30/08/2006

St. Egidio negotiator reports on Uganda peace accord

"Patient mediation finally led to agreement between the Ugandan government and the Lord�s Resistance Army militia," Fabio Riccardi, a representative of the St. Egidio community's mediation team, reported to the Fides news service.

"The agreement was reached after a series of talks during which the mediator team managed to bring the parties to move to closer positions" Riccardi told Fides, having represented St. Egidio on the team of international mediators.

On August 26 a bilateral agreement for a cessation of hostilities was signed in Juba, capital of southern Sudan, between the Ugandan government and the Lord�s Resistance Army. The treaty came into force on August 29. This result had been awaited for years and until only recently appeared impossible to reach.

"Various factors helped the process," Riccardi said. "First of all the fact that the LRA found itself in difficulty. The Ugandan army is now present in force in northern Uganda and also in southern Sudan-- an area which has always been the LRA rear zone. With the consent of the Sudanese authorities, Kampala deployed 10,000 troops in southern Sudan and this pushed the LRA towards Democratic Congo, where it found itself in a very difficult situation."

"Another factor which contributed to the agreement was the position of the Ugandan government," Riccardi said. "At the beginning the Ugandan government representatives were intransigent; they demanded an unconditional surrender on the part of the LRA. However we mediators managed to convince them to adopt a more flexible position, and the text of the agreement signed on August 26 meets several LRA requests." ?"It must be said that the mediators worked hard to reach this result," Riccardi added. "The autonomous government of southern Sudan, besides supplying logistics, offered to monitor the ceasefire agreement and guarantee protection in areas where LRA militia will assemble."

With regard to the role of the St. Egidio representatives, Riccardi said: "we worked with the rest of the team of mediators going back and forth from the conflicting parties and helping draft the final resolution. We have been committed for at least 7-8 years to finding a way to end the tragic conflict in northern Uganda."

He continued: "We are deeply grateful to the local Catholic Church there for encouraging and backing our efforts. I would mention especially Archbishop John Baptist Odama of Gulu, actively committed to restoring peace and assisting the victims of the fighting." ?Twenty years of conflict in northern Uganda and southern