Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) said Monday they want an independent UN mediator and chief mediator to be appointed to help shore up the peace talks, saying the current mediators are an obstacle to realization of peace in northern Uganda.
Addressing a news conference in Nairobi, LRA leader of delegation of peace talks David Nyekorach Matsanga said elusive LRA leader Joseph Kony also wants a new venue preferably South Africa and Tanzania to host talks.
"LRA wants a new mediator on the level of UN envoy to directly look at the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) that was mediated by Dr. Riek Machar and Government of South Sudan. The LRA are ready to re-engage the Ugandan government but not under the mediation of Machar because Gen. Kony said Dr. Machar has lost moral credibility to mediate in the conflict," Matsanga told journalists in Nairobi.
He said the LRA movement wants the peace process to continue on a neutral ground and not in southern Sudan capital of Juba, saying south Sudan took part in the recent military operation carried outby the Ugandan government.
"The GOSS (government of southern Sudan) and SPLA (Sudan People' s Liberation Army) have now shown that they are not neutral in this conflict. They have taken part in destroying the same FPA that Dr. Riek Machar mediated. Kony instructed me to communicate to the world that Machar and south Sudan are enemies of LRA," Matsanga said.
The five-day military offensive began with an attack by helicopter gunships and an aerial bombardment of the LRA camps, and special forces have since moved into the remote jungle areas to "mop up" the insurgents.
Matsanga said Tanzania's relative political stability and democratic values augur well with peace talks while South Africa has the will to enforce the agreement.
He said the LRA movement wants the current military operation jointly undertaken by Uganda, southern Sudan and DRC to be stopped to pave way for the realization of peace in the northern Uganda.
"The LRA wants the current military operation to be halted so as to give chance to renewed efforts in sorting out the modalities of the status of the signature of the FPA," said Matsanga.
"The issue of ICC will take a center stage in any renewed contact and in a new venue but not Juba," he said, noting that Kony has lost faith in Rig-Kwangba, an assembly area where Machar has asked LRA combatants to assemble.
Kony's soldiers have waged a two-decade war against Uganda's government that has spilled over into south Sudan and the DRC in one of Africa's longest wars.
Matsanga said Kony has said he will never in his life made contacts with Machar or speak to him as he is regarded as "the biggest betrayal and an enemy to the combatants of LRA whom he is calling to assembly in Ri-Kwangba."
He said the recent military bombing on LRA bases did not affect the rebel capacity as the government only bombarded empty bases with only six children dead.
"LRA will find their own passage route. They don't need Dr. Machar's instructions on how to assemble because he has not come out with any good proposal of ceasefire before assembly," said Matsanga.
Juba, Kinshasa and Kampala agreed to launch Sunday's attack against the LRA rebels who have been holed up in northeastern Congo since 2005. In June, the three countries said they would jointly combat the insurgents.
Nearly 2 million people were displaced and tens of thousands killed during the civil war. Kony's fighters were notorious for hacking off limbs and using children to fight.
Source: Xinhua
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