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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
UGANDA: Peace talks start, but positions far apart
JUBA, (SUDAN), 17 Jul 2006 (IRIN) - Mutual recrimination and significant discrepancies between the positions of the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) jeopardise a swift conclusion to the peace talks, observers warn.
As the talks got under way in the southern Sudanese town of Juba over the weekend, Sudanese mediators struggled to keep the peace after an LRA statement during the opening ceremony infuriated the Ugandan government delegation.
"The government has considered the statement and found it absolutely unacceptable. It is full of falsehoods, distortions, and is completely out of touch with reality," Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who leads the Ugandan team, said in a statement released on Sunday.
During the opening of the talks on Friday, LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny had accused the Ugandan government of political imbalance and "inequity for the benefit of a few". He also warned that "they shall be in for a rude shock", if the government thought it would be able to defeat the LRA militarily.
"Since they are the ones who have caused destruction and inflicted suffering, they have no moral authority to speak as such and should be humble enough to apologise," Rugunda stressed. In spite of the LRA statement, his delegation remained "firmly committed" to the peace process, however.
Rugunda added that it was a "well-known and properly documented fact" that the LRA had killed thousands of innocent civilians, raped girls and women, abducted young children and maimed thousands of civilians, resulting in the displacement of millions of people into camps.
"The Ugandan delegation expressed their displeasure about our opening statement, but we stick to our position," Olweny told IRIN on Sunday. "It will not affect the negotiations," he added.
The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court (ICC) last year issued arrest warrants for LRA leader Joseph Kony and four of his top commanders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The ICC insists the indicted rebel leaders must face trial.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, however, announced a total amnesty for Kony earlier this month on condition the rebel leader renounced terrorism and accepted peace, disregarding the ICC arrest warrant.
Different Expectations
A political analyst observed that the tensions at the talks were a result of the "huge discrepancy" between the expectations of both negotiating parties.
The LRA wants to be accepted as a credible political force fighting the oppression of the people of northern Uganda, he said. It expects to enter into wide-ranging peace talks that would include power and wealth sharing and provide structural solutions to redress the 'history of injustice' in northern Uganda.
"We should talk about the issues and the genesis of this conflict over the past 20 years. The grievances of the people of the north and how the current government marginalises the people of the north; that is the issue," Olweny said.
The Ugandan government, on the other hand, seems to have a much more limited idea of what the talks could achieve; focusing on a cessation of hostilities and the reintegration of LRA rebels into society.
"They are here to negotiate an amnesty," the analyst said. "They just want Kony to come out of the jungle with his hands up."
"The main idea is to give them a soft landing," Capt Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the Ugandan delegation, confirmed on Sunday.
In their position paper for the negotiations, the Ugandan government demands the LRA "cease all forms of hostilities, dissolve itself and hand over all arms and ammunitions in its possession together with their inventory [and] assemble in agreed locations where they will be demobilised, disarmed and documented."
For the LRA, however, negotiating an amnesty presupposes military defeat and the rebel movement does not consider itself vanquished – even while they have been militarily weakened and forced into hiding in a remote area in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
An additional problem was the discrepancy in political weight and credibility between the two negotiating parties, the analyst said.
"On the Ugandan side, many delegates have been senior members of Museveni’s establishment from the beginning," he observed. Besides Rugunda, the Ugandan delegation includes Col Charles Otema-Awany, who commands the army’s fourth division based in the northern Ugandan town of Gulu and Col Leopold Kyanda, chief of military intelligence and security.
In contrast, despite including two senior field commanders - Col Bwone Lobwa and Santo Alit - most members of the LRA delegation are from the diaspora, the analyst observed. "They may have essentially been outside the country for much of the conflict. These are part-time LRA supporters," he added. "They have day jobs in London, Nairobi and Las Vegas."
As a political wing of the LRA, it was also unclear how much influence the delegation had on the actions of the military leadership, the analyst observed.
"They behave as if they are on a par with us – as if their force can roll all the way to Kampala – but they aren’t," a source in the Ugandan military said. "These people have never been in the bush. If you’ve faced the fire and heard the bullets, you wouldn’t behave like this."
"The Ugandan government delegation had earlier wished to meet and discuss with authentic and authoritative leaders of the LRA," Rugunda said. "The LRA statement implies that some people wish to once again derail this peace process for reasons best known to themselves."
[ENDS]
This material comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2006
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