Government extends unilateral ceasefire once more

The Ugandan government has extended the limited ceasefire it announced last month in some areas of the northern region, where it is fighting the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an army spokesman told IRIN on Tuesday. "The ceasefire has been extended to 15 December, by which date we expect them [rebels] to have started talking to [the] government," army spokesman, Maj Shaban Bantariza, told IRIN. "They would have had a whole month to talk to themselves about the peace proposals." Bantariza said the extension was communicated to the army on Monday night. "We believe that this will be enough period [of time] for them to consult each other," he said. "If they don't, they would have put their credibility into question." The ceasefire was announced to allow a fresh mediation effort - led by former minister, Betty Bigombe - to start. Initially, the government had announced the ceasefire only in the areas of Gulu, Pader and Kitgum, up to the border with Sudan. Reciprocating the government's truce, the LRA announced a ceasefire in its 18-year-old rebellion, saying it would not attack the army in both northern Uganda and southern Sudan. However, the military has continued to attack those rebels they find in areas outside the ceasefire zone and the army clamed to have killed six of them last week. The LRA has fought the Ugandan government since 1988. The rebels, known for their brutality against civilians, have killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people. Some 1.6 million people have been displaced from their homes, while thousands of children have been abducted and forced into rebel fighting ranks or to become sex slaves for rebel commanders. In 1994, a breakthrough was almost recorded when Bigombe met rebel representatives in the jungles of the region, but the process collapsed when President Yoweri Museveni asked the rebels to surrender or face the might of the army.