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****** Uganda: Machar Rules Out New LRA Peace Talks ******
Henry Mukasa and Barbara Among
23 December 2008
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Kampala — THERE will be no fresh peace talks with LRA rebels, chief mediator
Dr. Riek Machar said yesterday.
Machar, the vice-president of South Sudan, which sponsored the talks, said what
remained was for Kony and President Yoweri Museveni to sign.
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"The peace talks are over," Machar said. "The negotiations are finished."
LRA spokesman David Matsanga called in Nairobi on Monday for fresh talks and an
immediate halt to the attacks on the rebels in Garamba forest.
Uganda, South Sudan and Congo jointly attacked the rebels a week ago after they
thrice this year failed to sign the final peace agreement reached in Juba in
April. The rebels were expected to assemble in Ri-Kwangba, South Sudan.
But Matsanga insisted fresh talks should be called and the venue shifted to
Tanzania or South Africa, saying South Sudan was biased. He called Machar a
traitor and an enemy.
In a reaction, Machar said: "If they want to sign in Kampala, Mombasa, Tanzania
or South Africa, I will bring the agreement. Even if they don't trust South
Sudan and they want to sign from Khartoum, I will take it there."
Machar said he did not betray the rebels by backing the military offensive
against them. "I have no special agreement with them as a mediator. There's no
special liking of LRA. I was doing my job as a mediator," he said.
Machar said the SPLA only sealed the South Sudan borders and would not allow
LRA fighters to re-enter their territory from Congo. "We are protecting our
civilians. If they come and want to go to Ri-Kwangba, we shall respect that."
President Yoweri Museveni said Kony must move to Ri-Kwangba to endorse the
peace deal or be killed under the current operation code-named Lightning
Thunder.
Spokesman Capt. Chris Magezi said the UPDF was in hot pursuit of the LRA. He
said the UPDF's Christmas gift for the north, which has borne the brunt of the
22-year-long war, would be to eliminate LRA and rescue the abducted.
Magezi refuted reports that the LRA had attacked the army. "They don't have the
capacity. They are fleeing and taking advantage of the terrain," Magezi
explained.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Monday condemned the failure by Kony to
sign the agreement. It condemned the recent rebel attacks on civilians in Congo
and South Sudan and called on them to sign the agreement immediately.
The council also demanded that the rebels "cease recruitment and use of
children and release all women, children and other non-combatants."
Meanwhile, the MPs whom Museveni accused of trivialising the military action,
said they will not be intimidated.
"We have nothing personal against the President; we are only against some of
his policies. We have never supported violence be it by LRA or UPDF," Okello
Okello, the chairman of Acholi Parliamentary Group, said yesterday.
Copyright © 2008 New Vision. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica
Global Media (allAfrica.com).
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