| UN chief to meet Uganda's rebel leader over peace talks |
The UN humanitarian chief is to meet the second-in-command of Uganda's rebels of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) over the peace talks between the Ugandan government and the rebels, an official said here on Tuesday. Jan Egeland, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, accompanied by the vice president of southern Sudan Riek Machar, is to meet the LRA's deputy Vincent Otti in Nabanga town of southern Sudan. Henry Okello Oryem, Uganda's minister of state for international affairs and member of the government negotiation team in Juba, southern Sudan, said the two officials will travel to Nabanga on Tuesday afternoon to meet Otti. According to Oryem, the two senior officials are going to discuss the peace process with the rebel deputy and hopefully convince him to personally attend the southern
Sudan brokered negotiations in Juba. Otti has on various occasions expressed fear of attending the talks because of the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant, but the Ugandan government has promised the rebel leadership blanket amnesty if the peace talks succeeded. Oryem said because of the importance of the meeting, the peace negotiations have been adjourned to Monday next week. This will be the first time a senior UN official meeting a top LRA commander, who is among those wanted by the ICC for the war crimes committed in northern Uganda. The Hague based ICC issued warrants last October for the elusive LRA's leader Joseph Kony, Otti and three other top commanders, who were responsible for a 20 year rebellion that has left tens of thousands of people dead and over 1.4 million homeless. The peace talks, which started on July 14 and have so far culminated into the signing of a truce agreement, are
seen as a chance to end one of Africa's longest conflicts. Source: Xinhua |
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