Frank Nyakairu
27 February 2008
SIX presidents are expected to witness the signing of the final peace deal to end Joseph Kony's 21-year northern rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni's administration.
But the parties in Juba, the South Sudan capital where peace talks have been going on since July 2006, were still locked in disagreement yesterday over when a comprehensive peace agreement should be signed.
Kony's delegation rejected the proposed date of March 6 for the signing.
Documents seen by Daily Monitor indicate that the final agreement concluding the 19-month peace process could be signed as early as next week.
The spokesman for the Uganda government's delegation, Capt. Chris Magezi, said yesterday that six presidents had been invited to the ceremony at which President Museveni himself is expected to attend. "We tentatively have March 6 as the date for signing the final agreement and this will be witnessed by presidents from Kenya [Mwai Kibaki], Tanzania [Jakaya Kikwete], Mozambique [Fernando Guebuza], South Africa [Thabo Mbeki], DR Congo [Joseph Kabila], and the Sudan (Omar El-Bashir)," Magezi told Daily Monitor yesterday. Mr Kikwete is the new chairman of the African Union.
Gen. Bashir has long been accused of offering logistical support to the LRA while the rebels are currently holed up in the northeastern part of President Kabila's territory at Garamba parkland.
There is also a standing agreement between Uganda and the DRC, signed in Arusha last year that provides for joint military offensive to flush out the rebels if the talks fail.
When the rebels initially voiced concern over the neutrality of the chief mediator, Dr. Riek Machar in January 2007, they suggested the neighbouring Kenya and South Africa to head the negotiations as possible neutral countries.
Kenya particularly had an advantage since her former president Daniel Arap Moi presided over the protracted talks between the Khartoum government and the Sudanese People Liberation Army/Movement, which resulted into the January 2005 truce pact and end of fighting between the Muslim north and mainly Christian/animist south Sudan.
The parties finalised discussions on four agenda items of a five-stage peace process. Since July 2006, the government and the LRA delegations have signed a couple of agreements, including a cessation of hostilities agreement, but differences over what part the LRA will play in a post-conflict Uganda have threatened to delay the signing of a comprehensive peace agreement.
The final agreement left to be signed is that on disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation and reintegration (DDRR). The comprehensive peace agreement will set a date when the rebels will lay down weapons.
Mediation papers seen by Daily Monitor also suggested the implementation of DDRR would take five months but this was yet to be agreed upon by both sides.
The LRA yesterday rejected the proposed date of March 6 saying they had to first consult their leader Kony. "We have not yet agreed on the date," LRA chief negotiator David Nyekorach-Matsanga said. The LRA was set to travel to Ri-Kwangba today for a day's meeting with their leader.
The rebels insisted that Kony was not shifting his camp to the Central African Republic. "This reporting is hurting the peace process. Kony is in Ri-Kwangba and we will take pictures with him and prove it," said Dr Matsanga. On Thursday, the LRA and the government are expected to conclude discussions on the DDRR and start negotiations on the timetable.
This is the furthest the peace talks have gone in the last 21 years of war in northern Uganda. But war crimes and crimes against humanity indictments against the LRA's top leadership remain an impediment to the final peace deal, as Kony fears arrest.
The LRA revolt against President Museveni, since 1986, devastated northern Uganda, killed tens of thousands of people, and uprooted nearly 2 million people.
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