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/ 16 March 2007

Ugandan rebels willing to restart peace talks

Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels said on Friday they would return to peace talks in south Sudan if the government there increased security to keep the Ugandan army from attacking them. The rebels quit talks with Uganda in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, in January, denting hopes for an end to two decades of bloodshed in northern Uganda.

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/ 28 February 2007

Uganda’s LRA says won’t renew expiring truce

Lord’s Resistance Army rebels will not renew a truce with the Ugandan government set to expire on Wednesday, raising fears of a new chapter in the brutal 20-year war in northern Uganda. They have refused to resume talks unless another venue outside Sudan is found, a request Kampala rejects as a time-wasting tactic.

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/ 23 February 2007

Blow to Uganda peace process

The Ugandan rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on Friday said it would not renew a truce with the government due to expire next week in a blow to a stalled peace process aimed at ending two decades of war. LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti blamed Kampala for violating the truce that was the only significant achievement of peace talks that began last July.

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/ 22 February 2007

Ugandans laud Forest Whitaker’s portrayal of Amin

Just days before Hollywood’s elite gathers for this year’s Oscars, Ugandans hailed best actor nominee Forest Whitaker’s portrayal of Idi Amin — though were quick to frown on the sympathetic portrait of the former dictator. Whitaker is seen by many as the front-runner for the best actor Oscar for his role in The Last King of Scotland.

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/ 19 February 2007

Quake shakes Uganda and DRC, no injuries reported

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5,7 struck the Lake Albert region of western Uganda and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Monday, officials said, but there was no immediate word of casualties or damage. ”An earthquake passed here but it did not hurt anyone or destroy any property,” Andrew Diboi, police chief for western Uganda, told Reuters by telephone.

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/ 4 February 2007

Ugandan priestess buried in her home village

Alice Lakwena, a Ugandan warrior priestess who led an ill-fated insurgency to topple President Yoweri Museveni in the 1980s, was laid to rest on Saturday at a funeral attended by several hundred followers. An enigmatic leader, Lakwena inspired her poorly equipped troops with claims that spirits spoke through her.

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/ 17 January 2007

Ugandan rebels reject Machar as mediator

Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have rejected south Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar as chief mediator at talks to end one of Africa’s longest wars. LRA second-in-command Vincent Otti said the rebels would permanently abandon talks with Uganda’s government in Juba if an alternative venue cannot be found.

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/ 15 January 2007

Uganda army warns of war if rebels return home

Ugandan Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels said on Monday they want to leave assembly areas in south Sudan agreed under a truce and head back to Uganda in a move the army warned would restart the country’s 20-year war. ”We are unwelcome in Sudan so [we] have to go back to Uganda,” LRA spokesperson Obonyo Olweny said.

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/ 5 January 2007

Uganda refugees go home as truce holds

Improved security in war-ravaged northern Uganda following peace talks between the government and rebels allowed 230 000 internal refugees to go home in 2006, the United Nations World Food Programme said on Friday. Talks are set to resume in south Sudan this month after the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels agreed to extend a landmark ceasefire with the government in December.

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/ 2 January 2007

Uganda wants exit strategy for troops in Somalia

Uganda is unwilling to contribute to a peacekeeping mission for Somalia unless its mission and an exit strategy are clearly defined, a government official said on Tuesday. After routing rival Islamist leaders from their Mogadishu stronghold with military backing from Ethiopia, Somalia’s interim government now faces the huge task of trying to secure the gun-infested capital.

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/ 27 November 2006

Standard Bank floats stakes in Ugandan affiliate

Standard Bank on Monday floated 20% of shares in its Ugandan affiliate in the country’s largest initial public offering to private investors. Spokesperson Daniel Nsibambi said 1,02-billion shares in Stanbic Ugandan were being offered on the Uganda Securities Exchange in a move expected to raise 71-billion Ugandan shillings (R278-million).

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/ 22 November 2006

Receding wetlands poisoning Lake Victoria

Destruction of wetlands around Lake Victoria, a source of drinking water to millions, is fast removing a buffer that stops it being poisoned by sewage and industrial waste, a Ugandan wetlands expert said on Wednesday. ”The worst case scenario is the lake is going to die, even with its huge size,” said Paul Mafabi, head of the government’s wetlands programme.

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/ 16 November 2006

Uganda’s laws favour death sentences

In 2003, Corporal James Omedio and Private Abdullah Muhammad stood before a public firing squad in Uganda for killing Irish Catholic priest Declan O’Toole; his driver, Patrick Longoli; and his cook, Fidel Longole. They were executed after they were found guilty by a field court martial, following a trial that lasted two hours and 36 minutes.

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/ 14 November 2006

UN calls on Uganda, rebels not to lose fragile peace

United Nations humanitarian chief Jan Egeland appealed to Uganda’s government and Lord’s Resistance Army rebels on Tuesday not to let a fragile peace process fail and to end civilian suffering caused by 20 years of war. Both sides signed a new truce this month, raising hopes for an end to the brutal war in northern Uganda that has killed tens of thousands.

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/ 6 November 2006

Many said killed as Ugandan army bombs villages

The Ugandan army said on Monday it had killed 12 people in weekend bombing raids against tribal warriors accused of shooting at a military helicopter over the country’s restive north-east Karamoja region. But sources in the area said the death toll was much higher and spoke of residents reporting as many as 500 people killed.

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/ 13 October 2006

Monitors: Uganda rebels have violated truce

Ugandan rebels have violated a truce with the government by leaving an agreed assembly point, the head of an independent monitoring team said on Friday, in a blow to efforts to end one of Africa’s longest conflicts. ”We did not find them there … Because they were supposed to be there, it is automatically a violation,” Major General Wilson Deng Kuoirot told the media.

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/ 6 October 2006

Ugandans in war-torn north lose faith in peace

Nursing her infant on a dusty pavement outside her printing shop in war-weary Gulu, Mary Amito says she isn’t convinced the recent talk of peace for northern Uganda will mean the end of 20 years of war. ”It’s going to start all over again,” she said, casting her eyes at a pile of stagnant rubbish gathering in a pothole.

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/ 14 September 2006

Uganda drafts Bill to execute HIV infectors

In 1999, an HIV-infected 30-year-old man named Fred Mwanga shocked the country when he raped a three-month-old baby in a Kampala suburb. Even more upsetting, Mwanga’s action was not an isolated incident. The rate of HIV-infected adults sexually abusing the nation’s most vulnerable citizens is rising. As these ill men prey on the minors, they spread the deadly HIV virus.

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/ 7 September 2006

Ugandan rebels not yet at agreed camps

No Ugandan rebels have arrived yet at remote camps in south Sudan where they are supposed to assemble under the terms of a landmark truce that began last week, Ugandan negotiators said on Thursday. According to the deal that came into effect on August 29, Lord’s Resistance Army fighters were given three weeks to gather at the two locations.

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/ 6 September 2006

Uganda rebels want ICC warrants scrapped

Ugandan rebels hidden in the Democratic Republic of Congo will not surrender unless the International Criminal Court (ICC) scraps arrest warrants for them, the deputy commander of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) said late on Tuesday. Vincent Otti said his fighters would stay in the bush as long as the warrants stayed in place.

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/ 5 September 2006

Uganda rebels: Leave war victims out of talks

Uganda’s rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) on Tuesday decried a government move to bring mutilated war victims to peace talks in southern Sudan, suggesting it is a propaganda stunt. LRA spokesperson Obonyo Olweny said there is no point in having disfigured people at the peace talks in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba.