Rebels agree to peace talks

2008-11-15 23:05

Kampala - A rebel group that has waged a low-level insurgency in western Uganda for more than a decade has agreed to enter formal peace talks with the Ugandan government, an official said on Saturday.

The deal between President Yoweri Museveni's government and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) was announced in a statement from Jeremy Haslam, chief of mission in Uganda for the International Organisation of Migration (IOM).

"After months of dialogue between the ADF and the government of Uganda, the ADF command group have committed to enter a formal peace process," it said, without mentioning when negotiations might begin.

"As a sign of their commitment, the ADF has agreed to the immediate repatriation of ADF dependent women and children, irrespective of the progress of the formal peace talks.

Considerable work still to be done

"We have achieved an important milestone in the process.

However, all parties are under no illusion that there is considerable work still to be done, which is complicated by the challenges created by the current crisis in the DRC," the statement said.

The ADF, a mix of Islamist and secular guerrillas, had been fighting the government since 1996, and was blamed for bombings and massacres in the late 1990s.

Based in western Uganda and across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the rebel group had been considered dormant for some time.

The Ugandan government is currently trying to revive talks with the Lord's Resistance Army, another rebel outfit that has been battling Museveni's government since 1988.

- AFP