Uganda Government News: No more peace talks for LRA

The LRA insists the indictments by the International Criminal Court against its top leaders should be dropped before they sign the agreement, while the government of Uganda insists that the LRA must first sign the peace agreement before Uganda can engage the ICC to drop the arrest warrants issued against top LRA leaders.

March 29, 2009 report from Ultimate Media
Uganda Government News: No more peace talks for LRA

The government of Uganda will not consider fresh peace talks with the Lords Resistance Army rebels.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sam Kuteesa says the government of Uganda has done all it can to ensure it signs a peace accord with the LRA rebels but the rebels have failed.

The minister was briefing the ambassadors on successes and challenges of the operation Lightening Thunder to capture or kill Joseph Kony and other LRA leaders that the government embarked on the Garamba forest of DRC on December 14th.

He says although the government did not manage to capture or force LRA leader Kony to sign the comprehensive peace agreement, the Ugandan People’s Defense Forces was able to effectively disable the LRA military and troop capabilities.

Kutesa says operations against the LRA are still continuing, although a large part of the Uganda army came back from the DRC.

He says the government is not considering any other peace talks with the LRA because the peace talks were successfully completed in Juba, a comprehensive agreement arrived at but the LRA leader failed to sign the peace agreement.

The LRA insists the indictments by the International Criminal Court against its top leaders should be dropped before they sign the agreement, while the government of Uganda insists that the LRA must first sign the peace agreement before Uganda can engage the ICC to drop the arrest warrants issued against top LRA leaders.

ICC: Trial of two DR Congo militia leaders, Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolom, to open Sept 24

Note that the FPRI was a militia formed towards the end of 2002, with backing from Uganda, according to the ICC charge sheet. Ituri is a mineral-rich district of DR Congo that borders Uganda and Sudan.

Trial of two DR Congo militia leaders to open Sept 24: ICC
Friday, 28 March 2009 report by AFP:

THE HAGUE — The trial of Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo, two former militia leaders from the Democratic Republic of Congo, will begin on September 24, the International Criminal Court announced Friday.

Both men are charged with having committed war crimes, including using child soldiers and attacking civilians, and crimes against humanity, including murder rape and sexual slavery.

Katanga, 30, also known as "Simba," or lion, is accused of having led the Patriotic Resistance Front in Ituri (FRPI), which operated in the east of the country.

The FPRI was a militia formed towards the end of 2002, with backing from Uganda, according to the ICC charge sheet.

Its members, who belonged to the Lendu and Ngiti ethnic groups, are suspected of having carried out massacres against the Hema ethnic group.

Ngudjolo, 37, is accused of having been the leader of the Nationalist Integrationist Front (FNI), which operated in the same district. The FNI was made up of Lendu fighters.

The charges against both men arise out of a joint attack on the village of Bororo, in Ituri on February 24, 2003, by the two groups they are alleged to have led.

A pre-trial chamber of the court decided earlier this month to join the two cases.

Ituri is a mineral-rich district of DR Congo that borders Uganda and Sudan with a population of between 3.5 and 5.5 million people made up of 18 different ethnic groups.

Britain appeals to Uganda to intervene in Zimbabwe crisis & help in Darfur Sudan

From Africa Press Agency (APA-Kampala, Uganda 11 March 2009:
Britain appeals to Uganda to intervene in Zimbabwe crisis

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has appealed to visiting Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni to intervene in the Zimbabwe situation to provide a road map to the restoration of democracy.

Museveni is the current chairman for the Commonwealth, a 53-member organization of countries formerly colonized by Britain.

According to a press release from State House on Tuesday, Museveni told his host that there was need to give time to the coalition government in Harare to restore full democracy.

Museveni was optimistic that the coalition government in Zimbabwe will help to address the economic problems of that country.

Gordon [Brown] also wanted President Museveni to help in Darfur and to ensure that the Sudanese government implements the comprehensive peace agreement signed between Sudan and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army which the Khartoum government has not implemented fully.

Meanwhile, Museveni has condemned the recent attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan.

In a meeting with Commonwealth secretary general Kamalesh Sharma in London on Tuesday, Museveni strongly condemned the attack during which the players’ bus was sprinkled with bullets on the way to the pitch.

He said that the Commonwealth should condemn all terrorist acts against innocent people. JM/pm/APA