UGANDA SAYS IT STILL WANTS PEACE TALKS EVEN IF TOP REBEL LEADERS
DON’T ATTEND
A top Ugandan official said on Friday that the government is committed to peace talks to end a brutal 19-year insurgency, even if the leaders of the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army refuse to come out of hiding to attend.
LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputy, Vincent Otti, are under indictment by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. Both men have said they fear travelling to southern Sudan for the negotiations because they might be arrested.
”The government is, as before, committed to the peace process that is going on. Nothing that has happened can deter the government to push for peace in northern Uganda,” said Interior Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who is leading the government’s peace delegation.
Uganda’s president has offered to protect Kony from prosecution by the international court if the LRA agrees to give up its weapons. The ICC has pressed Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo to arrest Kony and his top aides.
Kony turned up in a clearing this week along the DRC-Sudan border for his first formal meeting with Riek Machar, Vice-President of Southern Sudan and mediator of the talks.
Kony said he was committed to a ceasefire, but he has yet to meet with the main Ugandan government delegation, led by Rugunda, in the Southern Sudan city of Juba.
The LRA is made up of the remnants of a rebellion that began after Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni took power in 1986. The group is known for abducting thousands of children and forcing them to become fighters, servants or concubines. Thousands of civilians have died in the conflict and more than 1 million have fled their homes.
The group’s political agenda is unclear, although its leader has called for Uganda to be governed according to the Ten Commandments.
The autonomous government of Southern Sudan is pushing to resolve the insurgency because it wants to secure the region as it prepares for reconstruction after its own 21-year civil war. – Sapa-AP