Southern Sudanese leader Salva Kiir expressed optimism on Monday that peace talks his government is mediating between Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels will succeed despite a rocky start.
At the same time, he warned that failure will likely lead to fighting between the LRA and his forces in autonomous south Sudan, where large numbers of rebels have been driven from northern Uganda by Kampala’s army.
“We have talked to both parties and they have committed themselves to negotiating in good faith,” Kiir told reporters in the Kenyan capital, where he was en route to Washington for talks with United States officials.
“We are expecting a peaceful solution to the conflict at the end of the period that was supposed to have been given,” he said, referring to a September 12 deadline laid down by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.
Kiir, the vice-president of Sudan and president of southern Sudan, spoke as peace talks between Kampala and the LRA entered a fourth day in south Sudan’s capital of Juba, after a rough beginning on Friday.
The two sides were expected to sit down behind closed doors with lead mediator Riek Machar, Kiir’s deputy, to hash out details of a ceasefire following the government delegation’s complaints about strong rebel rhetoric.
The talks were briefly snagged at the weekend when Kampala’s team complained loudly and threatened to walk out after the LRA delegation warned of fierce new violence should negotiations fail in their opening statement on Friday.
The row threatened to derail south Sudan’s efforts to mediate an end to the brutal 19-year conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly two million, and spilled over onto its territory.
The southern Sudan government has been criticised for its mediation because five top LRA commanders, including the group’s elusive supremo Joseph Kony, have been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
But in Nairobi on Monday, Kiir renewed his defence of the initiative, arguing his administration had no choice but to deal with the LRA.
“We were forced to take this position because it is our people who are dying,” he said. “The war from northern Uganda has drifted into southern Sudan and the atrocities that are being committed by the LRA are being committed on the people of south Sudan.”
“We had two choices: to fight the LRA militarily, which of course will take some time, and to talk to them, which is easy,” Kiir said.
“We opted for talking to them instead of a military solution and until one day they prove not to be forthcoming in the field of negotiations, then we can resort to other options,” he said. — AFP