Religious leaders to pursue talks with LRA

A group of religious leaders has vowed to continue pressing for talks between the Ugandan government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) despite a presidential order preventing them from making further contact with the rebels. The Ugandan media on Tuesday reported that President Yoweri Museveni had written a letter to John Baptist Odama, the Catholic archbishop who chairs the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI), instructing him to stop visiting the LRA. According to 'The New Vision' government-owned newspaper, Museveni's letter follows reports that the LRA was planning to kill the archbishop, who has been leading mediation efforts between the government and the rebels. Lam Cosmas, the ARLPI coordinator, told IRIN from northern Uganda that this new development was a setback to the peace process. "We have information about the LRA threats, but of course we have no way of verifying that information," he said. "But if they [LRA] have any message to pass on, we will continue to do so." "We are not interested in the politics," he added. "We think people's blood should not be spilt anymore. We have a clear agenda, to stop the deaths of people. We will continue appealing to both parties to sit down and talk." Regional analysts says the religious leaders' initiative is widely seen as one of the most successful attempts at mediation in the northern Uganda conflict. Museveni's new directive, the analysts say, reaffirms the government's position which favours a military solution to the northern insurgency. The absence of a political wing within the rebel movement is also a major setback to prospects for talks with the government, one observer told IRIN.