INTERVIEW-UN envoy will not impose deals in Uganda conflict
Source: Reuters
By Charles Mangwiro MAPUTO, Jan 9 (Reuters) - The new U.N. envoy for Uganda's conflict with Lord's Resistance Army rebels said on Tuesday he would not intervene over war crimes indictments issued against LRA leaders, an issue which could block peace efforts. Joaquim Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, said he would work with the International Criminal Court in the Hague, which last year issued the indictments against five LRA commanders including its leader Joseph Kony. But Chissano, who leaves Maputo for Uganda on Wednesday to try and forge a political settlement for a conflict that has spilled over into other African states, said he will not impose any solutions. "That matter (of indictments) is between the court and the government of Uganda ... I will not indulge in that, I can talk to them both, but only in trying to facilitate the peace process," he said in an interview with Reuters. Some fear the LRA will never sign a peace deal until the International Criminal Court drops the indictments against Kony and the other leaders. Uganda says it might ask the court to drop the charges if the LRA sign a peace deal. LRA, formed in 1987, is a paramilitary group operating mainly in northern Uganda and says it wants to rule Uganda according to the Biblical Ten Commandments. It has been accused of widespread human rights violations, including massacres, torture, rape, the abduction of civilians and using child as fighters and sex slaves. The conflict has at times spilled over into the Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Sudan. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni held direct talks last month over the phone with the LRA command for the first time, with the rebels calling it a significant step in confidence building. But Uganda's stop-start peace talks -- aiming to end a conflict that has killed thousands and displaced 1.7 million -- stalled when the LRA delegates walked out. A landmark truce renewed in November gave the rebels until December to assemble in two places in south Sudan. But the rebels said the army attacked them as they tried to reach a meeting point east of the Nile. Chissano, regarded as one of Africa's most influential statesmen, only spoke in broad terms about his mission, saying he sought also to avert further bloodshed in neighbouring countries. "My efforts will be concentrated in trying to avoid the escalation of war and eventually seeking peace in Uganda ... what the people of Uganda want is peace," he said. Chissano said high on his agenda were meetings with senior LRA leaders and Museveni. "I am not going there to dictate solutions ... but to evaluate the situation in the LRA-affected areas," he said. "This ... will then lead to finding the best ways of facilitating the peace process."
| AlertNet news is provided by |  |
