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Uganda: Peace Talks End
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The Monitor (Kampala)
27 March 2008
Posted to the web 27 March 2008
Frank Nyakairu and Rodney Muhumuza
Kampala
THE South Sudan-mediated peace negotiations between the rebel LRA and the government of Uganda ended in Juba yesterday with the signing of the second last agreement, which paves way for a possible final agreement on April 5.
The parties yesterday signed an agreement on monitoring and implementation, officially marking the end of negotiations that have come to be called the Juba Peace Process.
What now remains is the ceremony to sign the Final Peace Agreement, and a tentative date was yesterday postponed from April 3 to April 5.
Chief mediator Riek Machar yesterday appeared to be relieved that the penultimate agreement had been signed. "It has been a very difficult peace process with indictments hanging on one of the parties, but I am very happy that they have all agreed to sign the final agreement," Dr Machar, the South Sudan Vice President, told journalists at a Juba hotel.
Chwa MP Livingstone Okello-Okello, who is the chairperson of Acholi Parliamentary Group, told Daily Monitor yesterday that he was "happy" that the peace talks had been concluded. "We had many," Mr Okello-Okello said.
The MP, who is currently in Juba on a confidence building mission added; "This is good news for our people who have suffered for more than two decades. We hope that the signing of a comprehensive agreement will mark the beginning of a new chapter for the people of northern Uganda and the country at large."
If the deal is signed, as the parties agreed yesterday, it would be some 20 months since the talks started in Juba, South Sudan, where President Salva Kiir's government has played a mediation role.
Yet, as April 5 draws closer, the peace process is still clouded in uncertainty over the practical aspect of it.
Rebel leader Joseph Kony, wanted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, yesterday told Acholi elders gathered in Juba that he would sign the deal but keep his arms.
Kony, whose current hideout has become the subject of speculation, rang a Juba peace workshop to say that, deal or no deal, he would stay in Ri-Kwangba, a village in South Sudan where he says he is hiding.
Kony, it was revealed yesterday, will not leave his hideout, even if it is to sign a historic peace agreement with President Museveni's administration. Kony will sign the document from his base in Ri-Kwangba, about 100km from Juba, it was revealed yesterday.
"Kony has told me together with traditional leaders in northern Uganda that he will sign the agreement in Ri-Kwangba," LRA's chief negotiator David Nyekotach Matsanga, told the elders - drawn from Acholi, Lango and Bunyoro - who were meeting in Juba. "Kony will not come out because of the ICC indictments, and in any case, he will remain in Ri-Kwangba because the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement confines him there."
If the Final Peace Agreement is signed at a ceremony in Juba, as is most likely, it is difficult to know who would represent the LRA at the landmark ceremony.
Since July 2006, the LRA and the government of Uganda have signed agreements on cessation of hostilities; comprehensive solutions; accountability and reconciliation; permanent ceasefire; and disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.
Kony, according to some reports, has shifted base to the jungles of the Central African Republic and established contact with a Chadian warlord, Mahamat Nouri.
Although there have been no recent skirmishes between the LRA and the Ugandan military, the rebel outfit has been linked to killings and abductions in the Central African Republic.
Matsanga, who has dismissed the claims, said yesterday: "Those pessimists are going to be embarrassed. Kony has personally confirmed to Ugandans that he will be at Ri-Kwangba to sign the agreement." One traditional leader, after speaking to Kony yesterday, sounded optimistic.
"I have met with Kony before and when he talked, I recognised his voice...he said he would sign the agreement," said Dr Emmanuel Aliba Kiiza, the Bunyoro prime minister. As Mr Matsanga delivered what he called good news, Prof. Ogenga Latigo, the Agago MP who leads the parliamentary opposition, was pessimistic. "I am worried. I think we should consider convincing Kony to come out and sign this agreement," Prof. Latigo said.
In the beginning, as at the end, the ICC issue has been a sticking point during the peace talks, with Kony saying the warrants are a deal-breaker.
The ICC, for its part, has indicated that it might drop the warrants if it is certain that a court in Uganda can competently try the suspects. And President Museveni, who pushed for the indictments, says Kony will have a "soft landing" if he signs the final agreement.
"We have agreed to sign the Final Peace Agreement on April 5 and we expect Joseph Kony to sign it in person," said Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the Internal Affairs minister who is heading the government delegation in Juba.
Earlier, six heads of state had been invited to witness the signing which was at the time scheduled for March 6, 2008.
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The six included; Mwai Kibaki (Kenya), Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), Armando Guebuza (Mozambique), Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), Joseph Kabila (DR Congo) and Omar El-Bashir (Sudan).
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