Security Council urges Museveni to end conflict in north

Members of the UN Security Council on Thursday urged Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni to end an 18-year conflict, which has caused a major humanitarian crisis in the country's northern districts. "We had a meeting with President Museveni and our message to Uganda was that the humanitarian crisis in the north should be settled as soon as possible," Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, France's ambassador to the UN, told reporters at Entebbe airport at the end of the Council's six-day visit to the Great Lakes region. Northern Uganda has been ravaged by nearly two decades of an insurgency by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). The rebel group is notorious for its atrocities against civilians, including the kidnapping of thousands of children for conscription into its ranks and forcing others to become sex slaves for its commanders. The conflict has displaced an estimated 1.6 million people. "The president [Museveni] told us that there were good prospects for peace in Uganda," said De la Sabliere. "All the international community and Council are concerned with is what is taking place in northern Uganda," De la Sabliere added. "We are concerned about the situation of child soldiers - it is not only to condemn the situation, but we need to find a solution." A seven-day truce announced by Museveni on 14 November, after the LRA guerrillas expressed willingness to start peace talks, expired on Monday. But a government spokesman told IRIN on Friday that the ceasefire had been extended by another week. "The extension will count from the date the first ceasefire expired - it was decided to give the extension to show that the government was entirely committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict," Information Minister, Nsaba Buturo, said. He said rebels were responding to the state's decision to temporarily suspend military operations against them. The Council said it had not discussed the civil strife in northern Uganda in detail during the meeting with Museveni, adding that talks had centred on the peace process in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Ugandan leader has been involved in efforts to end civil war in Burundi and Uganda, and at one time, was involved in the conflict in the DRC. "We encouraged the DRC people to do their best to accelerate efforts to set up an integrated army and police," said De la Sabliere. "We think that the stability of the Ituri and Kivu regions is important to hold elections and we have discussed this with president Museveni." Non-governmental organisations working in northern Uganda criticised what they said was the Council's failure to address the crisis there. "Here is another wasted opportunity to bring a just and lasting peace to the people of Uganda", said Stella Ayo Odongo, the chairperson of the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU). "As the Council members relax in their hotel tonight [Thursday], thousands of children will be walking miles from their villages to towns like Kitgum in order to sleep in the open - the only way they can be safe from attacks," CSOPNU said in a statement after the Council's meeting with Museveni.