LRA rebels 'break' truce

2008-02-25 15:07

Kampala - Uganda accused Lord's Resistance Army rebels on Monday of breaking a truce by attacking civilians in Central African Republic, threatening apparent progress at talks to end one of the continent's longest wars.

Representatives of the shadowy guerrilla group, who signed a "permanent ceasefire" with Ugandan negotiators on Saturday at long-running discussions in south Sudan, denied the allegation.

Under the terms of that and an earlier deal, LRA fighters were meant to stay at forest camps on the remote border between southern Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo until the final phase of the talks decides how to disarm and demobilise them.

On Monday, Uganda's military said it had received eye witness reports that the rebels had moved into the CAR and killed several people during an attack on Saturday on the small frontier town of Ezo.

'I hope LRA will change'

Captain Chris Magezi, spokesperson for the Ugandan government delegation at the talks, said: "This is a blatant violation of the just-signed ceasefire agreement.

"I hope that the LRA will change their mind and will assemble ... in conformity with the agreements signed."

Both sides had been hailed in recent days for pushing forward negotiations that had stumbled along in southern Sudan's capital Juba since mid-2006 with little to report.

The ceasefire agreed on Saturday left only demobilisation on the agenda, and jubilant mediators including UN envoy Joaquim Chissano were forecasting a final peace deal within days.

Two decades of civil war had destabilised northern Uganda and neighbouring parts of eastern Congo and south Sudan, killing tens of thousands of people and uprooting some two million more.

A lasting peace deal now would be a major coup for Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who was a United States ally in the region.

Govt in touch with CAR officials

The top LRA negotiator, David Nyekorach Matsanga, described the latest government charges as "nonsense". "Whoever is perpetuating such allegations must prove that the LRA has fighters in those areas," he said.

Uganda's state minister for regional cooperation, Isaac Musumba, said the government was in touch with CAR officials "to see how we can deal with this new angle in the conflict".

Led by self-proclaimed mystic Joseph Kony, the guerrillas are notorious for kidnapping thousands of children and for mutilating victims. Kony and two of his top commanders were wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The rebels had insisted that any final peace deal must include the scrapping of those warrants, something supporters of the Hague-based ICC say would undermine its very purpose.

Both sides in Juba had agreed that crimes could be dealt with locally. The world court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, had told Reuters his cases remained "admissible".

Some officials in south Sudan accused LRA fighters of resuming their attacks on civilians in recent weeks.

- Reuters