Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Kampala (Agenzia Fides) - Over 200 political figures and other influential members of society are expected to attend the ceremony to be held for the first phase in the signing of a peace accord between the Ugandan government and the guerrillas of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), today, April 10 in Ri-Kwangba, a town in Sudan on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which is one of the meeting points of the LRA soldiers, established in previous agreements. The second phase of the ceremony is scheduled to take place April 15 in Juba, the capital of South Sudan, in the presence of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni. The agreement should be signed by the leader of the guerrilla group, Joseph Kony, who wished that the ceremony take place in Ri-Kwangba for questions of security. Kony, who is wanted by the International Crime Court for war crimes, is afraid that he will be arrested in spite of the assurance of protection he has received from the Ugandan and Sudanese governments. The signing that was previously scheduled for April 3 has been postponed in order to meet Kony’s terms. “The LRA delegation has assured me that Kony is already in Ri-Kwangba and is ready to sign the peace accord,” said Riek Machar, Vice-President of Sudan and leader of South Sudan, who has led the mediation team of northern Uganda, of which the Community of St. Egidio is also a part.
In order to resolve the question of crimes committed by the leaders of the guerrilla group, the Ugandan government has proposed that the LRA leaders be tried by a special section of the High Court of Justice in Kampala.
The ceremony, which will take place in Ri-Kwangba, will also be attended by representatives from the Acholi communities of Europe, Canada, and the United States, as well as local religious leaders, including Catholics. The Acholi are the ethnic group in northern Uganda, of which both guerrilla soldiers and their victims form a part.
The talks today should place an end to the 20-year war in northern Uganda (the longest lasting current African conflict) that has caused over 1.5 million people to flee their homes and has claimed the lives of thousands of civilian victims. (LM) (Agenzia Fides 10/4/2008; righe 29, parole 373)
