Peace talks adjourn for consultations

Peace talks aimed at ending two decades of fighting between the Ugandan army and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been adjourned for a week to allow for consultations, an official said. The spokesman for the Ugandan delegation, Captain Paddy Ankunda, said by phone from Juba that the discussions mediated by the southern Sudanese government in Juba would resume on 31 July. "The break was necessitated by the fact that we thought we needed to consult with our seniors," Ankunda said. "We discussed our agenda and other issues and we wanted to share what we discussed with the government," he added, describing the talks that officially opened in Juba on 14 July as "very successful". Ankunda added that a programme whereby the LRA delegates were proceeding to the Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo border to meet their leader Joseph Kony was the other reason for the adjournment. Negotiators have for the past week discussed several issues, including cessation of hostilities, comprehensive solutions to the conflict, and reconciliation and accountability. Mediators said after the adjournment a ceasefire and other issues such as disarmament and reintegration of fighters would be back on the agenda, although Uganda had said it would not agree to any ceasefire before a comprehensive agreement is signed. Uganda charged that the LRA has earlier abused these moments of ceasefire, using them to strengthen itself through recruitment and re-armament. Relatives of LRA commanders, including Kony's mother and a group of elders from the Acholi sub-region, were expected to meet LRA commanders on the Sudan-DRC border in the next few days as part of efforts to promote the peace initiative through confidence-building. Thousands of people have been killed while almost two million have been displaced from their homes in the north of the country and they live in camps around the region. vm/mw