Gov't rules out truce with LRA before final peace deal

The Ugandan government on Wednesday ruled out a ceasefire with the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) until a comprehensive peace pact with the rebels had been signed, saying the group had not respected previous truces. "We are opposed to signing [a] cessation of hostilities with the LRA [...] because the government of Uganda has on previous occasions held peace negotiations with the LRA and it was proved that most of the time they abused the cessation of hostilities we offered," Uganda's Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda told reporters. "It is only upon the signing of the comprehensive peace agreement that all forms of hostilities between the parties to the agreement shall totally, permanently and unequivocally cease," insisted Rugunda, who is leading the government delegation at peace talks with the LRA in the southern Sudanese city of Juba. The LRA, whose delegation was not immediately available to respond to Rugunda's statement, had called for a truce during the peace talks. Thousands of people have been killed and two million displaced in northern Uganda since the LRA took leadership of a regional rebellion among the Acholi in 1988 in a bid to oust Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and replace his regime with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments. kt/jn/mw