Barbara Among
26 September 2006
Nairobi — Peace talks between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels will enter a make-or-break stage when they resume this week in Juba, Southern Sudan.
President Yoweri Museveni, who pitched camp in northern Uganda last week, promised to get directly involved in the talks, which have been running for almost two months, to ensure a quick resolution of the conflict.
Over the past fortnight, the rebels have been assembling in the two designated points of Owiny-ki-Bul and Ri-Kwangba in Southern Sudan. Although there is no independent verification of how many have turned up -one press account put it at 1,600 - Uganda's Regional Co-operation Minister Henry Okello Oryem told The EastAfrican that government was surprised by the LRA's response. "On the level and rate of response from the LRA, we did not expect that, we were not sure they would appear in large numbers. The response to the truce has been fantastic and government is more optimistic than ever before that the talks will succeed," he said.
The talks are expected to move to the contentious issues of power-sharing and how to deal with the warrants of arrest issued against LRA leader Joseph Kony, his deputy Vincent Otti and three other top rebel commanders.
However, Mr Oryem the government was not willing to share power with the rebels, who have been fighting President Yoweri Museveni's government since 1986.
"From the beginning, it was made known to LRA, even by the government of Southern Sudan, that power-sharing is not for discussion," Oryem said.
This position is likely to be tested in Juba this week by the LRA's negotiating team, which has lined up a wish-list that includes social-economic emancipation of northern Uganda, the least developed part of the country, as well as demands for government jobs.
According to sources directly involved in the talks in Juba, the two sides have already defined their stand in response to the discussion paper prepared by chief mediator Riek Machar, the vice president of South Sudan, to be discussed this week.
After the cessation of hostilities agreed to by the government and the LRA, the next item on the agenda is discussion of the comprehensive solutions to the conflict, which is expected to include a discussion on the LRA's participation in national politics and institutions as well as the economic and social development of northern and eastern Uganda.
A source involved in the talks said the LRA wants to hold the two Cabinet portfolios of Commerce (Finance) and Security, among others.
"They even already have printed business cards which they are showing investors in southern Sudan, saying they will be appointed to such positions when the peace talks succeed," the official said.
The government, however, has repeatedly said it would not share power with the rebels, who started out fighting to set up a government to run the country according to the 10 Commandments in the Bible, but who now claim to speak for the impoverished population in the north.
"If they want power, they can register the LRA as a political party and participate in the next elections," a government minister said in Kampala. "Even President Salva Kiir told them while opening of the peace talks in July that issues of power sharing should be left out," said the minister.
Speaking in a local radio station in northern Uganda, President Museveni last week made it clear he felt the rebels were not in a position to set conditions in the peace talks. "The Juba peace talks are the last chance for these terrorists to come out safely from what they have been doing so that peace returns and they also stay alive," he said.
"If the peace talks fail, we shall hunt down the rebels and kill them because we were moving on very well with the operations before the peace talks."
In a previous meeting with the British High Commissioner to Uganda, Gordon Francois, the president said the talks are meant to give Kony and his fighters a soft-landing and allow them to be resettled in their villages.
The biggest stumbling block, however, is likely to be the warrants of arrest issued by the International Criminal Court against Kony and his four lieutenants.
Kampala wants the rebels to sign a peace deal and return home before it asks the ICC to ignore the warrants of arrest - which mandate the government to hand over the indicted rebels for trial in The Hague - and use local reconciliation measures.
"The ICC indictments have to continue until the LRA leaders fully embrace the peace talks," President Museveni told a local radio audience in Gulu, northern Uganda. "How do you ask for safety from the ICC when you haven't given safety to Ugandans?"
However, LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti last week said the rebels will sign a peace deal, but will not return home until after the ICC warrants have been lifted. The ICC has, thus far, refused to lift the warrants.
When talks kicked off on July 14, the LRA quickly signalled that peace was only possible if the Ugandan government was willing to discuss and address the underlying political, economic, and social root causes of the conflict.
However, the government initially balked at entering into political discussions for what it viewed as primarily a military problem.
Arguing that the LRA was not a credible representative of the interests of northern Ugandans, the government instead offered the rebels a limited agenda of negotiated surrender. Previously, the government had insisted on maintaining military pressure during talks, claiming that the LRA would use the respite as a ruse to re-supply and rebuild.
However, with time, these were defused and coming to a deal, both the LRA and the government showed flexibility and compromise
In their paper on a comprehensive peace agreement, the LRA demand that there should be power sharing to ensure equal opportunity and proportionate representation of all ethnic groups and regions; northern and eastern Ugandans should be allocated 30 per cent of all government positions.
They also want the two-term limit on the presidency reinstituted, a federal system of national governance and a national conference to analyse and address political, economic, and social issues, as well as possible constitutional reforms.
However, during preliminary discussions in Juba, Kampala's delegation - headed by Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda - outlined the present and planned initiatives to tackle the conflict's root causes and its devastating impact, and asked the LRA to suggest areas where the policies were insufficient and propose alternative strategies.
In their proposal, the LRA argued, "the bone of contention and standoff between the government and its subjects for the past 20 years is that the NRM government intentionally under-developed and impoverished eastern and northern Uganda as a political tool of control and repression. It is for this very reason that we demand total federalism in eastern and northern Uganda, and throughout the country."
The suggest that all government policies of allocation of resources, such as participation in politics and institutions; and social and economic development should, as far as practicable, be dictated by the population structure of the country.
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