Bigombe briefs Museveni on Kony

Nov 24, 2004

FORMER minister for northern Uganda pacification Betty Bigombe has briefed President Yoweri Museveni on the progress of the talks she is brokering with Joseph Kony’s LRA rebels, following the expiry of the ceasefire yesterday.

By Alfred Wasike

FORMER minister for northern Uganda pacification Betty Bigombe has briefed President Yoweri Museveni on the progress of the talks she is brokering with Joseph Kony’s LRA rebels, following the expiry of the ceasefire yesterday.
Bigombe yesterday said, “We are at a very delicate stage in the talks. But I talked to him (Museveni) today.”
The gazetted areas were the northern part of Patiko and northern Atanga, west of Palabek, east of Atiak up to the Sudan border. The area is about 300sq miles.
She did not say whether Museveni had extended the ceasefire.
“You have to wait for the details from the President,” she said. Bigombe said the response from
the LRA was very good.
“Many are already in the designated areas.
About 85% have assembled in gazetted areas. An announcement will come from Vincent Otti.”
Bigombe met the LRA led by the chief political commissar, Brig. Sam Otto Kolo and Lt. Col. Jacob Opoka at Corner Nwoya, about 25 miles out of Gulu. She hoped the talks would succeed.
“I am confident that we shall make a breakthrough. There will be some setbacks but we shall break through,” she said.
UPDF regional intelligence chief Col. Charles Otema-Awany, said he had not received communication about the extension. The army said it was committed to the ceasefire. The UN on Friday welcomed the peace process. It was hoped it would help end suffering in the region.
“We salute the president’s announcement of a ceasefire in northern Uganda to give a chance to peace efforts led by Betty Bigombe,” UN resident representative Daouda Toure told the launching ceremony.
Terming the new effort “renewed hope for an end to the conflict, Irish ambassador Martin O’Fainin said, “For our part as Uganda’s international friends, we stand ready to play any possible constructive role in underpinning the emerging peace process.” O’Fainin said the war-affected region “presents one of the great humanitarian tragedies of our time.”
The LRA has been fighting government forces in northern Uganda for the past 18 years to replace Museveni’s secular regime with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.

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