Frank Nyakairu and Agencies
28 February 2008
Juba — Ugandan rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army have refused to sign a peace agreement unless the International Criminal Court lifts the indictment against its leaders.
A ceasefire agreed on Saturday left demobilisation as the only outstanding issue to finalise an agreement to end one of Africa's longest wars. Mediators had been forecasting a deal within days.
The government had proposed that the peace deal be signed on on March 6.
But, the LRA delegation now says it wants more time to consult its leader Mr Joseph Kony in his remote hiding place.
"We need to consult first," said chief LRA negotiator David Nyekorach-Matsanga. "That date is the wish of the government of Uganda. We are not in a rush."
Sources close to the talks said Mr Kony had rejected a guarantee of his safety if he attended the talks from UN envoy and mediator Joaquim Chissano, Mozambique's former president.
Mr Kony and two other LRA commanders are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Earlier this week, the government accused the LRA of breaking the truce by attacking civilians in Central African Republic, threatening the apparent progress at the talks.
LRA negotiators in Juba denied the accusations.
Two decades of civil war have destabilised northern Uganda and neighbouring parts of eastern Congo and south Sudan, killing tens of thousands of people and uprooting some 2 million more.
Despite new hope of a peace deal in Uganda, questions remain not only over whether it could work in practice but also whether negotiators truly speak for rebel chief Kony -- Africa's most wanted man.
Talks had limped along at a hotel in Juba, south Sudan, since mid-2006 before the government and LRA rebels suddenly signed a raft of accords last week to help end one of the continent's longest wars.
With only the demobilisation of the rebels still left on the agenda, overjoyed mediators forecast a final deal within days. But the agreement all depends on Mr Kony, who has never attended the talks and stays hidden in the dense forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, unseen by outsiders for months and wanted by the International Criminal Court.
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