own safety, some 1.6 million people were herded into refugee camps, leaving the countryside desolate. The insurgency has blighted the president’s relations with Britain and other western donors.
Despite perpetrating some large-scale massacres, the LRA appears to have faltered in recent months after a spate of setbacks.
The truce was clinched earlier this week when a convoy of UN and government vehicles, met an LRA delegation near Pagak. – Guardian Unlimited Â