The New Vision is reporting that LRA rebels have attacked the Congolese town of Duru near the border of Sudan, causing thousands of people to flee. According to the Missionary International Service News Agency (MINSA), a group of rebels reportedly attacked the town, a few dozen kilometers from the southern Sudan border, looting the local Comboni mission, hospital and the house of the sisters and briefly holding hostage an Italian priest. Father Fermo Bernasconi said the attack was unprecedented. Since the Ugandan rebels arrived in Congolese territory about two years ago and settled in Garamba National Park, no actions against the civil population were reported. However, local sources told MISNA that the UN peacekeepers in Congo have stepped up pressure on the rebels. The Ugandan army said it has no knowledge of the events.

Criminal activity continues to pose a threat to security in the war-ravaged northern Uganda, a November UN update reports. "As in previous months, criminal activities continued to pose the gravest threat to individual security in northern Uganda. Several incidents involving armed robbers were recorded during the month," the UN report says. However, the report says that the security situation regarding the LRA rebels remains calm. In Karamoja though, hostilities have persisted as the Ugandan army continues its forced disarmament campaign. The UN recorded 20 cattle raids by Karamajong fighters during November as well as eleven deaths and two abductions. Read more at The Monitor.

The Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) in northern Uganda were reportedly on high alert on Christmas yesterday as the war-affected region celebrated Christmas. "We have increased our border and security alertness in northern Uganda during this festive season in case of any unforeseen circumstances," regional army spokesman Lt. Kakurungu said yesterday. These deployments follow recent intelligence reports that the LRA rebels were planning to cause havoc in the war-affected region. Gulu RDC Walter Ochora told the media last week in Gulu that LRA leader Joseph Kony was planning to wage a fresh military offensive. However, Ochora's sources and claims have not been confirmed. Read more at The Monitor.

Reported plans between the defense ministers of Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to attack LRA rebels in Garamba Park is generating controversy among war survivors in northern Uganda. Survivors fear that a hasty attack could undermine the progress of peace talks and cause more violence. Yet in an interview with Voice of America, Ugandan army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye says the rebels have nothing to fear if they really want a lasting peace in northern Uganda. Kulayigye said that the Congolese government is committed to getting rid of negative forces operating on their soil. "And indeed Congo promised that by the 31st of January, if the LRA is still in Congo, then they would take action against them," he said. He denied the plans between both governments would undermine the adjourned peace talks.

The UN humanitarian report for November says that while the general security situation has remained calm, there are very uneven patterns of return by internally displaced people. In the districts of Lira and Oyam, eight IDP camps are currently being closed and fewer than 1% of people remain in camps. However, in Acholi, only 4% of IDPs have returned to their homes. Most of these say that they will not return home until a final peace agreement is signed, guaranteeing their safe return. This demonstrates that peace in northern Uganda remains far more elusive than suggested by some media stories. Moreover, for both IDPs and returnees, a series of security concerns remain, including poor access to education and medical facilities, rampant gender-based violence, lacking police presence, and increasing levels of crime.

In a recent statement, President Museveni has questioned LRA leader Joseph Kony's commitment to peace talks and criticized him for killing his deputy, Vincent Otti. BBC News is reporting that a new diplomatic briefing has confirmed Otti's death. Museveni has also threatened military action against the rebels if they do not agree to a peace deal by the end of January. In an interview with Voice of America, Manasseh Wepundi, senior analyst with the Africa Policy Institute, said that recent discussions with neighboring countries on a coordinated response to armed groups operating in the Great Lakes region may have impacted Museveni's thinking. "The regional environment is changing very drastically in favor of President Museveni. That is a boost to his confidence about a military solution to the entire conflict," Wepundi said. Yet, many in northern Uganda say that "military solutions" over two decades have only intensified fighting and led to more displacement. Given all the progress of the Juba peace process, why revert to military rhetoric and rigid ultimatums? There is indisputably a role for benchmarks to move the negotiations along, but inflexible timelines risk derailing the whole process and plunging northern Uganda back into war.

President Museveni offered cautious and conditional support for the Juba peace talks while speaking to northern Ugandan leaders at a peace and reconciliation conference in Gulu yesterday. He said that even though northern leaders had convinced him to engage in the peace talks, they should “not use the word ‘irreversible’ to describe the peace talks” and warned that Kony would face military operations if he chose to renew fighting. His comments came after we reported earlier today that he had reiterated a January 31 deadline for Kony to sign a peace agreement. Read more at The New Vision.

Speaking at the same conference this week, Acholi traditional leader Rwot Acana II said that Kony had called him last Saturday to express his commitment to the peace talks. He also urged President Museveni to establish a truth and reconciliation commission.

The Ugandan government revealed this week that 700 police officers are awaiting deployment to Uganda’s northeastern region of Karamoja. As recently as August 2006 only 137 police officers were stationed in Karamoja to cover the vast region and protect its one million inhabitants. In September Human Rights Watch called for the police force in Karamoja to be bolstered in an effort to address chronic insecurity and human rights abuses caused by rampant armed cattle raiding and the Ugandan military’s excessive forcible disarmament program in the region. Read more at The Monitor.

Highlighting the root causes of cyclical violence in Karamoja (to which a bolstered police force is only a partial solution), a gathering of Ugandan elders and political leaders last weekend stated that a national legacy of uneven and unequal development and political intolerance lies at the heart of the conflict. Read more at The Monitor.

President Museveni, meeting with the LRA negotiating team on Tuesday, said that LRA leader Joseph Kony has until January 31, 2008 to conclude a peace agreement or face regional military action. The LRA team reportedly asked for that deadline to be extended to March 15, but the President rejected it. He did however say that he could possibly extend it if talks resume by January 10 as hoped. The UN Special Envoy, Joaquim Chissano, has said that President Museveni is flexible on the deadline if peace talks are still making progress. We reported on Tuesday that Museveni and his Congolese counterpart are "willing to shelve plans" for the military offensive to allow peace talks to succeed. Still, Museveni was reportedly firm on the deadline in the meeting, expressing concern that Kony is not committed to the peace process. At the same time, the President offered to ask the UN Security Council to suspend the ICC arrest warrants for the top LRA leaders if this would give Kony confidence to sign the final deal.

Today’s New Vision reports that President Museveni of Uganda and President Kabila of the DR Congo are willing to shelve plans for a joint military operation against the LRA if they do not leave Congolese territory by January 31st in order to enable peace talks to continue. The announcement came during a conference on peace and reconciliation in Gulu, at which UN special envoy Joaquim Chissano affirmed that President Museveni remains committed to the Juba talks. Chissano also highlighted the importance of national reconciliation in Uganda and the role of women as peacebuilders. Read more at The New Vision.

Meanwhile, Riek Machar, chief mediator for the Juba talks, expressed the southern Sudanese government’s willingness to continue brokering the negotiations. He was speaking at a conference for LRA-affected communities in southern Sudan. Local leaders at the conference stressed that efforts to rebuild areas affected by the LRA conflict should include Sudanese communities as well as Ugandan ones. Machar said that over 500 Sudanese had been killed and 126 abducted by the LRA, which has been active in southern Sudan for over a decade. Read more at The Sudan Tribune.

The Ugandan government has agreed to not allocate large tracts of Acholi land to investors until local residents have returned to their homes from displaced persons camps and can have a say in economic recovery processes. Acholi leaders and civil society have been vocal on the issue in recent weeks after the Ugandan government proposed allocating a Ugandan Asian sugar company 40,000 hectares of land in Amuru district for sugarcane growth. Livingstone Okello-Okello, one of the Acholi MPs who met with the Ugandan Prime Minister yesterday and secured the agreement, said, "We have agreed with the government that our people should not be ambushed with this sugar factory before peace returns. We are happy that even Madhvani (sugar company) attended this meeting and an agreement on the matter has been reached." Read more at The Monitor.

The Independent Online is running a special piece on Uganda’s northeastern region of Karamoja today, highlighting the continued insecurity and extreme poverty in the region. The proliferation of small arms among civilians, violent government disarmament programs and poor governance have led the region to have the highest malnutrition and child mortality rates in the country. UNICEF official Jeremy England said that the region is in “chronic emergency” and that the ongoing Juba peace talks will fail to bring peace to northern Uganda unless efforts are made to address insecurity in Karamoja. Read more at The Independent Online.

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A meeting between Ugandan and Congolese officials last week over border, oil and security issues concluded with a revived determination to launch a joint military offensive against LRA leader Joseph Kony if LRA rebels do not leave their bases in the DR Congo by the end of next month. On Saturday Uganda’s Defense Minister Crispus Kiyonga said, "We did not go into further details but that was the bottom-line; that Kony either comes and we conclude the talks or the Congolese authorise us to go after him." Read more at The Monitor and The New Vision.

Two weeks ago a similar agreement was approved during a regional security meeting convened by the US Secretary of State. However, local civil society (and our latest op/ed) have warned that irresponsible military rhetoric or abrupt military action could undermine the fragile Juba peace talks.

In today’s New Vision, Norbert Mao, Gulu district’s highest elected leader, writes that displaced persons should be allowed to return home before investment and industrialization projects in northern Uganda that require large land concessions are considered. Mao argues that northerners are not necessarily against investment and industrialization, but should be given the chance to determine and shape the direction of recovery efforts – and that return from decades of displacement is a necessary precondition for them to be able to do so. His comments come in the wake of a controversy after a proposal to allot 40,000 hectares for a sugarcane project in Amuru district was met with opposition from northern MPs. Read more at The New Vision, or read this excellent report written by the Land and Equity Movement of Uganda.

The ENOUGH Project to end genocide and crimes against humanity has released a new briefing paper, titled "A Diplomatic Surge for Northern Uganda." The authors, John Prendergast and Adam O'Brien, write, "Dissension, disarray, deaths, and defections within the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army leadership provide a major opportunity for negotiators to pursue—parallel to an expeditious conclusion of the formal negotiations process in Juba—the conclusion of a swift deal with LRA leader Joseph Kony himself...The time to strike—diplomatically—is now." They call for more formalized and regular channels to be opened with Kony to propose security and livelihood packages. At the same time, they call for preparing for a follow-up process in northern Uganda to address long-term issues of resettlement, redevelopment and reconciliation. Read the full brief here.

The UN Special Envoy for the Juba peace process, Joaquim Chissano, has returned to Kampala to hold a series of discussions aimed at resumed negotiations toward a final agreement. Chissano will meet with Government officials as well as regional leaders, and then civil society representatives and the rebel leadership. His diplomacy comes at a critical time with new pressures on the peace process, namely upheaval in the rebel camp and the threat of a regional military offensive in late January. Read more at the UN News Service.

The Washington Post is reporting that diplomatic posts at the State Department and U.S. embassies worldwide will be cut 10% next year because of heavy staffing demands in Iraq and Afghanistan. In face, even the current U.S. Ambassador to Uganda is currently on Temporary Duty Yonder (TDY) in Iraq. Officials say that the State Department does not have enough people to fill these posts. Yet, the deeper problem is budgetary. The size of the foreign service - about 6,500 diplomats - increased by approximately 300 positions a year between 2001 and 2004, but Congress has since rejected any new funding requests. In a November 26 speech, Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for more money for diplomacy. He notes that "funding for nonmilitary foreign affairs programs...remains disproportionately small relative to what we spend on the military." In fact, the U.S. Department of Defense is 210 times larger than the State Department and USAID combined. David Kilcullen writes that there are more people employed in the army band than the entire foreign service.

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Turning to news about northern Uganda's neighbors, The New York Times is reporting that new clashes between the Congolese army and rebel forces loyal Gen. Laurent Nkunda threaten to plunge the country back into full-scale war. Clashes this year alone have pushed 425,000 people from their homes in the North Kivu province. The roots of this instability are the very same that caused Congo's prior civil war that ended in 2005: spillover ethnic tensions from Rwanda, competition to control resources and widespread weaponization of society. Meanwhile, in more uplifting news, southern Sudan's leading party (SPLM) has agreed to rejoin the government in exchange for the power-sharing government to shift every three months from Khartoum to the southern town of Juba. The parties have expressed hope that the peace agreement is back on track and outstanding disputes would soon be resolved.

After 40 days of traversing the country "consulting" with civil society about the Juba peace talks, the LRA negotiating team is seeking to meet with President Museveni again. "We want to meet President Museveni and thank him for allowing us to consult in Uganda," said LRA legal adviser Crispus Ayena Odong. Yet, at the same time, members of the LRA team and civil society have been very critical of President Museveni for agreeing to a new deadline on ongoing peace talks. Meeting last week, regional leaders including Museveni agreed that military action will be taken against the LRA if negotiations have not concluded by January 31, 2008 and the rebels remain in eastern Congo. In a consultation between the negotiating team and civil society organizations in Kampala today, many identified this as the greatest threat to the peace process, along with the uncertain commitment of rebel leader Joseph Kony. A few months ago, we argued that abrupt military action would undermine the peace talks and run a high risk of rekindling violence.

President Museveni is again set to meet Acholi leaders over industrialisation and his plans to offer land to investors in northern Uganda. Richard Todwong, special presidential assistant, said Museveni will meet with the landowners, opinion, cultural leaders and members of Parliament from the region later this month. He will explain the government programme to encourage industrialisation in the north, such as the recent plans for a Ugandan Asian sugar company to open a factory in Amuru district. This comes after Acholi MPs expressed sharp opposition earlier this week to these plans. Read more at The Monitor.

The Monitor is reporting that more defections within the LRA rebel ranks are expected, caused by the alleged split between LRA leader Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti. During a press conference in Gulu on Monday, Gulu RDC Walter Ochora reported this on intelligence from recently defected rebels. "The killing of LRA's second in command Vincent Otti on orders of his chairman Joseph Kony sent shock waves within the camps of the LRA. A good number of them have escaped. I am about to go back to eastern Congo to lead more LRA fighters to the UN peacekeeping mission," Ochora said. The New Vision also reports that the UN peacekeeping force in Congo (MONUC) has set up three reception centres in the eastern Congo towns of Dungu, Bunia and Goma to receive LRA returnees.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council have agreed to extend the mandate of Joaquim Chissano, Special Envoy for the LRA-affected areas, through 31 December 2008. Also, Chissano's office will be upgraded from a temporary liaison office to a special political mission. The former president of Mozambique, Chissano has played a crucial role in progress made at the Juba peace talks.

In his letter to the Council the Secretary-General said the peace process “has been proceeding steadily and remains on track under the facilitation efforts” of Chissano, as well as the mediation of the Government of Southern Sudan and the support of the DRC, Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania. Read more at UN News.

Ugandan officials announced that they will meet with Congolese officials tomorrow to discuss efforts to address the LRA forces and other rebels based in eastern DR Congo, border oil deposits and other issues. They will meet under the auspices of the Joint Permanent Commission, created in 1986 but dormant since 1997 due to frosty relations between the two countries. The meeting will follow on a regional security meeting last week that Ugandan and DR Congo attended with other Great Lakes countries in which the DR Congo vowed to move against the LRA if they did leave the country by the end of next month. Read more at The Monitor.

The UN last week launched a $374 million appeal to donors to fund humanitarian and recovery work in Uganda in 2008, focusing primarily on conflict-affected regions in northern and northeastern Uganda. The projects included in the appeal have two overarching objectives – saving lives and facilitating recovery – that reflect the continued transition from emergency humanitarian interventions to rebuilding viable homes and communities. Early recovery efforts must learn from struggles in 2007, when mortality and malnutrition rates in Lango actually dropped as people left IDP camps for home areas that lacked adequate services due to poor humanitarian coordination. Read about the appeal at IRIN News or download the full appeal here.

To read more facts and figures included in the appeal about gender-based violence, access to education and malnutrition rates click below.

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Acholi MPs yesterday expressed sharp opposition to a proposal to give 40,000 hectares in Amuru district of northern Uganda to a Ugandan Asian sugar company for a sugarcane plantation. The MPs spoke out against the project after doing a consultative tour in northern Uganda. Earlier this year a government proposal to allocate part of Mabira Forest Reserve to a (different) Ugandan Asian sugar company in southern Uganda was met by mass protests, which led to incidents of violence against Asian communities. Read more at The Monitor.

Although outside investment in northern Uganda will be an integral part of recovery efforts in coming years, efforts to allocate large tracts of land to investors will likely be met with suspicion and possibly hostility by northerners. Land is a precious asset to northerners, and some fear that the Ugandan government plans to industrialize and modernize the north will lead to loss of land - as especially as only 2% of Acholi have been able to return to their homes and land. Local civil society groups have called on the Ugandan government to allow northerners to return home before attempting major changes to land tenure and agricultural patterns, in order to gain local input and trust in recovery efforts.

As we reported last week, the Tripartite Plus Joint Commission (Burundi, DRC, Uganda, Rwanda) reaffirmed last week that military action will be taken against the LRA if the Juba peace process has not concluded successfully by January 31, 2008 and the rebels have not crossed back into Sudan to assemble in Ri-Kwangba. Read the highlights of the Tripartite meetings here. Speaking last week at Makerere University, lead Government negotiator Ruhakana Rugunda said that LRA leader Joseph Kony and his commanders should leave Garamba Park in DRC before Juba peace talks resume next year. "The fact that the LRA have not moved to Ri-Kwangba in South Sudan is a violation of the agreement. What are they doing in Garamba? Let us simplify life. Tell Kony and the LRA to assemble in Ri-Kwangba before the talks resume. We shall supply food there," Rugunda said. Earlier, Rugunda had lauded Martin Ojul, the leader of the LRA delegation and his peace team for their ongoing "productive" consultations in the country. Read more at The New Vision.

The LRA negotiating team announced yesterday that it has completed its one-month long consultations throughout Uganda on agenda item #3, accountability and reconciliation. "We have finished with our consultations in Uganda. We had our last consultation meeting here in Masindi yesterday (Saturday)," lead negotiator Martin Ojul said. "Wherever we have gone for consultations, people are seeing ICC as the stumbling block to the peace process...They want the indicted commanders to be tried using the traditional mechanisms." Throughout the consultations, the LRA team has increasingly distanced itself from the rebel military operations, presenting itself as representing the grievances of northern Ugandans. This has been further displayed by their inclusion of agenda item #2 (comprehensive solutions to the war) in these consultations though they were supposed to be limited to agenda item #3. From our reports however, northern Ugandans have been clear with the LRA team: they want them to negotiate a final agreement that ends this war and then they themselves will address the deeper grievances and inequalities. The LRA negotiators' efforts to establish peace are commendable, but their claim to speak for war survivors is insulting. Now with consultations finished, the team can best help northern Uganda by returning expeditiously to the negotiating table and moving toward a signed final agreement.

The Sunday Vision has an exclusive interview with Sunday Otto, one of the LRA commanders who was present during the alleged execution of Vincent Otti and has recently defected from the rebel ranks. Otto says that Otti was killed on 2 October with Lt. Col. Ben Accelam and Capt. Alfred Otim. Kony ordered the execution, but was allegedly not present. When he returned, Otto says that he called all his officers and instructed them not to bury the bodies for three days. In the interview, Otto says that Kony's primary concern has always been for his personal safety and that Otti was "the man behind the peace talks." Read the full interview transcript here.

The Sunday Monitor reports that Joseph Kony's only living brother, Robert Oulanya, has joined the LRA rebels in Garamba Park after living for years with their mother in Kampala. Gulu District RDC Walter Ochora told the press: "Oulanya has now officially joined his brother Kony and is already in Garamba in military uniform...We are wondering how a person can join the LRA at this time when he has been living under the care of State House. Kony actually gave Otti's wife to Oulanya." Two months ago, Oulanya reportedly travelled to Kenya by bus and then arranged travel to the rebel group's base. Kony and his brother were first reunited in December 2006 by a goodwill gesture of President Museveni. This news comes amidst uncertainty around Kony's disposition toward the historic peace negotiations in Juba. Read more at The Monitor.

The old maxim goes: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Well in this case we've fooled you and ourselves about seven times! For the last few months, we have been telling you that UgandaCAN.org would soon be redirecting to our new political organization, Resolve Uganda. I am writing today to tell you that is no longer the case. With your input, we have decided to keep Uganda-CAN as a project of Resolve Uganda, still committed to daily monitoring of the news, providing the best conflict analysis and fostering an epistemic community - all toward supporting peace in northern Uganda.

When we launched Uganda-CAN in June 2005, we had a simple idea: that activism is at its best when it is informed. A lot has changed since that time, but we remain committed to that vision. Behind the heart-wrenching portrayal of a "needy" northern Uganda is a complex and dynamic place in which people, no different than you and me, are struggling for survival, to keep their families together, to overcome twenty-one years of oppression. In the coming months, we will be delving deeper into their stories, their environment, and how they connect with our own. We'll have cutting edge analysis from Gulu, from Kampala, from London, from the UN headquarters in New York, from Washington D.C. I hope you'll join us and make Uganda-CAN your first stop for stay informed about the changing situation in northern Uganda.

- Peter, Paul, Alison, Kenny, Michael & Stephen

A high-level meeting focused on security issues in the Great Lakes region concluded with a vow that the DR Congo will act to remove LRA rebels from its territory by January 31st, 2008 if they have not left voluntarily by then. It urged the LRA to voluntarily move across the border to Ri-kwangba in southern Sudan before the end of the deadline. January 31st is also when the extension of the cessation of hostilities agreement between the Ugandan government and LRA expires. The Tripartite Plus meeting, convened by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, was tasked with addressing the “negative forces” in the eastern DR Congo, including the LRA and renegade Congolese commander Laurent Nkunda. Read more at The New Vision.

In September 2007 the Congolese and Ugandan governments came to a similar agreement to push the LRA out of the DR Congo if they did not leave voluntarily. Though no immediate action was taken, the agreement sparked fears that the governments would undermine the Juba peace talks by pursuing a “military solution” to the LRA. This week’s declaration, which has the implicit support of the US government, is likely to rekindle those fears with the looming prospect of a hard deadline for the peace talks. However, last week the US government’s top Africa diplomat said that the Juba talks are “critically important” and vowed continued US support for the process, making it difficult to decipher the intentions of the US and regional governments.

The New Vision reports that the LRA commanders who defected from the rebels' hideout in Garamba have been granted amnesty by the Ugandan government. Sunday Otto, Vincent Okema, George Okello and Richard Odongo-Kau arrived in Uganda on December 1, flown in by UN peacekeepers in Congo. Meanwhile, the LRA negotiating team held one of its final consultations in Kampala. Participants told the LRA team to pursue solutions to the original causes of the rebellion and not adopt other issues they have found along the way during the talks. Erute North MP Gutumoi Angiro asked the parties to conclude the agreement in January and attend the commemoration of the Barlonyo massacre on February 21. Speaking yesterday on the radio, the government chief negotiator Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda said that the peace talks will continue despite reports about LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti's death.

Speaking last week about U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's visit today to the Horn of Africa, Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer said the following in a press briefing. "There are increasing defections from Garamba Park and I think that that's positive. We continue to support the Juba peace process and I think it's critically important especially for bringing reconciliation to Northern Uganda. And so we're watching it very closely. We are very involved, especially Tim Shortley, my special, you know, advisor on conflict prevention, is working this issue intensively and so we're following it. And the UN, again, as I said, very quietly is playing a heroic role in trying to facilitate people leaving who want to leave safely."

Turning to the wider region surrounding northern Uganda (as we do each Wednesday), the biggest news of the week is U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's visit today to the region. Meeting with presidents of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, Rice called on leaders of the Great Lakes Region to defuse tensions in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Rice listed three areas of agreement between the leaders, including the "rapid strengthening" of security forces in Congo, reiteration of a commitment not to "harbor negative forces" and a recommitment to previous agreements. The talks came as Congo's army fought on Wednesday with a renegade Tutsi general's forces, the latest in a series of battles this week. BBC News reports that the DRC military says it has taken control of the rebel stronghold town of Mushake. Yet, the World Food Programme has been forced to suspend aid to the region because of the fighting, leaving some 300,000 recently displaced people without food.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for governments to do “everything within their power” to apprehend LRA leader Joseph Kony and three other LRA commanders indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He was speaking at the UN headquarters in New York at the annual meeting of countries who have ratified the agreement creating the ICC. Read more at The New Vision.

In Kampala, civil society and government officials gathered for the launch of “Beyond Juba,” an initiative to help chart the way for recovery, reintegration and reconciliation in Uganda after the Juba peace talks. The initiative will focus primarily on research and lecture series and workshops that will focus on transitional justice, gender and social issues related to the conflict. It is spearheaded by the Refugee Law Project, Human Rights and Peace Centre and Makerere University. Speaking at the event, Ugandan Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said the LRA would be removed from Uganda’s terrorist list once it had signed a peace agreement and demobilized. Read more at The New Vision.

UN peacekeepers in eastern DR Congo say that they are in dialogue with rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) who want to engage in peace talks with the Ugandan government. Ugandan Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, head of the government’s delegation to the Juba peace talks, embraced the effort, saying, "Ending conflict peacefully is a favoured method of this government and if the ADF wants to talk peace they are welcome." Read more at The Monitor.

The ADF, a Ugandan rebel group which was most active from 1995 to 2002, is currently based in eastern DR Congo. Recent reports have indicated that it has been working closely with the National Army for the Liberation of Uganda (NALU), another Congo-based Ugandan rebel group. There have also been reports that it is working with Congolese armed groups and even the LRA, and many of its members are now thought to be Congolese. Estimated to be less than 1,000 strong, the ADF’s primary aim today appears to be the lucrative exploitation of natural resources in the DR Congo.

Speaking on Voice of America, LRA technical advisor David Matsanga said that the LRA are winding down their consultations ahead of the next round of negotiations with the Ugandan government. "Our consultations have gone on very, very well. We have covered three quarters of the country, we are remained with three other consultations..." Matsanga said. "People are looking for another alternative means of justice that would bring long lasting peace to the region and remove the conflict once and for all. So, the message has been very clear, the people of Uganda have said they are ready to forgive to forget and reconcile with anybody who has actually been involved in the conflict," he said. However, The New Vision reports that local government and civil leaders at the most recent consultation in the Makasa region became hostile to the LRA negotiating team, calling them "opportunists" and "money schemers."

President Museveni will meet Congolese President Kabila and the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday to discuss the presence of the LRA rebels in eastern Congo among other issues. Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Burundi leader Jean Pierre Nkurunziza, the African Union and the UN Mission in Congo will also participate in what is referred to as the Tripartite Plus Summit. The Tripartite Plus member countries hope to agree on effective ways of consolidating regional security, and enhancing cooperation. Read more at The New Vision.