Head of gov't peace team threatens to quit

A senior military official and the head of the presidential peace team in Uganda, Salim Saleh, threatened on Saturday to leave the team if the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels do not show commitment to peace talks. "I have not seen any seriousness with these rebels in the 45 days I have so far spent in Gulu," he told IRIN. "These guys seem somehow not to be serious and therefore I will have no choice but to quit the peace team because I have not seen any willingness from their side to talk peace." The rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire on 1 March, but have been accused of numerous violent incidents and abductions since then. President Yoweri Museveni declared a ceasefire on 10 March in two locations of Pader district to allow talks to take place. He called on the LRA to put forward a peace negotiating team and assemble itself in specific areas, neither of which they have done. On 30 March, Museveni extended the government ceasefire in the two areas of Wipolo and Koyo Lalogi by three weeks. Last week, the Ugandan army conducted aerial bombardments of several areas in Pader, Kitgum and Gulu districts. They claim to have killed about 70 rebels in the attacks.