Speaking on the eve of the deadline by which the rebels are to gather in two assembly points while talks continue to end the brutal 20-year war in northern Uganda, LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti indicated the agreement was collapsing and the rebels would not fully assemble until UPDF forces withdrew from the area. Otti accused the Ugandan army of using the agreed assembly areas to set up a military trap. "We will not assemble because that is their plan," Otti said over satellite telephone from his jungle hideout on the Sudan-Congo border. Uganda's government responded that peace talks would continue, despite what it called repeated efforts by the rebels to stall the process by staging walk-outs. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

Women from northern Uganda have been finally allowed to join the Juba peace talks as observers. Dr. Riek Machar, the chief mediator of the talks has asked the director of the Women’s International Cross Cultural Exchange (WICCE), Ruth Ochieng, to forward to him names of women who are interested. This has followed calls from Ochieng for gender consideration in the peace negotiations in Juba. She argues that women survivors have the right information to enable both parties to resolve the conflict and embrace peace. She demanded that the agreement should include ending all forms of violence against women. Read more at The Monitor.

The LRA has suspended its participation in peace talks with the government, accusing the Ugandan army of killing three of its fighters heading towards an assembly point in southern Sudan. The LRA said its leaders would stay away from the talks until the UPDF withdraws from positions east of the River Nile and returns back into Uganda. "We cannot afford to lose our troops whilst we are talking peace," LRA delegation spokesman Obonyo Olweny said. "The government of Uganda should not use the time of peace talks to prosecute war and achieve military victory...If they want war, let them come out clearly and say they do not want peace and fighting resumes," he added. Army spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye rejected the accusations and said the LRA was just stalling. Read more at the BBC News. While we continue to monitor this news, Uganda-CAN urges the parties to adhere to the extended Cessation of Hostilities Agreement to show true commitment to peace.

The Ugandan government plans to meet LRA collaborators in Nairobi, Kenya this week in the hopes of wooing the LRA High Command in DR Congo's Garamba Park to finally denounce their rebellion. A final meeting of the government team to set out the agenda for the Nairobi meeting will be held in Kampala today. Internal Affairs Minister and leader of the government Juba negotiating team Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda will chair today's meeting, sources say. Rugunda, however, denied there were plans to meet LRA collaborators. Former LRA spokesman Richard Matsanga, a.k.a. David Nyekorach Matsanga, a Ugandan dissident based in London, through the Africa Strategy, a NGO founded by former Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda, is said to be the brain behind these Nairobi talks. According to an official, the government has agreed to meet LRA in the Diaspora as part of several fronts intended to adapt without alienating the on going peace talks in Juba. Read more at The Monitor.

Vincent De Visscher, head of the European Union mission in Uganda, has said that the peace talks should be brought to Uganda. He said this would enable Ugandans to monitor and contribute to them. De Visscher, however, said pardoning the LRA, who have been holding the people in northern Uganda hostage for 20 years, was unacceptable. This was during his first visit to the north to assess the situation and return of displaced people from the camps to their homes. De Visscher castigated the Acholi in the diaspora for associating with LRA, saying they should come to Uganda like Kizza Besigye and present their ideas democratically. Read more at The New Vision.

The First Post, a British magazine, reports that the discovery of oil in eastern and possibly northern Uganda may be a factor in the Ugandan government’s decision to seriously engage the LRA in the current peace talks in Juba. According to the article, the Ugandan government is seeking to stabilize the region after drilling by Tullow Oil indicates that 500m barrels of high-quality oil can be recovered from a site in Hoima district. Hoima is south of the areas affected by the LRA rebellion; its proximity near the border with the eastern DR Congo makes it vulnerable to a volatile region full of rebel militias.

The article also reports that there are rumors that oil has been discovered in Arua, a district in northeastern Uganda where southern Sudanese have fled LRA attacks as recently as last year. Arua also borders southern Sudan, where oil has played a major role in the civil conflict there. Although the discovery of oil in Uganda is certainly not the primary catalyst of the Juba peace talks, it may be affecting the political calculations of the parties involved in the talks. Read more at The First Post.

The LRA delegation to the Juba talks has presented a new proposal that calls for the creation of a central government ministry responsible for the rehabilitation, reconstruction, and recovery of war affected areas “and other regions affected by natural or other disasters”. The proposal, designed to move the talks towards a comprehensive peace agreement, also calls for the ministry to work in consultation with the LRA, local leaders and the donor community. The Ugandan government delegation rejected this proposal, as well as LRA proposals for special protection for its fighters. Read more at AllAfrica.com.

LRA leader Joseph Kony has asked for a meeting with the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland when he visits the region next week. Egeland, who is traveling to Juba, has been rallying moral and financial support for the Juba peace process. Martin Ojul, head of the LRA delegation in Juba, said the rebels expect the UN chief to exert more pressure on the International Criminal Court to drop its indictments against the top LRA leadership. In the meantime, the Ugandan government has accused LRA rebels of failure to assemble and stealing food outside assembly areas. "Five days after signing the agreement, there is no rebel in Owiny-Ki-Bul and Ri-Kwangba," said the government delegation spokesman Capt Paddy Ankunda. Last Wednesday's agreement gave the LRA three more weeks to assemble in both points. If the LRA wants to continue to make demands for the withdrawal of ICC indictments and more, they would be wise to show clear compliance with the new agreement and begin assembling. Read more at The Monitor.

The LRA has asked for a break in the Juba peace talks so that its negotiating team can tour the north for "consultations and confidence building." However, their demand was scoffed at by the Government as "untimely, time-wasting and an untenable attempt to conduct a referendum." According to sources at the closed session in Juba, the LRA's request stems from their outrage at accusations from northern leaders that the LRA delegation, constituted mainly by the Acholi diaspora, was not executing rebel leader Joseph Kony’s mandate 'to deliver peace.' LRA delegation chairman Martin Ojul said the people in the north and east of Uganda had been misinformed about the peace talks and his team’s commitment. Read more at The New Vision.

President Museveni and his South Sudan counterpart, Salva Kiir, have agreed to the withdrawal of UPDF forces east of Juba Nimule Road, sources report. The withdrawal of forces from Palotaka and Tibika bases in eastern Equatoria is a pre-condition the LRA set before their fighters reassemble at Owiny-ki-Bul, one of two designated assembly points in South Sudan. Though this development had a direct bearing on Wednesday's signing of an extension to the August 26 truce, all parties, at the request of the mediator, agreed to leave it out of the agreement text. Palotaka has been UPDF's major base since March 2002 when Khartoum and Kampala entered an agreement allowing the UPDF to hunt the LRA in South Sudan. Tibika houses the UPDF communication centre in South Sudan. As both delegations reconvened yesterday at Juba Raha Hotel, there was a sense that they may take a two-week recess to monitor the progress of the new Cessation of Hostilities Agreement extension signed this week. Read more at The Monitor.

After much disagreement, the LRA and Ugandan government have signed an extension to the August 26th cessation of hostilities truce. Under the new deal, LRA fighters have one more month to gather at the two assembly points in southern Sudan. The extension addresses rebel demands by creating buffer zones around those two assembly points. "The peace process is rekindled. We are back on track," government spokesman Paddy Ankunda said today. Chief negotiator Dr. Riek Machar expressed his relief at Wednesday's deal. "We hope today's agreement creates a much better atmosphere," he said. Read more at BBC News.