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Uganda rebel negotiating team wants peace deal revised
Nairobi (AFP) Aug 28, 2009 The Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army's negotiating team on Friday announced it had a new leader and demanded that a peace deal already signed by Kampala be revised. Justine Labeja told reporters in Nairobi he was the new acting head of the peace team of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), following the August 14 announcement by former delegation head David Matsanga that he was stepping down. "Justine Labeja will forthwith act as the leader of the peace team until the leadership of the LRA/M (Lord's Resistance Army/Movement) has pronounced itself on the matter," he said in a statement. LRA leader Joseph Kony launched a rebellion in northern Uganda in the late 1980s that led to one of Africa's longest and most brutal civil conflicts, in which tens of thousands were killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. The rebels and Kampala concluded negotiations in April 2008, but Kony has repeatedly refused to sign a deal already inked by the Ugandan government. Labeja's team argued that some points in the agreement needed to be revised for Kony to come onboard and reiterated the view that the LRA leader's indictment by the International Criminal Court was a major obstacle. "Matsanga has held the view that the negotiations are over... that all that remains is the signature by the leader of the LRA," Michael Anywar, a military observer with the LRA peace delegation, said at the press conference. "But Joseph Kony... was not satisfied with the section of the agreement that dealt with the ICC issue, and with the provisions for the welfare and security of LRA fighters and leadership," he explained. The LRA has repeatedly said it might be ready to face homegrown justice mechanisms but has demanded that the ICC arrest warrants still facing Kony and two of his top lieutenants be lifted. Kony, a semi-literate former altar boy, has been accused of continuing to commit atrocities, moving with a small group of die-hard supporters in jungle areas straddling Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. Labeja and Anywar admitted they had not seen Kony since November 2008 -- the last time he was expected to sign the peace deal in southern Sudan -- and not spoken to him since April 2009. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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