LONDON (AlertNet) - The woman who used to meet brutal rebels in hiding to try to negotiate an end to northern Uganda's decades-long war wants international lawyers to step back and foreign governments to step forward.

Despite the fact that a shaky truce between the Ugandan government and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels is teetering on the brink of collapse, Betty Bigombe is upbeat.

She doesn't expect change overnight. "Especially in a situation where a war's lasted over 20 years, there's deep-rooted distrust… (You're) bound to meet hurdles," she tells AlertNet.

"It's fragile at the moment, but that doesn't mean it's totally hopeless."

A ceasefire signed in August raised hopes of an end to the insurgency led by rebels who shot, hacked and bludgeoned their way through the north's terrified civilian population, abducting about 25,000 children to use as fighters and sex slaves.

Bigombe was the chief negotiator during 1993-1994 and again from 2004 to 2006. She says that when she took on the role of mediating between the government and rebels, who are known for cutting off victims' lips and ears, she learnt how hard it was to build up trust.

"A lot of time you meet violations of what's been agreed upon, and of course that makes you take several steps back. Everybody is looking at one another very suspiciously. They're trying to read each other's chemistry."

Under the truce, the rebels were supposed to gather in two areas in southern Sudan, which has been hosting the peace talks. Though hundreds assembled, many remained at large, including the top leaders, who have repeatedly said they are reluctant to give themselves up while arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court (ICC) hang over them.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, despite having written to the ICC last year to request the indictments, has said he would be willing to offer the LRA leaders amnesty from prosecution but only after a peace deal is signed.

"I think it is very important for the ICC to step back and watch and see how the situation evolves," Bigombe says. "More important than that, I think it's very important to listen to what the people who have borne the brunt of the war are saying about this intervention."

Speaking by telephone from Washington, where the Africa Faith and Justice Network had organised a day of lobbying U.S. politicians for action on northern Uganda, Bigombe says the international community hasn't paid enough attention to a war that's been going on for more than two decades.

She'd like to see more international involvement - not cash, but pressure - to encourage both sides to go back to the table and talk.

"What has the international community to do with Darfur? What has the international community to do with Liberia? Isn't it the same thing?"

She says the presence of international peace monitors would reassure both sides and encourage them to stay off the warpath.

Bigombe has had more personal hurdles to contend with as a negotiator. She says it hasn't been easy for her being taken seriously by the men. "As a woman you really do not have the political clout. People talk to you but there is this misconception… among our people, despite the fact that you can probably have more patience - I think - as a woman."

But she says there are advantages too, which have made it easier for her to speak directly. "A woman can get away with what a man cannot get away with."

Bigombe - who works as a consultant for the World Bank - says she's been spending a lot of time in squalid camps for displaced people in northern Uganda, setting the scene for ex-rebels to go home if and when the war ends. And people have got their hopes up.

"You have so many people in northern Uganda who believe it's a matter of time before they will go home… We cannot afford to let them down."

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and left nearly two million displaced and dependent on food aid. But Bigombe is optimistic that once people in camps are safe to go home, they'll be able to fend for themselves.

"You'd have 1.7 million people who are going to be very productive. Nobody's going to be asking the international community for handouts, it's all going to be talking about rehabilitation and development."