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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs |
SUDAN-UGANDA: Rebels want restrictions on Ugandan army in south Sudan
KAMPALA, 16 Oct 2006 (IRIN) - The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) said on Monday it would propose the encampment of the Ugandan government troops deployed in southern Sudan as a way of guaranteeing the rebels’ security when they reassemble in designated areas there under a truce agreement.
Ayena Odongo, legal adviser to the LRA’s delegation to the talks in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba, told IRIN that the cantoning of government forces would make it easier for ceasefire monitors to contact both sides in the event of a truce violation.
"We will propose that the revised agreement is structured in a manner that will guarantee the safe exit of the LRA in the undesirable event that the talks fail. There should be special assembly points for the UPDF [Ugandan People’s Defence Force] as there is for the LRA in southern Sudan because it will be difficult to monitor troops on the move," Odongo said.
"This will be to further guarantee the implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, which states that the assembled LRA will be left to leave peacefully in case the talks fail," he added. "How can you do it when they are already surrounded by the UPDF?"
The Ugandan government and the LRA admitted on Sunday they had both violated the terms of the truce, raising fears that efforts to end two decades of conflict in northern Uganda could fail.
Deputy Defence Minister Ruth Nankabirwa acknowledged that government troops had approached a rebel safe haven in violation of the truce, but said the action had not been intentional.
The LRA, for its part, said its fighters had moved out of their assembly point of Owiny Ki-Bul in southern Sudan, fearing that they were being surrounded by government troops.
The government urged the rebels to reassemble in neutral sites, assuring them that their security was guaranteed. Troops of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) would ensure that LRA camps at Owiny Ki-Bul and Ri-Kwangba, on the western border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, were secure.
"The LRA is encouraged to go back and reassemble because the SPLA has deployed in these areas and this should give them assurance," Nankabirwa told reporters.
Nankabirwa said Ugandan government troops had approached the LRA assembly point when they escorted journalists and diplomats to the camp.
"We accepted this incident and that is why we told the [truce monitoring] team to stop proceeding near Owiny Ki-Bul when we realised that it may be misconstrued as a breach of the agreement," she said.
The Ugandan government has denied LRA accusations that its troops had laid siege to the neutral camps where the insurgents are to gather for the duration of the south-Sudan mediated peace talks as provided for under the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed on 26 August.
Nankabirwa, who also heads a ministerial panel on the peace talks, added that there were no insurgents active in northern Uganda and expressed optimism that a lasting peace deal would be reached.
"We are not scared," she said. "We shall make it because we have covered a lot since 14 July when our team went to Juba. Gulu, Kitgum, Pader and other areas of northern Uganda are now free of LRA fighters and we are currently monitoring local characters called the Bokech [thugs] who may want to take advantage."
The talks are seen as the best chance to end northern Uganda's conflict, in which tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced.
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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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