Amidst resumed hostilities, the head of the Presidential Peace Team, Internal Affairs Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, says his team is in touch with the Lords Resistance Army (LRA) over the general ceasefire. “Contacts between the LRA and us through the mediator, Ms Betty Bigombe, have been on constantly,” Rugunda added. “We are being informed of every development.” (13-JAN-05)
This article was originally written by Frank Nyakairu for the independent Ugandan daily the Monitor yesterday, 12 January. It has been edited for republication here.
“Negotiations have been and are still on course and the government is committed to ensure that this peace process is concluded to end hostilities,” Mr Rugunda specified. On Monday, the chief negotiator, Ms Betty Bigombe, held a meeting with two senior LRA commanders namely, Sam Kolo and Onen Kamudulu in Pararo, outside Gulu. Bigombe?s meeting with the LRA came 10 days after the peace process that started late last year suffered a hitch on December 31, when both sides failed to sign a general ceasefire.
-Just a small hick-up
“What happened was just a delay but the talks did not collapse,” Rugunda insists. The LRA, according to Bigombe, has asked for more time to “consult amongst themselves.” In the initial ceasefire draft the government had asked the rebels to assemble in gazetted zones and appoint members of the Joint Monitoring Team (JMT). On 14 November, 2004, the government announced a month-long ceasefire to enable the rebels to gather in designated areas of northern Uganda, to discuss the possibility of peace talks. This ceasefire was later extended to December 31, when a more comprehensive truce was due to be initialed.
-Long conflict, gross violations
Bigombe, a significant figure in the process and former Minister for Pacification of the North, has currently taken leave of her World Bank job in the United States. Her talks with LRA leader, Joseph Kony, in 1993 collapsed after President Museveni accused the rebels of using the ceasefire to plan for more attacks. In August this year the LRA Spokesman, Sam Kolo made ceasefire announcements. Meanwhile the International Criminal Court is investigating the LRA over crimes against humanity in the long running conflict. The LRA has fought President Yoweri Museveni?s government since 1988 to replace it with that based on the ten biblical commandments. More than 1.6 million people have been displaced from their homes and 12,000 children abducted and used as sex slaves in this armed conflict.
-Every reason to continue to support Northern Uganda
– As pointed out repeatedly by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Deputy Jan Egeland, the humanitarian crisis in Northern Uganda has for a long time been the world’s most neglected, adds Niels Jacob Harbitz, HRH’s Project Manager for East Africa. With the peace agreement in Sudan now in place, and also a long overdue growth in political and diplomatic interest for Northern Uganda internationally, this now looks to be changing. Even so, the human rights violations following in the wake of the war and the humantitarian crisis it has caused will not go away in a long time. Hence, there is every reason to continue to increase the focus on Northern Uganda and provide support, especially for local initiatives, to improve the human rights situation there, concludes Harbitz, who on behalf of HRH is involved in an attempt to release money and set up a project exactly of this kind.
