Uganda: Kony ready to resume peace talks

  1. Posted on Tuesday 24 June 2008 - 09:41
    deodatus
    deofuga@yahoo.com
    Deodatus Mfugale, AfricaNews reporter in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
    The leader of the rebel group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) Joseph Kony has at last broken a long period of silence and asked for resumption of peace talks which stalled in April this year.
    joseph_kony_lra
    Kony’s call for the resumption of the talks broadcast on Sunday June 22 2008 by Radio

    France International comes a few weeks after three nations- Uganda, DR Congo and Sudan- threatened to carry out a joint attack on the rebel forces. The USA had also pledged to support the three nations.

    In his statement Kony said that he wants the talks to be held in Juba and doesn’t want to fight again because he thinks that the talks will succeed. "There is going to be peace through negotiations and my message to the people of Uganda is that ... I am the one who started the peace talks, so I am going to struggle to make sure that this war is solved," he said.

    Negotiations between the LRA and Uganda government had been going on for two years before collapsing in April 2008 after Kony failed to appear to sign a final peace deal.

    The civil war in Uganda which has been going on for two decades has displaced about 2 million people and destabilised parts of southern Sudan and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

    South Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar who had chaired the previous talks in Juba is optimistic that a new round of peace talks could be fruitful and sees the preparations by Kampala, Khartoum and Kinshasa for a joint attack against the LRA as uncalled for, at present.

    The LRA leader has allegedly set up camp in Garamba Forest in North-eastern Congo and is said to be willing to meet Machar again in Ri-Kwangba on the Sudan-DRC border.

    However, the new development is unlikely to change the decision by Uganda, DR Congo and Sudan to undertake a joint offensive against the rebel group. Before the talks collapsed in April this year, Kony had made pledges to sign the peace deal but each time he came up with an excuse to justify his failure to appear to sign the document before he completely cut off communication. It is his being elusive that led to the three countries planning for a joint offensive as they do not believe that he is committed to the peace process.

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