LRA’s Kony refuses to sign final peace agreement
November 30, 2008 (Juba NSV) - The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) of Joseph Kony yesterday reneged on end of November deadline set by mediators as final day for signing of peace between LRA and Uganda.
The LRA have been at war with Uganda for decades. There’s been concern amongst some quarters that Uganda war has been exported to South Sudan, devastating much of Western Equatoria. Riek Machar, the mediator of the talks told Reuters Kony said he would not sign until ICC indictments of its top leadership are deferred.
Machar hopes Kony may still sign on to his brokered talks. "I'm staying and I'm going to try to understand the issue fully," Machar said. "But knowing his behaviour, he is probably now elsewhere ... I don't see new ideas that have come out of his discussions with the elders."
‘Pet project’
Machar’s insistence that Kony signs the peace despite refusing to do so several times continues to draw fire. Writing last month, New Sudan Vision columnist Mariar Wuoi said the mediation has emboldened Kony.
“[Riek] feels he has invested so much in the outcome [peace] that he finds it absolutely necessary to continue the charade. What is even more worrying is that Riek can actually thwart any attempt to pursue military action against the LRA in order to give his pet project a chance to succeed,” he writes.
But the UN envoy for the talks, former Mozambiquan president Joachim Chissano, told reporters at the airport in south Sudan's capital Juba after he returned from Nabanga by helicopter; "We do not expect there will be a signing soon."
