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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
UGANDA: Gov't and rebels discuss ending hostilities, demobilisation
KAMPALA, 21 Aug 2006 (IRIN) - Talks aimed at ending two decades of fighting in northern Uganda re-opened in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba on Monday, with the government and rebels discussing the cessation of hostilities and the demobilisation of fighters, officials said.
The spokesman for the Ugandan delegation, Lieutenant Paddy Ankunda, told IRIN by phone from Juba that the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) had presented its position on several issues, including a ceasefire and demobilisation and disarmament exercise.
"We have resumed the talks. The LRA has presented its position on the cessation of hostilities, on reconciliation and accountability and the DDRR [Disarmament, Demobilisation, Reintegration and Resettlement] programme," he said.
According to sources at the talks, the rebels want their fighters to be free to move around northern Uganda and insist the government army should not be deployed in a radius of 18 kilometres from any of their assembly places.
"They also want charges against their leaders before the International Criminal Court [ICC] dropped," an official at the talks, who refused to be named, said. Kony and four of his top commanders have been charged with war crimes by the ICC and rejected appeals to participate directly in the talks, citing fears they might be arrested.
The resumption of the talks, mediated by the southern Sudanese government, comes despite tough talk at the weekend from Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, who said his government would not accept a ceasefire unless the rebel fighters agreed to assemble at designated areas in southern Sudan.
The Ugandan leader on Saturday also warned that should negotiations break down, the armies of Uganda, south Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) would attack LRA leader Joseph Kony and his top commanders, who are in the DRC's Garamba National Park.
"If Kony doesn't use this chance, the attack awaits him," Museveni told reporters at a news conference in Kampala after meeting Sudanese Vice-President Salva Kiir, who is also president of southern Sudan.
Museveni claimed DRC President Joseph Kabila and Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba had approved a joint incursion should the talks fail.
"We floated our ideas, specifically the idea of ... operating against Kony and both Kabila and Vice President Bemba supported that idea," Museveni told reporters, saying his security minister Amama Mbabazi had been in Kinshasa to sound out the two men about the deal. "That is what is on the menu for Kony if he doesn't want a soft landing."
The Ugandan leader has set a 12 September deadline for the rebels to take advantage of an amnesty offer and sign an accord but LRA negotiators have said more time will probably be needed to forge an agreement.
The Juba negotiations have been dogged by uncertainty and recriminations, with Kampala refusing to consider a ceasefire outside a comprehensive peace deal and Kony and other LRA rebels refusing to attend the talks.
Thousands of people have been killed and up to two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took over leadership of a regional rebellion among the Acholi ethnic group in 1988.
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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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