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Rugunda Still Committed

New Vision (Kampala)
NEWS
November 30, 2006
Posted to the web December 1, 2006

By Henry Mukasa
Kampala
The Government is still committed to the peace talks despite the LRA's decision
to suspend their participation, chief negotiator Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda said
yesterday.
"This incident of walking out is not the first or the second. They will come
back," Rugunda asserted during a press conference at the Media Centre in
Kampala.
Rugunda, the internal affairs minister, was flanked by international relations
minister Okello Oryem. He urged the LRA not to lose the opportunity provided by
the talks.
"The LRA must be serious and take this chance of a soft landing. The only
logical way forward is to pursue the peace process and that's where the
Government is committed."
Oryem accused the rebels of playing games on the eve of the expiry of the time
given to them to assemble at Owiny Ki-Bul and Ri-Kwangba.
"This is mischief to wriggle out of their responsibility. They still have time
(to assemble) up to midnight. We hope sanity will prevail over this nonsense
and they will come back to the talks," Oryem said.
The LRA delegation spokesman, Obonyo Olweny, announced on Wednesday they were
pulling out of the talks, claiming the UPDF had killed some of their fighters
on the way to one of the assembly points.
Deputy LRA leader Vincent Otti told Reuters yesterday they were reluctant to
assemble for fear of a UPDF trap at the designated assemble areas.
"We will not assemble because that is their plan," Otti said. "That one
(agreement) is now negative. We cannot keep dying while they (the army) are
just refuting the allegations. I'm now thinking it is better to end the war
through conflict than talking."
Reacting to the allegations, Rugunda said the LRA should have reported the
incident to the monitoring team to investigate. He insisted that the UPDF, as a
confidence-building measure, withdrew from Magwi, Polataka and Tebikka on
November 13 and that they no longer posed a threat to LRA positions.
Oryem noted that the Government did not abandon the talks when the LRA killed a
UPDF captain. "We resumed business. We buried the captain and life continued,"
he said.
Responding to calls from some donor countries to move the venue of the talks to
Uganda, Rugunda said the talks are in Juba because of the credibility of the
mediation.
He invited LRA leader Joseph Kony to go to Juba, instead of attempting to turn
his Garamba hideout into a second meeting place.


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