Sam Kiplagat
2 July 2009
Nairobi — Uganda's rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) will be sending two more military commanders to the Juba peace talks in South Sudan.
In a statement, LRA through the leader of peace delegation, Dr David Nyekorach Matsanga, said the two military officers will be presented to the chief mediator, Dr Riek Machar, and the UN special envoy, Mr Joachim Chissano, when the talks resume.
Although he did not give the names of the two negotiators, Dr Matsanga said that they were chosen by the LRA leader Joseph Kony himself.
He explained that the decision was informed by Kony's desire to bolster peace talks, expected to culminate in the signing of the final peace agreement to end the 23-year war in northern Uganda.
"Their role is to look at the peace agreement with the aim of fast-tracking its signing as soon as possible. It is not re-negotiation as some individuals in Uganda Government would like the world to believe," said Dr Matsanga.
The atrocities
The rebel group, at the same time, distanced itself from conflicts in eastern and northern Uganda, saying the atrocities were being perpetrated by a shadowy outfit known as Peoples Patriotic Front.
"The LRA high command also wants to distance itself from any attempts to drag the Lord's Resistance Army's name in the current arrests and detentions in northern and eastern Uganda of some members who had allegedly formed a shadowy outfit.
"Generally, Kony says he has never and will never instruct anyone from LRA to wage war in Uganda during the time of the peace process.
"He is aware that some of those who frustrated the signing of final peace agreement on a number of attempts are the same ones who have allegedly been caught and implicated in the Peoples Patriotic Front," he said.
Dr Matsanga also said that it was clear that the objectives of Operation Lighting Thunder by the Ugandan Government will not be achieved militarily.
"These objectives have not been achieved and the operation now lies in a state of coma given the inability of Uganda People's Defence Forces to win this war militarily.
The only option
"This leaves the world with dialogue as the only option that is sustainable in the northern Uganda conflict," he said.
Dr Matsanga, who had threatened to quit over frustrations from the government side added; "I have encountered glaze eye reactions during the painstaking process in the Juba Peace talks. I will not give up in looking for further avenues of bringing peace to Uganda."
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