Uganda, LRA to sign peace deal

2008-04-02 17:17

Juba - Uganda's government and Lord's Resistance Army rebels will sign a final peace deal, even though rebel leader Joseph Kony will not meet a deadline this week, the UN envoy for Uganda's war said on Wednesday.

Kony was due to sign a final accord on Thursday near his hideout on the Sudan/Congo border, but LRA negotiators postponed the date until April 10, saying he was still making his way to the agreed assembly area.

Some Ugandans doubt whether Kony will quit his jungle hideout in the Democratic Republic of Congo to sign a final deal to end two decades of fighting, as long as the International Criminal Court (ICC) has arrest warrants out for him for war crimes.

Former Mozambique President and United Nations' envoy for northern Uganda, Joaquim Chissano, on a visit to the peace talks in neighbouring south Sudan, told Reuters he was confident a deal would go ahead, despite delays.

"I have no doubt that a final deal will be reached ... and I have come here to see how we can forge the way forward with the mediator," he said.

Some government officials have accused the LRA of using the talks to re-arm, threatening Uganda's peace after tens of thousands were killed and two million displaced.

Officials in the Sudanese military say Kony's fighters have been seen crossing the porous border area between Congo, Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR).

That has fuelled speculation among diplomats that the LRA may have forged links with Sudan-backed rebels there.

Khartoum backed the LRA in a proxy war with Uganda in the 1990s, in retaliation for Uganda's supporting south Sudanese rebels. But a peace deal in Sudan in 2005 removed Kony's safe haven, forcing him to relocate to eastern Congo.

Chissano said the UN was investigating reports Kony had crossed into CAR but had not seen any evidence.

"As far as I know, the signing was postponed because Kony has not shown up at the site," Chissano said. "There is varying information. You cannot be sure which one is correct but there are teams looking into that."

Kony and two of his senior deputies are wanted by the Hague-based ICC for multiple war crimes including rape, murder and the abduction of children.

Fearing arrest, they have never appeared at the Juba talks.

A section of the peace deal on justice for war crimes outlines ways in which Uganda will try to deal with rebel atrocities internally, using a mixture of traditional tribal reconciliation rituals and Uganda's own law courts.

- Reuters