POLITICS-UGANDA: A Peace Process Threatens to Unravel

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Joyce Mulama*

NAIROBI, Jan 8 2005 (IPS) - Peace efforts in northern Uganda have been on a precarious footing in recent days, this after a bid to have a comprehensive ceasefire signed on Jan. 31 proved unsuccessful.

Since 1986, the area has been plagued by fighting between government and rebels from the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), who say they want to establish an administration based on the Biblical ten commandments.

Under the leadership of Joseph Kony, the LRA has abducted up to 20,000 children, many of which have been forced to fight for the movement.

Hundreds of children have also been made to work as porters, or turned into sex slaves. In addition, tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict – and about 1.6 million displaced.

On Nov. 14, 2004, government announced a month-long ceasefire to enable the rebels to gather in designated areas of northern Uganda, to discuss the possibility of peace talks. This ceasefire was later extended to Dec. 31, when a more comprehensive truce was due to be initialled.

But, negotiations apparently hit a snag when the rebels asked for more time to study the ceasefire agreement.

“There is a lot of suspicion on both sides and I think that’s what caused the problem. No wonder things ended up the way they did,” says James Tumusiime, editor of The Weekly Observer newspaper in Uganda.

“It seems the army is convinced that the rebels can only be defeated militarily,” he adds.

President Yoweri Museveni subsequently ordered the Uganda People’s Defence Force (UPDF) to resume operations against the LRA.

“We shall resume pressure on them but also continue with dialogue with those commanders who are ready to speak the truth and do the right thing,” he said in an address delivered on New Year’s Day.

Reports indicate that a few hours later, the Ugandan army moved to attack rebels who had gathered in the ceasefire zone, while the LRA ambushed an army truck, injuring four soldiers.

The LRA is also accused of staging attacks on civilians.

“(On Wednesday) they abducted two women in Pader (a district of northern Uganda), cut off their hands and told them ‘You go and tell the UPDF’,” army spokesman Shaban Bantariza told IPS.

“We have been lenient on them, giving them an opportunity to give peace a chance – but after (Wednesday’s) events, we are now pursuing them in full swing,” he said in a telephone interview from the Ugandan capital, Kampala.

However, civil society groups have urged both sides to press ahead with their negotiations.

“The thought that we may return to all-out conflict is unbearable,” Stella Ayo-Odongo, chairperson of Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU), said in a Jan. 5 statement.

“It has been a decade since the last real peace talks were held. The people of northern Uganda cannot live with another ten years of appalling suffering. We must make this peace process work,” she added.

According to CSOPNU, the war in northern Uganda has cost the country about 1.33 billion dollars since its inception, approximately three percent of gross domestic product.

Civic groups have also called on global leaders not to allow relief efforts in countries affected by last week’s tsunami disaster to completely overshadow negotiations in Uganda.

“The attention of the international community needs to be given to Uganda. If not, then we will return to full-scale war in northern Uganda,” said Emma Naylor, the country director in Uganda for British aid agency OXFAM.

“We have a serious humanitarian situation here and we need the international community to remain focused in order to save the peace process,” Naylor told IPS.

The tidal waves that struck countries across the Indian Ocean were caused by a Dec. 26 earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. More than 150,000 people have already been confirmed dead in the disaster, while five million have reportedly been left homeless.

Earlier this week, Museveni announced that further talks between government and the rebels would be held outside the country.

“The president made an offer for peace negotiations to be held outside Uganda, (but) up to now there has been no word from the LRA,” Onapito Ekomoloit, a press secretary for the Ugandan leader, told IPS this week.

Nonetheless, Betty Bigombe, a former government minister who is mediating in talks between the two parties, remains hopeful that peace will be realised in the long run. She also emphasises that the negotiation process is a complex one.

“Yes, efforts are being made for talks to begin between government and rebels,” she told IPS, but added “Peace does not come at supersonic speed.”

Talks to conclude another civil war, in southern Sudan, may prove crucial in bringing the LRA back to the negotiating table.

Khartoum is widely held to have bankrolled the LRA in retaliation for Uganda’s alleged support of the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) – and to have allowed LRA fighters to operate from bases in southern Sudan.

However on Dec. 31, Sudan’s government and the SPLM/A signed a permanent ceasefire to end their 21-year conflict, and an accord stipulating how to implement power- and wealth-sharing protocols already agreed on. The two parties have been holding talks in Kenya since 2002.

A final peace accord is expected to be signed by Khartoum and the SPLM/A on Sunday (Jan. 9) in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

As a result of the altered political situation in southern Sudan, the LRA has lost the support it previously received from Sudanese officials, who have agreed to join forces with Ugandan troops to track down the rebels.

The LRA is also being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity.

However, Museveni has said his government will work to have the ICC to drop the case if rebels accept a peace settlement or surrender under a law that offers amnesty to LRA combatants.

* With additional reporting by Evelyn Kiapi Matsamura in Kampala