/ 1 April 2008

Uganda rebel postpones peace-deal signing

The leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has delayed signing a peace deal in a setback to efforts to end one of Africa's longest conflicts, officials and sources involved in talks said on Tuesday. Fugitive LRA chief Joseph Kony was due to sign a final peace accord on Thursday near his hide-out, but was reported to be sick.

The leader of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels has delayed signing a peace deal in a setback to efforts to end one of Africa’s longest conflicts, officials and sources involved in talks said on Tuesday.

Fugitive LRA chief Joseph Kony was due to sign a final peace accord on Thursday near his hide-out on the Sudan/Democratic Republic of Congo border, but was reported to be sick.

President Yoweri Museveni was to sign the document in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, two days later.

Despite progress at talks after nearly a month of deadlock, many Ugandans remain sceptical that Kony would emerge out of the bush to sign the deal for fear of arrest over an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment for war crimes.

”I don’t know why he [Kony] postponed it. The story is he’s got diarrhoea,” a source involved in the negotiations said. ”It is very frustrating but in the end it’s a matter for the two parties to sort out.”

LRA representatives were not immediately available to comment, but Ugandan officials confirmed the postponement.

”I’m told the LRA are claiming Joseph Kony is sick and have asked for more time. It’s a setback but not enough to undo what we have achieved,” said Chris Magezi, a spokesperson for the government peace team.

”He can be sick today [Tuesday] but he can’t be sick tomorrow and after that. There’s not much time left — we must start implementing these agreements,” he added.

In the past, some government officials have accused the LRA of using the talks to rearm. The two-decade conflict has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly two million.

Kony and two of his senior deputies are wanted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court for multiple war crimes including rape, murder and the abduction of children.

Fearing arrest, they have never appeared at the Juba talks.

A section of the peace deal on justice for war crimes outlines ways in which Uganda will try to deal with rebel atrocities internally, using a mixture of traditional tribal justice and Uganda’s own courts of law.

As well as signing the deal, Uganda must set up a special division of the High Court to deal with war crimes. The government has said it planned to approach the ICC with the signed peace deal, provisions for trying war criminals and request a suspension of the arrest warrants. — Reuters