Juba Peace Talks a Hoax?
blurb:isstoday:14052008juba
14 May 2008: Juba Peace Talks a Hoax?
For the last two years, all eyes have been on the northern Uganda peace process in Juba, southern Sudan. Now the peace process between the government of Uganda and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony has fallen to pieces.
Talks to end Kony’s 22-year insurgency collapsed last month when the LRA commander-in-chief sacked his chief negotiator and then failed to show up at the signing ceremony of the peace deal in a forest clearing on the remote frontier - to the disappointment and embarrassment of the who’s who gathered there to witness the event.
Real questions remain as to why the peace talks collapsed. Kony suspended his side’s participation saying that they had been misled and manipulated by the partisan mediators Riek Machar of the South Sudan government and UN envoy former Mozambique president Joachim Chissano.
Typical of Kony he also objected to the “one-sided” decision by the International Criminal Court (ICC) seeking to punish only one party in the conflict while leaving the Ugandan government and the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) exempt of any future trial over atrocities in northern Uganda.
Former LRA chief negotiator David Matsanga, whom Kony appointed and suspended within months, however said that internal killings, tribal cocoons, greed and bad advisors were responsible for the collapse of the peace deal. He further revealed that Kony was facing a revolt, after he not only killed his deputy but also the head of the LRA intelligence.
The ex-chief negotiator also said the infighting between LRA commanders and Kony over money, has been exacerbated by greedy peace delegates. He accused one of the peace process delegates, a former Ugandan legislator of demanding $400,000 from the American embassy before Kony signs the peace deal.
The new LRA peace process chairman dr. Alfred Obita denied the demand for ransom money. He confirmed that a demand for $400,000 was made to the American embassy, but said it was for LRA funding not for the person of Kony.
The excuses made by the LRA only serve to show that the peace process is still a long way off, yet everyone continued with the charade.
The government of Uganda wanted it to go ahead to show the world that it went an extra mile to end the war in the north. For Kony it was possibly to buy time as he prepares for more attacks. So was it worth the millions of dollars spent on the peace talks?
Maybe not, but some questions have emerged, though unfortunately raised by the wrong person: Kony. These questions include the marginalization of northern Uganda, atrocities by the UPDF, the restoration of the biblical ten commandments (which is part of Kony’s decades-long campaign) and unequal job distribution. Kony is the wrong person to ask these questions.
Last week Kony’s new lead negotiator, a one James Obita, confirmed that the elusive rebel boss would turn up sometime soon along the Sudan-DRC border to meet leaders from northern Uganda and probably sign the peace agreement. However he added that the LRA rebel chief still wants more details on how the Ugandan government plans to use traditional reconciliation rituals to help him avoid prosecution for war crimes by the ICC.
How soon he will get these assurances and when a peace deal will eventually be signed is still anybody’s guess.
Samuel Sserwanga, Senior Legal Analyst, ICPAT, Addis Ababa
