Top UN official to meet Uganda rebels

KAMPALA, Friday 

UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland is willing to meet commanders of the Lord’s Resistance Army to boost efforts aimed at ending one of Africa’s longest wars, the UN said yesterday.

But such a meeting would depend on the LRA releasing sick or wounded civilians still in captivity.

The offer follows reports from the head of the delegation representing the LRA at peace talks that LRA leader Joseph Kony would like to meet Mr Egeland when he visits the talks in the south Sudanese capital, Juba, this weekend.

"Mr Egeland has indicated his willingness to meet with the LRA senior leadership in the event of a ... transfer of wounded or sick civilians into the care of humanitarian agencies," the UN said.

The Ugandan government and rebels this month signed an extension of an August truce that many hope will draw a line under a 20-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands and uprooted nearly two million.

Quit forest hide-outs

But Mr Kony and other senior commanders have refused to quit their forest hideouts on the Sudan/Congo border to join talks themselves, fearing arrest by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The Hague-based ICC wants to try the LRA leadership for war crimes including killing civilians, rape and abducting children to swell their ranks. LRA leaders want Mr Egeland to pressure the ICC to drop the indictments, which it has repeatedly said it must do before the rebels will sign a final peace deal.

The United Nations statement said: "Mr Egeland does not intend to raise the issue of the warrants issued by the International Criminal Court for members of the LRA senior leadership."

He will instead focus on urging the LRA to sign a peace deal and dealing with outstanding humanitarian issues such as the release of captives and the return of those displaced by the war to their homes. Mr Egeland will then make a trip to Khartoum and then to Sudan’s war-torn western Darfur region to meet leaders from the warring parties.