NAIROBI, Kenya – The much-anticipated peace agreement between the Ugandan government and the notorious Lord's Resistance Army broke down yesterday after the rebel army's chief negotiator quit and government officials left a remote jungle camp where the deal was to be settled.
Ugandan government officials had seemed tantalizingly close to signing a landmark peace deal with the Lord's Resistance Army meant to end one of Africa's longest, most brutal civil wars.
Tens of thousands of people were slaughtered in the conflict, and thousands of children were kidnapped and turned into sex slaves and killers.
More than 200 officials, diplomats and journalists had been camping out in a jungle clearing on the Sudan-Congo border waiting for Joseph Kony, the rebel movement's fugitive leader who has been indicted on crimes against humanity, to emerge.
But he didn't. On Thursday, Kony indicated through intermediaries that he needed more time – he did not specify how much – to consult elders and contemplate the charges he faces.
By yesterday morning, Kony's lead negotiator, David Nyekorach-Matsanga, had quit, saying Kony had misled him into believing that he was ready to sign the deal, according to people close to the talks. Then the government officials decided to leave the jungle clearing and return to Kampala, Uganda's capital, to plot their next move.
Talks between the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army started in the early 1990s, broke down several times, and resumed in 2006 with what seemed to be reinvigorated commitment from both sides. All throughout, the talks have been plagued by mistrust, threats and sudden crises. Yesterday, the government threatened not to renew a cease-fire that has been in place for more than a year.
Complicating matters is that the International Criminal Court has indicted Kony and three of his top commanders for crimes against humanity based on copious evidence that they terrorized civilians, including ransacking villages, slicing off people's lips and abducting thousands of children.
Kony is thought to travel with a harem of dozens of child brides.
When he began leading the Lord's Resistance Army in the late 1980s, he was hailed as a prophet and a savior for the historically oppressed Acholi people of northern Uganda.
Many Acholi people, including some of Kony's victims, have urged the indictments to be dropped.
Kony, who has been hiding in a thickly forested area on the Sudan-Congo border for several years, has said he will not surrender until the indictments are lifted. The Ugandan government has said it will not push for the indictments to be lifted until Kony surrenders. The plan then is to try Kony in Ugandan courts – that is, if the International Criminal Court lets go of the case.
