AFRICA/UGANDA - Kenya refuses to allow negotiations between Ugandan rebels and Ugandan government to be moved to Nairobi

Kampala (Agenzia Fides)- Kenya has refused a request from the Lord’s Resistance Army to host peace negotiations between the rebel group and the Ugandan government, hitherto held in Juba, Southern Sudan, in Nairobi. Kenya’s foreign minister Raphael Tuju said the government was ready to play a positive role in the negotiations “but saw no reason to doubt the process taking place in Juba”.
After a technical suspension in December last year, negotiations between the LRA and the Ugandan government were to resume in January. However at the beginning of the year the LRA asked for the talks to be moved from Juba to Nairobi, in Kenya (see Fides 12 January 2007).
LRA representatives tried to contact and inform of the developments former Mozambique president Joaquim Chissano charged by the African Union to oversee the talks.
The LRA said its request was motivated by fear after Sudanese president Omar Bashir, said he intended to “eradicate the LRA from Sudan”. On the basis of agreements LRA members who accepted a cease fire are gathered in camps in Sudan and in Democratic Congo. The Ugandan government which intends to continue the talks has said if LRA troops return to Uganda it will be considered a resuming of hostilities.
Kenya said it refused the request because a move might delay and even stop the talks. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 7/2/2007 righe 26 parole 284)