President sets up team for talks with rebels

A move by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to establish a six-member team for talks with the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) has been hailed as a positive step towards resolving the 16-year insurgency in northern Uganda.

The team, which was established at the weekend, is headed by Eriya Kategeya, Uganda's first deputy prime minister. It is expected to negotiate a ceasefire with the LRA and make plans for the resettlement and rehabilitation of rebels who had already surrendered under a presidential amnesty.

Norbert Mao, the parliamentary representative for the northern Gulu area and a member of the team, told IRIN the move was a sign the government was changing its tough military approach to the conflict.

"I am personally very optimistic," he said. "Knowing that the president has been reluctant to talk to the rebels, it is encouraging he now sees that although it is important to win a war, how you win it is also important. That moral imperative is becoming clear."

Mao said the team would begin its work as soon as Museveni had made a public appeal to the LRA for a ceasefire.

He pointed out that the team, which would answer directly to the president, was also conscious of obstacles, particularly among hardliners who prefer a military solution to the conflict. Some observers also view the absence of a political wing within the rebel movement as a setback to talks.

"The LRA is a very mysterious group and that is a big hurdle," Mao said. "But there have been talks before, and what has been done once, can be done twice. We believe there is a possibility for success with legitimate contacts."

Renewed efforts to hold talks with LRA began earlier this year under the Acholi Religious Leaders' Peace Initiative (ARLPI). The initiative is widely seen as one of the most successful attempts at mediation in the northern Uganda conflict. However, Museveni last month warned the religious leaders to stop making further contacts with the rebel group, as its leader Joseph Kony had ordered his commanders to kill them.