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Uganda: LRA rebel negotiators walkout peace talks with gov’t
Fri. February 22, 2008 05:42 am.- By Bonny Apunyu. -
(SomaliNet) After their demands for cash and cabinet jobs were rejected, negotiators for Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels walked out of peace talks in southern Sudan, the Ugandan government said on Thursday.
"We flatly rejected LRA's demands for cabinet posts and cash rewards," Captain Chris Magezi, spokesperson for the government delegation at the negotiations in Juba, told reporters.
"When they saw they were not getting anything out of their tall orders, they walked out of the talks this evening."
However the LRA delegates could not be immediately reached. They have stormed out of talks before during the on-off peace process that began in mid-2006 to seek an end to two decades of conflict.
The demand for cabinet posts is a new twist, although requests for cash for negotiators is a long-running issue.
Thursday's twist in the tortuous negotiation process came after the government and rebels took a big step forward earlier this week with an agreement to set up special war crimes courts locally for serious crimes.
That was seen as answering the rebels' demand for any peace deal to be dependent on their not facing prosecution at the International Criminal Court.
LRA leader Joseph Kony and two of his top commanders have been charged with atrocities by The Hague-based ICC, which under international law requires they be turned over immediately upon capture or surrender.-Reuters
News Category: East Africa
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