Ugandan talks in turmoil
2007-01-17 15:23
Nairobi - Peace talks aimed at ending a long-running insurgency in northern Uganda were thrown into turmoil on Wednesday after the rebel Lord's Resistance Army refused to resume dialogue until their demands were met.
Rebel spokesperson Obonyo Olweny said the LRA delegation would only resume talks with the Ugandan government at a new venue and under new mediation since they had lost confidence in the semi-autonomous government of southern Sudan.
He said: "There are no talks going on now and there will be no peace talks until our conditions are met.
"Chiefly, we are waiting for the chairperson of Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, to respond to our demand for a new venue because we will not go back to Juba."
'We demand new mediation team'
Last week, the LRA suggested that the regional, seven-nation IGAD salvage the floundering peace process by moving the talks to Nairobi.
In addition, the rebels demanded a new mediation team after they fell out with chief peace broker Riek Machar, vice-president of southern Sudan, who had steered the peace process since the talks opened in the middle of last year.
Olweny said: "We are demanding a new mediation team. The chief mediator, Machar, had proven that he is not impartial to oversee this peace process.
"He has been forcing us to sign documents while issues have not been exhaustively discussed ... He has failed to prevail upon the government of Uganda to pull out its troops from southern Sudan in line with cease-fire agreement.
"The general perception is that he is partisan to the Ugandan government."
Best chance to end conflict
The rebels also appealed to Mozambican former president Joaquim Chissano, the new special United Nations envoy for the conflict in Uganda, to step in and salvage the peace process.
Olweny said: "We truly hope that Chissano well help the peace process."
The talks, which were scheduled to resume on Monday, were seen by many as the best chance to end the conflict that was regularly described as one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
Apart from the initial cessation of hostilities agreement last August, the talks had barely made progress with the two sides remaining far apart on critical issues, including a reformed Ugandan military and power-sharing.
The conflict had raged since 1988, after Joseph Kony and his LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion among northern Uganda's ethnic Acholi minority.