allAfrica.com * LRA Rejects Deadline, Draws Up Its Own The East African (Nairobi) NEWS 1 January 2008 Posted to the web 2 January 2008 By Barbara Among Nairobi As clouds of uncertainty gather over peace talks between the Uganda government and the Lord's Resistance Army rebels - the rebels have tabled a counter proposal that extends the January 31 ultimatum for completion announced by President Yoweri Museveni to mid-March 2008. The situation inside the LRA has become more fluid with last week's alleged raid by the rebels on a Catholic mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which analysts says points to either a further meltdown in the group or an attempt to project force. Uganda's two-track approach to the LRA is also being blamed for fomenting uncertainty over the process as hostile statements have been issued intermittently. Describing the deadline as an act of provocation, LRA spokesperson Godfrey Ayo told The EastAfrican the group would not respect the ultimatum but will instead stick to the agreed date of March 15 or April. He said the team agreed on this date with donors sponsoring the Juba talks and also suggested the same to President Museveni during their meeting on December 18, 2007 at State House Nakasero, Kampala. "In these parallel pronouncements, we only recognise the Juba peace process; so we do not consider the ultimatum as one of the legal agreements," said Ayo. During a meeting with an LRA delegation in Kampala a fortnight ago, Museveni announced that the final peace agreement must be arrived at by January 31, failing which the rebels would be flushed out of their hideouts in northeastern DRC. The threat followed a similar declaration by Ugandan and Congolese military officials following a meeting in Kampala early December. LRA leader Joseph Kony accused President Museveni of jeopardising the Juba peace talks, set to resume in January. According to the LRA proposal, the earliest the talks can resume is in the last week of January 2008, leaving no time for arrival at a comprehensive peace agreement by January 31. Ayo told The EastAfrican that the team would return to Juba on January 5 and subsequently travel to the Garamba hideout to brief Kony on the just concluded consultations. The LRA timetable shows that rebel leader Kony will then meet a delegation from different parts of the country at Garamba between January 10 and January 20 for consultation on the third agenda of accountability and reconciliation before his team can produce a final report on its consultations. The protracted peace talks between the government of Uganda and the LRA rebel group have been going on for 16 months now. However, the chances of reaching an agreement became uncertain by early October after reports alleged that Kony had killed his deputy, Vincent Otti. At the Northern Uganda peace conference held in Gulu last week, President Museveni said that Kony was not ready for peace, otherwise he would not have executed Otti. Further doubts were cast on the future of the talks after reports that the LRA had attacked and looted food and drugs from the Comboni Mission in Duru town in the DRC last week. Analysts said the incident reflected an increasingly desperate situation within the LRA camp - pointing to declining stocks of basics such as food but was also probably a show of force in response to the mixed signals from Kampala and Kinshasa. "These must have caused a degree of restlessness within the LRA. Besides, we do not know the cohesiveness within the LRA at the moment with the killing of Otti," said Rev. Grace Kaiso, executive secretary of the Uganda Joint Christian Council. While initially dismissing the reports as government propaganda, LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayo conceded that the group was running low on food and had instituted a rationing regime. He said the team last received food deliveries from Caritas in November. "The fact that they didn't do the delivery does not mean we have to loot. We are rationing what we have now," said Ayo. However, the Kampala government has on several occasions alleged that the LRA were selling or exchanging the Caritas food supplies for firearms. Recent defections from the group would have also reduced the number of mouths to feed. Minister of State for International Affairs Okello Oryem, who doubles as the deputy leader of government delegation to the Juba talks, said the attack was unacceptable as they were receiving food stocks out of proportion to their numbers on the ground. Uganda Minister for Defence Dr Crispus Kiyonga said a meeting in Addis Ababa gave the LRA an opportunity to assemble at the neutral point of Ri-Kwangba as agreed upon in the cessation of hostility truce. "If they don't, the Congolese army will act against them," said Dr Kiyonga. Article 1(b) of the September Ngurdoto agreement stipulates that the government of the DRC shall formulate an action plan to neutralise the negative force, particularly the LRA and Allied Democratic Force, which shall become effective January 2008. Dr Kiyonga told The EastAfrican that the action plan is ready and has been given to the government of Uganda. The LRA, however, maintain that they will only respect agreements made in Juba as legally binding. Ayo said that addendum 4 to the cessation of hostilities agreement allows the LRA fighters to stay within a radius of 40km into DRC from the assembly point of Ri-Kwangba. "Cessation of hostilities is still valid but the LRA has not respected it wholly. We are hoping they assemble in good spirit; we want peace to obtain and would love the Juba peace process to continue till we achieve peace. But the time will come when we say enough is enough," said Dr Kiyonga. Government sources however told The EastAfrican that the resolution to pass an ultimatum for the peace talks was backed by the meeting of the Great Lakes countries in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on December 5, 2007. Officials who attended the meeting told The EastAfrican that the ultimatum had however been agreed on earlier in the Tanzanian town of Arusha on September 8, 2007 when Presidents Museveni and Joseph Kabila of DRC met at Ngurdoto. The government defends the ultimatum, saying it is committed to the peace process and the LRA will only be attacked if they do not assemble at the neutral point agreed on in the Cessation of Hostilities agreement. The two parties renewed a truce for the third time in June, 2007. "This ultimatum is no different from the ICC warrant of arrest; it is just to put pressure on the LRA to move on. Some pressure has to be put so that these issues are dealt with and put to an end," said Okello Oryem. The LRA team has since November been consulting different Ugandan communities on how to deal with atrocities committed during the two-decade war that pitted the LRA against the Ugandan government. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 2008 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------