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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 26 October 2006

UGANDA: Dispute over truce terms holds up peace talks

KAMPALA, 26 Oct 2006 (IRIN) - Disagreement over the terms of a revised truce accord between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has held up peace talks between the two sides in the southern Sudanese city of Juba, officials said on Thursday.

The LRA has insisted Ugandan troops deployed to southern Sudan either be withdrawn or cantoned, and that rebel forces assemble in only one site, rather than two, near Sudan's border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to Gen. Wilson Deng, a senior mediator from the southern Sudanese government.

However, the spokesman for the Ugandan government delegation at the talks, Capt Paddy Ankunda, said the new LRA demands were "ambiguous and diversionary" and that the government would reject them.

"Their demand that our troops deployed in Eastern Equatoria [state of southern Sudan] leave or also assemble is unacceptable because they are there under a protocol we signed with the government of Sudan," Ankunda said.

He was referring to a 2002 agreement between Kampala and the Sudanese government allowing Ugandan troops to pursue LRA fighters across the border into Sudan.

The LRA is also rejecting using Owiny Ki-Bul as one of the designated assembly points in Eastern Equatoria because, according to the rebels, there were Ugandan forces in the vicinity. The Ugandan government has denied the accusation.

"They simply want to go to Ri-Kwangba [the other assembly point near the DRC border] as a way of going to their leaders in the DRC, reorganise and resume attacks on civilians from the DRC," Ankunda said. "This will not be allowed to happen. It's unacceptable."

He said the LRA demands were delaying the peace talks.

According to officials close to the mediation, the chief mediator, South Sudan's vice-president, Riek Machar, had presented a compromise proposal to both parties. His plan rejects the LRA demand that Ri-Kwangba be the only gathering site for rebel forces, but also recommends that Ugandan troops withdraw from some areas in southern Sudan, according to the officials. The two sites were agreed on under the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed in August.

The Ugandan government had also proposed that the rebels be given seven days to reassemble at their designated areas after signing the revised ceasefire and that the envisaged new arrangement be reviewed every 30 days.

The Juba talks are seen as the best chance of ending two decades of conflict in northern Uganda in which the LRA is blamed for causing the displacement of about two million people and forcing them to live in more than 200 squalid camps across northern Uganda. Thousands have been killed in the conflict. The rebel group also stands accused of abducting thousands of children, forcing boys to become soldiers and turning girls into sex slaves.

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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