Both Ugandan gov't, LRA rebels violate truce: assessment report

An assessment report of the truce found that both the Ugandan government and rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have violated the terms as talks are still continuing in Juba, southern Sudan, to work out a deal to end the two-decade insurgency in northern Uganda.

Ruth Nankabirwa, Uganda's state minister for defense admitted that the government violated the terms of the truce when it organized a trip, escorted by the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF), for the media and a few diplomats in September near to one of the rebel assembly point in southern Sudan.

"By the UPDF escorting the diplomats and journalists, we were violating the agreement because the UPDF is not allowed to come close to the assembly points," said Nankabirwa while releasing the final report on violations investigations on Sunday.

During the ongoing peace talks mediated by the government of southern Sudan, the Ugandan government and the LRA signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement on August 26, which among others required the rebels to assemble at Owiny-ki-Bul and Ri- Kwangba in southern Sudan.

Nankabirwa said the trip was aimed to find out whether the rebels had assembled at the assembly area. "The UPDF was just escorting and did not have bad intentions against the LRA," she said.

Quoting the report, she denied the UPDF deployed heavily and besieged one of the assembly points.

The rebels reportedly appeared and disappeared in the assembly zones, citing alleged siege of the UPDF. They threatened to pull out of the peace talks if the UPDF failed to withdraw its troops.

Nankabirwa noted that the report, however, confirmed that LRA had never assembled at Owiny-ki-Bul which was a violation of the truce.

She further urged the monitoring team to visit Ri-Kwagnba, the other assembly point, to verify reports that the LRA have never assembled there on the west side of River Nile.

"We are not satisfied with the team for not going to Ri-Kwangba to confirm our reports that the LRA have not yet assembled in the area," Nankabirwa said.

The Juba talks, started on July 14, are seen as another chance to end the conflict that has left tens of thousands of people dead and over 1.4 million displaced in northern Uganda after a dozen of such attempts failed in the last few years.

Source: Xinhua