By Moyiga Nduru
LONDON, Apr 10 1997 (IPS)

A group of legislators from war-torn northern Uganda have held secret talks with the rebels of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) here in a bid to end the conflict in their region.

The legislators, who belong to the Acholi tribe as the rebels, say they exchanged “free and fruitful” ideas with the insurgents, that could lead to a peaceful solution to the 11-year conflict in Uganda.

The talk, whose details have not been divulged, was held at the weekend on the sidelines of a Apr. 4-5 conference organised in London by exiled Acholi community members in Britain. “We were happy to listen to the LRA,” said Nobert Mao, one of the 12 members of Parliament (MPs) who travelled to Britain last week.

Mao told IPS on Wednesday that the solution to the conflict in the north lies in negotiations.

But President Yoweri Museveni, who came to power in 1986 following a six-year guerrilla war, has ruled out talking to what he calls ‘bandits’ and accuses the LRA of committing attrocities against the civilian population.

Mao said it was their role to persuade both sides to talk. “Nobody goes willingly to a negotiation table. It is up to us to push them to make peace,” he said. “And the earlier we end the war the better,” he said. “Because our people are already tired of the fighting in their area,” he said.

The Acholi took up arms immediately after the government of General Tito Okello was toppled by Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) in 1986. Following that change of government, the Acholis, who formed the backbone of Okello’s army, crossed into neighbouring Sudan and launched a bush war against the new regime in Kampala.

After a year, in 1987, the government defeated the Holy Spirit Movement, forcing its charismatic leader, Alice Lakwena, to flee to Kenya. But the mantle of power was picked up by Lakwena’s causin, Joseph Kony, a herbalist and former Roman Catholic cathechist, whose objective is to impose rule in Uganda based on the Biblical Ten Commandments.

And, since then, Uganda has been accusing the Islamic fundamentalist regime in Sudan of backing the LRA. In return, Sudan, has also been charging that Uganda supports the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).

Last year Major-General. Salim Saleh, who is Museveni’s half- brother, said the Acholis had rebelled because they were not benefitting from the national wealth, which has shifted over the past ten years to Museveni’s home area to the south. As a result, the Acholis now feel marginalised, he said. Saleh, who is now commanding the war against the LRA in the north, has called upon the Ugandan government to redress the situation.

Mao urged Museveni to redress the disparity immediately. “Our people feel that their wealth has been eroded. There is a lot of bitterness in the region,” he said.

The Acholi parliamentarians, which included Dr Martin Aliker, the minister of State for International Affairs, came to London with a four-point programme:

To forge unity and to build consensus within the Acholi community; to formulate a response to humanitarian crisis for the 400,000 displaced people in the Acholi lands; to start laying down a blue print for reconstruction; and to explore the possibility of settling the conflict between the LRA and the government of Uganda.

“To our surprise we have achieved all those objectives in our talks with the LRA and the Uganda community here. It was beyond our expectations,” said Mao.

A source close to the leader of the LRA delegation, Dr James Obita, told IPS on Wednesday that the rebel Movement was happy with the “free” exchange of views between it and the Acholi parliamentarians. “We hope that we shall reach a peaceful solution to the conflict soon,” he said.

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