President Yoweri Museveni will meet LRA’s chief negotiator Martin Ojul. Representatives from Southern Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique and South Africa will also be present.
The first in over 20 years this unprecedented meeting in itself signals peace especially to the people of northern Uganda who have been scarred for generations because of the bloody insurgency that has led to the displacement of an estimated two million people and death of thousands others. The rebellion also birthed a uniquely northern Uganda phenomenon - night commuters - composed mostly of young children fleeing to urban areas and safer havens from possible abduction every evening.
Although peace talks have been going on in Southern Sudan (Juba) since 2006 when the Uganda government and LRA signed a truce, finding peace has been a challenge because of factors such as mistrust, lack of commitment to peace talk, stalled peace talks and the slapping of an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for LRA’s chief leader Joseph Kony for crimes against humanity. Kony is said to be in Congo.
Earlier this year the LRA, through their spokesperson Martin Ojul, announced the withdrawal of his movement from the Juba talks seeking a neutral third country sighting interference.
The people of northern Uganda are weary of war and rebellion. They are tired of death, mistrust and destruction. They are tired of living in camps and being treated like ‘the others’. They want to rebuild their lives, peacefully.
I hope this meeting will be the turning point and that peace will come, finally, to the Pearl of Africa.
Romosh
