Government to resume talks with rebels in Juba

Talks between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) are scheduled to resume on Friday, with both sides considering each other’s ceasefire proposal, officials said on Wednesday. A spokesman for the Ugandan delegation, Capt Paddy Ankunda, said by phone from Juba that the talks should have restarted on Tuesday but had been adjourned at the request of the rebels, who said they were mourning one of their commanders killed by Ugandan troops over the weekend. "We hope to resume on Friday because the mourning period requested by the LRA started yesterday [Tuesday]. We hope that we shall resume to consider proposals for a ceasefire and cessation of hostilities. We have presented ours but we have not seen the one from the LRA," Ankunda said. "Our view is that we should give this process priority and go through it expeditiously because time is not on our side. We have the 12 September deadline and the faster the talks, the better for all of us," Ankunda said. "Our delegation has been here for a week, but we have not seen the LRA." The talks aim at ending northern Uganda's civil war, which has claimed the lives of tens of thousands and displaced nearly two million people. The LRA, led by Joseph Kony - who believes Uganda should be governed according to the Ten Commandments and claims to be guided by spirits - has waged a 20-year war against the government. Thousands of children have been abducted and forced either to fight alongside Kony's troops or become concubines to rebel commanders. Peace talks began last month in Juba in southern Sudan, under the mediation of southern Sudan's vice-president, Riek Machar. Although they had a rocky start, the talks are believed to be the best chance yet to end the war. There were fears of a setback after the Ugandan military killed a leading member of the LRA, Raska Lukwiya, one of five LRA leaders indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on more than 30 charges, including crimes against humanity. However, the LRA declared that despite Lukwiya's death, it would continue with the talks. "We have presented our position paper on the cessation of hostilities. We are now going to mourn the death of our commander [Lukwiya], and we shall return to the talks on Friday," Martin Ojul, the head of LRA delegation, said. The rebels have made several other demands, including an immediate release of all LRA fighters in custody, and the replacement of Uganda People’s Defence Forces personnel at IDP camps with policemen. "Those arrested, detained, imprisoned on allegations of being collaborators, supporters, sympathisers and also those on treason charges related to LRA activities should be released or such charges dropped," the LRA said. The LRA also wants members from the African Union (AU), the Uganda Human Rights Commission and the United Nations to be in what it calls the Cessation of Hostility Monitoring Team (CHMT) while the Ugandan government wants what it calls a Ceasefire Monitoring Committee. The Ugandan Minister of State for Defence, Ruth Nankabirwa, told IRIN that the committee should comprise Sudanese government officials, two Ugandan army officers, two representatives of the LRA and officials from the UN and AU. "The committee would also oversee the resettlement of LRA combatants in Namanga in South Sudan and Waligo in Kitgum district," Nankabirwa said. vm/mw/eo