Ugandan parliament invites rebel group to debate new bill

The Ugandan parliament has invited the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels to submit their views on the Equal Opportunities Bill 2005, state-owned New Vision daily reported on Friday.

Legislator Jalia Bintu, chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Equal Opportunities, said they agreed to let the LRA rebels submit views on the bill to the Committee for scrutiny on the ground that they had expressed interest.

The bill seeks to put in place an Equal Opportunities Commission which will address imbalances and reduce discrimination in relation to gender, age, ethnicity and disabilities.

At the ongoing peace negotiations between the government and the LRA, the rebels said that discrimination and ethnicity were some of the factors that forced them to go to bush.

Bintu said during peace talks, the LRA demanded that the Equal Opportunities Bill be enacted into law because it seeks to address some of the issues that took them to the bush.

"The LRA had earlier raised the issues of putting in place the Equal Opportunities Commission. They had given a deadline of three months for the commission to be in place," Bintu said.

Meanwhile, the LRA has finally put a figure to its current strength and said it has over 10,000 fighters spread in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and southern Sudan, Daily Monitor reported on Friday.

Godfrey Ayo, LRA spokesman at the ongoing peace talks said at least 1,379 fighters were scattered in areas around Owiny-ki-Bul, a remote village in south Sudan, while 10,000 are holed up in the DRC forest of Garamba.

"We have ascertained the strength of our forces currently. We have 1,379 soldiers who have been in Owiny-ki-Bul and 10,000 with the LRA leadership in Ri-Kwangba at the DRC-Sudan border," Ayo said.

The government has said that it would not "engage" in " speculation" about the LRA strength and insisted that the rebels should simply respect the August 26 truce agreement and assemble at the agreed upon points in southern Sudan. The government in the past has put the rebel strength between 400-500 fighters.

Source: Xinhua