The Monitor confirms our warning of planned Government military action against the LRA

In our last posting we warned that the LRA and Uganda Government troops were poised for a military showdown in the light of the fledgling Juba peace talks. Today's report in a Ugandan newspaper proves our point RODNEY MUHUMUZA writing in the Daily Monitor under the heading Museveni asks US to back plan B against LRA states:

President Yoweri Museveni has said Uganda will expect
Washington's support to hunt down the LRA's top leadership if
the Juba peace talks do not yield a comprehensive peace
agreement.

At yesterday's State House meeting with Mr John Edwards, the
North Carolina Senator, who was candidate John Kerry's running
mate in the 2004 US presidential race, Mr Museveni hinted that
with the peace talks mired in a circus of generic proposals
between the parties, Plan B may already be in motion.

The Juba peace talks, Museveni said, are only about improving
Joseph Kony's life expectancy and not fixing an insurgency
that has dragged on for nearly two decades.

"The President said that the government of Uganda is
absolutely committed to the Juba talks, but if the LRA does
not show seriousness, then the United States should back
Uganda at the United Nations to hunt for the LRA," a statement
from State House said, adding that "Britain and Uganda will be
co-sponsoring" a resolution to hunt down the LRA's leadership.


Edwards, the statement said, promised to lobby for the passing
of the resolution that would allow for the pursuit,
disarmament and demobilisation of the LRA.

As we here at Juba Talks blogspot warned, the indications are clearly that a miltary showdown is increasingly becoming the next step.This will be very unfortunate and is very much a result, in our view, of the inability of the LRA delegation and the religious, elected and cultural leaders not effectively pushing for the ICC warrants of arrest on Kony, Otii and others to at least be suspended. If this was done, the LRA miltary leadership would have had no other excuse to engage directly in the talks. Secondly, some of the constitutional issues that the LRA delegation have raised, such as creation of a federal system and of two parallel armies are matters that would require a national diologue with a cross representation of the Uganda people. This is a national discussion that could be had after paece has been attained. At this point, the LRA delegation should be pushing for a commitment from the Government that such a national dialogue will be instituted, for example, within a year of the peace agreement being signed. We therefore pray that the LRA delegation do not paly into the hands of Museveni by taking intransigent positions and giving him the excuse to unleash his army. The collateral damage will be the people of Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan.