Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07KHARTOUM671
2007-04-29 14:29:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

SUDAN/UGANDA/DRC: LRA PEACE TALKS RESUME IN JUBA

Tags:  PREL PGOV MARR KPKO UG CG KE CT MZ ZA TZ SU 
pdf how-to read a cable
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PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0671/01 1191429
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 291429Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7025
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM PRIORITY 0007
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA PRIORITY 0080
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA PRIORITY 0077
RUEHLS/AMEMBASSY LUSAKA PRIORITY 0001
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO PRIORITY 0013
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 2518
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KHARTOUM 000671 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF/SE NATSIOS AND AF/SPG, NSC
FOR PITTMAN AND SHORTLEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR KPKO UG CG KE CT MZ ZA TZ SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN/UGANDA/DRC: LRA PEACE TALKS RESUME IN JUBA

Classified By: CDA R. Powers, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KHARTOUM 000671

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF/SE NATSIOS AND AF/SPG, NSC
FOR PITTMAN AND SHORTLEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR KPKO UG CG KE CT MZ ZA TZ SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN/UGANDA/DRC: LRA PEACE TALKS RESUME IN JUBA

Classified By: CDA R. Powers, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Warning the parties not to squander an
opportunity for peace, Former Mozambique President Joaquim
Chissano formally reopened talks in Juba between the Lord's
Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GOU)
April 26. Chissano and Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS)
GOSS President Salva Kiir lauded increased international
support for the peace process, including the participation of
five new African states. Immediate problems facing the talks
include the assembly of LRA forces at the designated location
on the Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border,
monitoring the renewed Cessation of Hostilities agreement,
finalizing an interim agreement on "root causes" of the
conflict, and*-most critically-*identifying a "justice
mechanism" for Kony and other LRA leaders indicted by the
International Criminal Court (ICC). Underscoring these
problems, there were continued reports of LRA attacks in
southern Sudan. End Summary.


2. (C) Action request in paragraph 14.

--------------
Chissano Tells Parties to Seize
The Opportunity for Peace
--------------


3. (C) Citing Mozambique's experience in negotiating a
lasting peace after a "long, fierce and destructive war,"
Chissano urged the parties to press on to a final agreement.
"Don't let this opportunity go," he urged, for it "will never
return." Both the UN Secretary General and "various African
leaders" with whom he has recently consulted give "full
support for these efforts," Chissano stressed. Chissano is
the Secretary General's special representative for
LRA-affected areas, which currently include northern Uganda,
southern Sudan, northeastern DRC and a small bit of the

Central African Republic (CAR). He has met recently with
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and DRC head Joseph Kabila,
among other regional leaders. (He flew back to Uganda April
27 to consult again with Museveni.)


4. (C) "We in Africa have enough capacity to deal with
conflicts," Chissano vowed, noting that South Africa, Kenya,
Tanzania, Mozambique and DRC have now provided observers to
the talks and contributed two persons each to the small
Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team (CHMT). Peace talks
recessed last December, giving way to mutual recrimination
and an LRA announcement that it had withdrawn from the
process. Chissano broke the logjam and secured a renewal of
the Cessation of Hostilities agreement in a face-to-face
meeting with LRA Chief Joseph Kony at Ri-Kwangba on the
Sudan-DRC border April 13. The parties also agreed that the
LRA would be allowed to move all its forces to Ri-Kwangba,
abandoning sites east of the Nile in southern Sudan and in
northern Uganda.


5. (C) "The difficulties that have kept you away for four
months" have been resolved, Chissano told the parties. Nor
could all remaining issues be fully addressed at the talks,
Chissano said. Matters like the creation of new Ugandan
government structures would require "legislative initiatives"
in Kampala. After months of protracted negotiations and four
draft agreements on "agenda item two" dealing with the "root
causes" of the LRA conflict, the parties should be able to
reach a final agreement on that agenda item within "a matter
of days," Chissano admonished.

--------------
The Problem of Justice
--------------


6. (C) Pausing to read carefully from a prepared text,
Chissano sought the "unreserved commitment of the parties to
develop a well-argued and implemented agreement on how to
achieve justice." It is critical, Chissano said, that the
parties identify a way to deal with the problem of impunity
"in accordance with the norms of international law." The UN
would assist the parties, he said, in developing a "process
of delivering justice that meets international standards."
Four LRA leaders, including Kony and second-in-command
Vincent Otti, are under ICC indictment for crimes against
humanity.

KHARTOUM 00000671 002 OF 003




7. (C) Prior to the reopening of the talks, the parties had
reportedly agreed in principle on the concept of alternative
justice, incorporating traditional Ugandan justice mechanisms
and other elements. Under this arrangement the indictees
would not be turned over to the ICC, but it is not clear
whether the ICC would drop the indictments. By one account,
Kony and Otti have reportedly agreed to at least a brief
period of incarceration in Uganda. According to the British
High Commissioner to Uganda, an LRA negotiator told the
Kampala-based diplomats before the talks reopened that the
LRA required "a framework in place to address the ICC issue"
before a final agreement was reached. In any case, the LRA
negotiator said, the signatures of the ICC indictees would be
essential to any peace agreement. UN and GOSS mediators have
quietly reached out to several legal experts for advice on
these issues, and at least one lawyer has consulted closely
with Kony, Otti and other indictees. The LRA have also added
a legal expert to their negotiating team.

--------------
GOSS Not Ready for "Open-Ended" Talks
--------------


8. (C) GOSS President Salva Kiir also struck some stern notes
at the opening of the talks. "The stability of Uganda and
that of southern Sudan are inseparable," Kiir said. He is
"gravely concerned that the war zone has shifted" to southern
Sudan. "Many atrocities have been committed against our
people," Kiir said. These acts discredited GOSS before "the
citizens of eastern and western Equatoria." The GOSS is not
prepared for "open-ended peace negotiations," he said, and
"knows what it will do" if talks fail. "I beg you" to
negotiate in good faith, Kiir concluded.

--------------
LRA and GOU Respond
--------------


9. (C) GOU chief negotiator Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda's
Minister of the Interior, told poloff privately that his
delegation is unwilling for talks to continue for "weeks and
weeks." In brief remarks at the opening session, Rugunda
said the Ugandan government is committed to the peace
process. However, he stressed, the negotiators were charged
with reaching peace, not rewriting the Ugandan constitution
or drafting a history of the conflict.


10. (C) In his opening remarks, Martin Ojul, head of the LRA
delegation, demanded that the other parties "formally submit
a pledge in writing" that they would honor the agreements
reached between Chissano and LRA Chief Kony at their most
recent meeting in the bush. Nor would there have been a
four-month delay, Ojul said, if the mediators had listened to
the LRA and not treated the LRA delegation as
"inconsequential." GOSS Vice President Riek Machar, chief
mediator at the talks, glared visibly at Ojul, who went on to
request "direct material assistance and support" from the
international community. Nevertheless, Ojul said, the LRA
recognized that the peace process is the "only way" to
resolve the conflict.


11. (C) In a meeting in Juba with a group of Kampala-based
diplomats prior to the opening of the talks, LRA
representatives also asked that their organization be removed
from lists of terrorist organizations. This, they explained,
hampers their efforts to get financial support. They also
complained that the revised allowances for their
representatives at the talks (lodging plus USD 70 per day,
and an additional USD 50 for satellite and cell phone air
time) are too low, and requested a USD 300 daily stipend.

--------------
Large International Presence
--------------


12. (C) A large contingent of Kampala and Juba-based
diplomats, including a representative of ConGen Juba,
attended the opening session. There, Chissano also
introduced representatives of four of the five new African
observers to the talks (the DRC representative had been
expected but did not appear). Chissano said the five new
African observers represent the AU, and will also contribute

KHARTOUM 00000671 003 OF 003


two military officers each to the CHMT. According to GOSS VP
Machar, Zambia will also contribute one military monitor.
Half the monitors will reside in Juba, Machar said, and the
other half at the Ri-Kwangba assembly point. About 16 donor
countries were now contributing to the process, Machar said.
Nevertheless, he argued, more support is required,
particularly for the CHMT. (Note: Machar and Maj. Gen.
Wilson Deng, the senior Sudan People's Liberation Army with
responsibility for the peace process, have approached us
repeatedly seeking help for the monitoring teams. End Note.)

--------------
LRA Reportedly Kill Two
--------------


13. (C) At approximately the same time the opening session of
the peace talks drew to a close, a presumed LRA unit
reportedly killed two civilians, and seriously injured a
third, at Kimoro Village in Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria
State. The attack was the latest in a series of small
attacks in the area. SPLA Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Oyai Deng
told ConGen April 27 that the SPLA is conducting anti-LRA
operations in the Magwi area. For their part, LRA
representatives at the peace talks told European diplomats
they had received "sensitive information" that the Uganda
People's Defense Forces (UPDF) plan to "wipe out" LRA forces
in Eastern Equatoria. The UPDF are still attacking and
killing LRA forces in southern Sudan, the representative
claimed. According to several sources at the peace talks,
the parties have agreed in principle that there will be
designated routes for LRA groups east of the Nile to cross to
the west and gather at the Ri-Kwangba assembly point. The
SPLA Chief of Staff, however, told us that these routes have
not yet been agreed and that he has seen no evidence yet that
the LRA are actually moving to assemble.

--------------
Action Request
--------------


14. (C) It is encouraging that the peace talks have resumed
in Juba. Our sense is that Chissano has re-energized the
process, while signaling at the same time that it cannot go
on forever. It remains to be seen whether the LRA are
serious about peace or merely buying time. One way to find
out is to field effective "Cessation of Hostilities
Monitoring Teams" of African military observers. GOSS has
sought support for these teams. We seek the Department's
guidance on how to respond to these requests. We recommend
positive consideration of a modest material contribution to
the monitoring teams, perhaps in the form of 4-6 vehicles,
through existing U.S. security assistance or peace-building
programs.
POWERS