Kitgum Anglican Bishop Benjamin Ojwang has asked the LRA delegation to the Juba peace talks to come and tour IDP camps in northern Uganda. The visit would help them seek the views of the internally displaced people on the peace talks, he said on Friday. Noting that most of the LRA negotiators were Acholi from the Diaspora, Bishop Ojwang said: "They are putting their own demands; not those of the IDPs who are suffering. They have never been here. They should come and get the views of the people." Read more at The Monitor.

Representatives of the Uganda government and LRA will meet this week with the UN Secretary General's special envoy to northern Uganda, Joaquim Chissano, in a bid to restart the Juba peace talks. The meetings come in the wake of Khartoum's decision to pull out of an agreement to co-operate with the International Criminal Court (ICC). Although it is widely believed that Sudan's earlier decision to cooperate with the ICC helped force the LRA leaders to the negotiating table, officials on all sides say Khartoum's decision will not derail the peace talks. However, the ICC indictments hanging over the rebel leaders continues to cast a shadow over the Juba peace talks. This issue will likely be discussed at the meetings, along with the presence of the Ugandan army in South Sudan, the venue of the negotiations and financial considerations. Read more at The East African.

Te chief Government negotiator Dr. Rugunda announced in a press briefing on Friday that the stalled peace talks would tentatively resume on April 13. Read more at The New Vision.

Joaquim Chissano, the UN special envoy to the LRA-affected areas, briefed the UN Security Council yesterday about his efforts to restart the peace talks between the LRA and Ugandan government. Chissano discussed the meetings he has held in the DR Congo and southern Sudan with the LRA leadership, Ugandan government, and other regional actors in the past several weeks to address the reasons that prompted the LRA to withdraw from the talks in January. He said that the parties have scheduled a preliminary meeting to the resumption of the talks in Juba to be held in the second week of April. Chissano expressed optimism that the talks can be successfully restarted, and said that LRA leader Joseph Kony “convinced me that he is sincere when he says that he is committed to peace and doesn’t want to go back to war.” Watch a webcast of Chissano’s comments to the media after his briefing to the Security Council.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir this week urged the LRA and Ugandan government to accelerate their progress in negotiating a settlement at the Juba peace talks. Ruhakana Rugunda, the head of the Ugandan government’s delegation to the talks, said that al-Bashir also urged a timeframe be set for the negotiations to assess their development. Rugunda said, "President Bashir put it in a positive way that he would like to see faster progress being made in the talks so that the conflict in northern Uganda can come to an end formally." Read more at the Sudan Tribune.

The Ugandan government said on Wednesday that it expects peace talks to restart within weeks and remains optimistic for progress on a deal to end two decades of war. "We are consulting over the actual timing," the chief government negotiator, Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said. "We expect that the next round of talks will also ensure that the (truce)...will be strictly adhered to...make further progress and conclude the peace agreement," Rugunda said. The chief mediator Riek Machar also said on Wednesday that the two parties had agreed to resume talks by April 13. Read more at Reuters.

The LRA has requested that Gen. Salim Saleh, brother to Ugandan President Museveni, join the Ugandan government’s delegation to the Juba peace talks. In a statement released yesterday, LRA leader Joseph Kony says, "The LRA High Command and the peace delegation strongly suggest involvement in the government delegation of people with information and the capacity to comprehend, not only the political but also the military and security dynamics of the conflict. In particular, we strongly feel that the involvement of Gen. Salim Saleh would provide this critical mass." Gen. Saleh has been involved in several initiatives to make peace with the LRA, including the Presidential Peace Team created in 2003. Read more at The Monitor.

Reacting to yesterday’s decision by the Sudanese government to suspend cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC), LRA commander Vincent Otti reaffirmed the LRA’s opposition to the execution of the ICC’s arrest warrants for top LRA leaders. "Sudan has nothing to do with our indictments by the ICC. Our indictments are between the government of Uganda and the ICC. We are ready for anything. We are not concerned about Sudan and its withdrawal. We are always ready for anyone who shall come to execute the ICC warrants. We shall protect ourselves against anyone who comes and we shall respond accordingly." Read more at The Monitor.

A suspected LRA attack in the Eastern Equatoria region of southern Sudan yesterday killed one person and displaced over 1500 people. The attack comes just days after both the LRA and Ugandan government delegations to the Juba peace talks expressed hope that the negotiations would resume within the next few weeks.

However, the LRA is only one of many armed groups in southern Sudan and has been inaccurately blamed for attacks on civilians several times within the past few months. Until peace talks resume, the cessation of hostilities is renewed and effective monitoring mechanisms are put in place such attacks, no matter who is responsible, will continue to sow discord and mistrust among the LRA, Ugandan government and southern Sudanese. Read more at the Sudan Tribune.

In an interview with Voice of America, the LRA delegation's Godfrey Ayo said that there will be no resumption of peace talks until the conditions they put before a meeting convened by the UN Special Envoy to Northern Uganda Joachim Chissano, have been met. Ayo said that there are outstanding issues, "very grave malfunctions that we need addressed by the UN Special Envoy for Northern Uganda." Ayo said the LRA team is ready to resume talks in Juba, though "there are certain specific conditions that we want fulfilled." He said the LRA delegation to the peace talks would send a verification team to Juba to ascertain whether the conditions they set have been met. Ayo did not specify these conditions in the interview. A meeting to set the agenda for the resumption of the Juba peace talks is scheduled for later this week.

Gulu resident district commissioner Col. Walter Ochora has said there is need for a time limit for the peace talks to discourage the Government and the LRA from delaying the talks. "Everything should have a beginning and an end. These peace talks should have a time limit. They should not to be left open like that." Read more at The New Vision.

A meeting to set the agenda for the resumption of the Juba peace talks is scheduled for next week. The Government team leader, Dr. Rugunda, said: "President Chissano is coordinating affairs to resume the talks. We are going to hold a preliminary meeting soon to work out how we can resume the talks." The UN special envoy on the LRA conflict, Joaquim Chissano, has requested for two military observers from each of the countries which will be involved in restarting the talks. DR Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania were also asked to provide a senior official each to join the permanent observer team. Meanwhile, a Cessation of Hostilities monitoring team is being set up under the African Union to oversee the assembling of the LRA fighters. Read more at The New Vision.

LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti have reconciled with key Acholi leaders whom they earlier accused of criticizing them unfairly. At last Sunday's meeting, Kony and Otti accused some of the Acholi leaders of being uncooperative. Sources who attended the meeting said that the rebel leaders pointed fingers at Gulu Resident District Commissioner, Walter Ochora, area LC5 chairman Norbert Mao and leader of the opposition in Parliament Ogenga Latigo. But now on the intervention of Acholi paramount chief David Acana, the exchanges have ceased and the two sides decided to "bury the hatchet" for the sake of peace in their region. Read more at The Monitor.

To restart stalled peace talks, the Ugandan government has agreed to the LRA request to bring in new mediators from five other African countries, Internal Affairs minister Dr. Rugunda said today. After meeting LRA leader Joseph Kony on Sunday, Rugunda said mediators would be called from Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique and the DR Congo. The LRA delegation walked out of the talks in early January, demanding a change of venue and mediator. However, Rugunda said these issues had now been solved. Read more at The New Vision.

Negotiators for the Lord's Resistance Army have agreed to return to Juba for peace talks after staying away for months, the government's lead negotiator announced today. Internal Affairs Minister Dr. Rugunda told reporters that the Uganda peace delegation and the LRA negotiators had "agreed to resume peace talks." However, Rugunda said a date is yet to be set for when the talks would resume, adding that a time frame of two weeks had been "suggested" within which the two parties would meet to agree on the date. Read more at The Monitor.

Internal Affairs minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda met LRA commanders Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti on Sunday in the first-ever direct talks between the top LRA leadership and the Government. "Given the circumstances, it was a good meeting," Rugunda said. "It brought the main stakeholders together. Both parties expressed readiness and willingness to resume the peace talks...Definitely, we are optimistic." In addition, South Sudan's President announced yesterday that the LRA could stay in South Sudan as long as they were willing to make peace. Read more at The New Vision.

LRA leader Joseph Kony has set 18 conditions that the Ugandan government must meet before the rebels resume peace talks. The conditions include; an increment of allowances for their negotiating team, deployment of 1,000 peacekeeping troops in South Sudan, guarantee of security of their delegation and the participation of the Khartoum government in the talks. Other conditions include demands for a change of mediator, withdrawal of UDPF troops in South Sudan and a safe corridor for LRA troops to cross to east of the Nile. The conditions were set over the weekend at a meeting between the LRA High Command, the UN special envoy to Northern Uganda Joachim Chissano, and various government officials. Read more at The Monitor.

A team of peace negotiators and political officials, including Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, met Joseph Kony and the LRA High Command for the first time yesterday in DR Congo. The meeting, which is expected to last three days, was convened by UN Special Envoy for Northern Uganda Joachim Chissano at the request of Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti. The visiting team includes Acholi religious and political leaders, and members of the LRA negotiating team. The agenda of the meeting, which is believed to be about finding ways to resume stalled peace talks, has remained confidential. Read more at The Monitor.

The Monitor reports that UN special envoy to Northern Uganda Joachim Chissano and South Sudan Vice-President Riek Machar tomorrow will travel to the DR Congo to meet LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony. "The meeting is very important for ending of the suffering of the people in Northern Uganda," Chissano said yesterday.

New Vision columnist Opiyo Oloya today shares his analysis of the Acholi Peace Conference held over the last few days in Juba; an attempt to restart peace talks between the LRA and Ugandan government. He writes, "The events that happened in Juba in the last three days can only be described as extraordinary, even historic, as described by Machar. For one, this was the first time a group of Acholi from northern Uganda and Acholi from Southern Sudan sat down together to consider a common issue facing them...The assembly itself was extraordinary in that delegates from a cross section of Acholi communities in the Diaspora, displaced people’s camps, villages, towns and cities throughout Uganda..." Oloya concludes, "We had also defied the notion that only the two parties in the peace talks could speak on the issue of peace in northern Uganda. In fact, we collectively threw down the gauntlet to the Government of Uganda and the LRA, daring them to ignore the voice of the Acholi people." Read the full column at The New Vision.

The chief mediator Dr. Riek Machar, told Acholi leaders meeting in Juba over the weekend that more countries have been invited to join mediation between the Ugandan government and LRA rebels. "We have invited eight military observers from the African Union to back the cessation of hostilities team here in Juba," Machar told the conference on Sunday night. "We have agreed that five countries be allowed on the mediation team as observers. President Chissano is now in Kampala discussing the same issue with President Museveni." The Juba conference, chaired by Acholi Paramount Chief Rwot David Acana recommended that both parties return to peace talks in Juba, with a strengthened Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team, more participation for civil society, and new involvement of the UN, African Union, Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) and the East African Community. Read more at The Monitor.

The Ugandan Amnesty Commission has proposed that two more mediators join the South Sudanese Vice-President, Dr. Riek Machar, to guide the stalled Juba peace talks. The commission's chairman, Justice Peter Onega, on Friday said for any mediation to be successful, the mediator must be accepted by both parties. Onega noted that whereas Machar is mediating from a well informed position, the LRA leaders no longer fully trust him. Read more at The New Vision.

Following a weekend meeting between former Mozambique president Joachim Chissano, UN envoy to northern Uganda, and LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony, Dr. Riek Machar was quoted in The Monitor as saying that he expected the LRA delegation to return to peace talks in Juba sometime this week. However, this statement was quickly refuted by LRA leadership, which issued its own statement in the Sudan Tribune claiming that "no concrete decision was reached to resume the talks in Juba."

Over the weekend, Mr. Chissano reportedly met with Kony at an undisclosed location near the Sudan-DRC border and discussed issues related to the breakdown of the Juba peace process. While neither Mr. Chissano or LRA leadership would comment on the specifics of what was discussed, Vincent Otti, LRA second in command, said, "We had a good discussion." The Monitor quoted reliable sources as saying that Kony eventually agreed to convince his delegates to return to the negotiating table.

Shortly following this, the LRA delegation issued a four point statement in the Sudan Tribune reiterating its position that there should be both a new venue and new mediation for the stalled peace talks. According to the statement, "The only issue discussed at the meeting concerned the reasons why the LRA/M Delegation suspended their participation in the peace talks in Juba and the way forward. It was then agreed that the UN Special Envoy would in the near future convene a meeting of all the stakeholders to resolve the impasse."

Mr. Chissano is expected to brief the government delegation of weekend progress in Kampala today before returning to Mozambique, though it remains uncertain what the next steps will be beyond that. He did however get Sudanese president Omar Hassan al-Bashir to clarify his position on LRA presence in Sudan. Bashir threatened to expel all LRA rebels from Sudan last January, but according to Chissano, is willing to let them remain in Sudan as long as they are participating in peace talks. Read more at The Sudan Tribune.

The conference of Acholi leaders in Juba, organized by Acholi Paramount Chief David Acana to salvage stalled peace talks, continued today. The conference includes northern Ugandan traditional, political, and religious leaders as well as members of the Ugandan diaspora. No news has been published yet regarding what progress has been made during the conference, or the specific topics of discussion amongst participants. Though the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement between the rebel group and Ugandan government was not renewed at the end of its term last week, there is hope amongst northern leaders and displaced people that negotiations can continue and a settlement still be found.

A day before the ceasefire agreement between the Government and LRA was due to lapse with no sign of an extension, observers fear northern Uganda could again plunge into violence. "The international community must insist that both parties take urgent and extraordinary measures to ensure a peaceful resolution," Save the Children said in a statement on Wednesday. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Gulu, John-Baptist Odama, expressed optimism that the government and the rebels would consider the suffering of the people in the region and extend the truce and resume peace talks. He appealed to the United Nations Secretary-General's special envoy for northern Uganda, Joachim Chissano, to take up the issue of the lapsing ceasefire. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.