Peace talks to end northern Uganda’s brutal two-decade war hung in the balance on Tuesday as the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) refused to return to the table unless the government declares a truce.
The halting negotiations had been due to resume on Tuesday following the LRA’s declaration of a unilateral ceasefire last week, but the rebels said they would not meet the government delegation until Kampala reciprocated.
”We are not going to resume face-to-face talks with the government unless it declares a unilateral ceasefire like we did,” LRA spokesperson Obonyo Olweny told Agence France-Presse at the venue for the talks in southern Sudan.
”It is only by declaring the ceasefire that we can know they are serious about the peace talks,” he said, adding that the rebel team would not drop its demand unless instructed to by the LRA high command.
”We are not ready to meet unless the LRA leadership tells us otherwise,” Olweny said after the delegation met with chief mediator, Riek Machar, the vice-president of autonomous southern Sudan.
The rebel demand threw the resumption of the on-again, off-again talks that began on July 14 into jeopardy as the Ugandan government has repeatedly said a ceasefire can come about only as part of a comprehensive peace accord in the East African country.
Kampala reacted cautiously to the LRA’s Friday order to field commanders to cease all attacks on military and other positions in northern Uganda as a goodwill gesture and urged the government to follow suit.
Ugandan officials were not immediately available to comment on Tuesday’s ultimatum but have in the past accused the LRA of using previous ceasefires to re-group, re-arm and recruit new fighters.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and about two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion among the Acholi ethnic minority in 1988.
LRA supremo Joseph Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet and mystic who says he speaks directly to God, purports to be fighting to replace Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s government with one based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.
But the LRA has become better known for atrocities, particularly the kidnapping of an estimated 25 000 children — girls for sex slaves and boys for fighters. — AFP