Home arrow Arab World arrow LRA delays Uganda peace deal
Apr 10 2008
LRA delays Uganda peace deal | Print |  E-mail
Arab World
By Agencies   
Kony has not been seen in public since 2006 [AP]
Kony has not been seen in public since 2006 [AP]
Joseph Kony, leader of Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has failed to turn up at a remote location in south Sudan to sign a peace deal with the Ugandan government.

Kony was due in the jungle town of Ri-Kwangba on Thursday but at the last minute refused to attend until at two aspects of the agreements were clarified, a mediator said.
 
Kony has not been seen in public since 2006.

Riek Machar, Sudanese vice-president and chief mediator, said Kony had requested more time to consult with elders from northern Uganda and other mediators.

War crimes indictment

The ICC indicted him in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity and continues to insist he must be tried in The Hague.

If signed, the peace agreement would have put an end to a 21-year conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government.

Yoweri Museveni, the Ugandan president, is due to sign the deal separately on Sunday.

Ruhakana Rugunda, the Ugandan government's chief negotiator, said the delay was no big deal.

"Long-lasting peace in northern Uganda is what we want, and we won't be derailed by a time schedule," he said.

The agreement between the government and the LRA is vague on disarmament and the release of the hundreds of children and women, still believed to be in LRA captivity.

Thousands killed

Twenty years of fighting have left thousands of Ugandans dead and displaced two million people, mainly in the north of the country.

Several thousands people have also been killed in southern Sudan where the LRA was once based.

A ceasefire was agreed in August 2006, paving the way for peace talks in Juba, Sudan, that dragged on for more than a year and a half.

However, even with an agreement, Kony is not expected to  return to the Ugandan capital Kampala.

Recommend this article...




Did you enjoy this article? Please bookmark it onto:
Digg!Reddit!Del.icio.us!Newsvine!Blogmarks!Yahoo!

Tags:  LRA Uganda
 
< Prev Content   Next Content >
 

Translate

Enter Amount: