LRA leader Joseph Kony delivered a holiday message over the Mega FM radio Tuesday night, wishing a prosperous New Year to Ugandans and urging them not to lose hope in peace talks. "Let us all pray for peace as we enter 2007 so that we stop greeting each other through the radio but start talking face to face," Kony said. Read more at the International Herald Tribune.

Refugees International has produced a new press release, urging all parties to support the historic Juba peace negotiations. They write, "Peace talks currently underway in Juba, South Sudan, are the best chance for peace that the region has seen during the two-decade conflict, but the negotiations have not yet reached a point of no return. It is imperative that the parties to the conflict and the international community take immediate measures to address shortcomings in the process in order to ensure that the talks succeed." They urge the parties in Juba to respect the Cessation of Hostilities agreement, donors to fully support the peace process and UNMIS to provide logistical support. Read the full release here.

The LRA delegation in Juba resisted pressure and has refused yet to sign a pact on comprehensive solutions to the war. The would-be agreement had been touted as a Christmas gift to the war-ravaged areas. Pleas from the Acholi paramount chief Rwot Onen Acana and the chief mediator Dr. Riek Machar came to no avail as the parties parted for the Christmas break without an agreement. Machar said the LRA declined to sign because they had reservations on six issues: the preamble of the pact, guiding principles, establishment of a special trust fund for the north, a mechanism for federalism for the north and the implementation mechanism for PRDT (asking for an autonomous body). Still, the chairman of the LRA team, Martin Ojur, said they would consider signing the pact when the talks resume after Christmas. Read more at The New Vision.

President Museveni has agreed to send a team of ministers to the LRA base at Ri-Kwangba, as part of a series of confidence-building measures. This follows a request by LRA leader Joseph Kony, which was delivered to the President through Gulu RDC Col. Walter Ochora. Addressing the press yesterday, Ochora said Kony’s offer to host the ministers was to show his commitment to peace and to reciprocate the good gesture by the government to enable his mother to visit him. He also disclosed that Kony is ready to send some senior commanders to take part in the peace talks in Juba. Ochora also revealed that the President has offered to send 10 bulls to the LRA for Christmas, five to Ri-Kwangba and five to Owiny-Kibul, the two locations for the LRA fighters to assemble. Read more at The New Vision.

Government officials back from visiting LRA leader Joseph Kony in his hideout said today they had succeeded in opening up a direct phone line between Kony and President Yoweri Museveni -- a development they hoped would speed up peace talks under way in south Sudan. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

LRA leader Joseph Kony has, in a surprise move, said he wants to face trial under the Ugandan justice system. Kony and three of his commanders are indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC). He said at the weekend that he has no trust in the international justice system. "Kony made it clear that the ICC is biased, it has heard only one side of the story and now he says he is willing to stand trial in Uganda. He mentioned Luzira and Lugore prisons which mean he is ready to face anything," said Alphonse Owiny Dollo. Read more at The Monitor.

President Museveni in a message to LRA leader Joseph Kony has assured the rebels of his commitment to the Juba peace process, promising he would not go against his word. He also repeated the possibility of a Ugandan justice system, offering the LRA top leadership an escape route from the ICC in The Hague. The message was delivered to his base in Garamba, DR Congo, by a team headed by Gulu RDC Col. Walter Ochora, and former minister of state Owiny Dollo. Read more at The New Vision.

The Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team finalized its latest report last week, with the following findings:

1.) The LRA has not assembled in Owiny-ki-Bul and therefore is in breach of the CoH agreementt.
2.) The LRA has some presence in Ri-Kwangba but has not properly assembled there. However, because of inadequate water supply in Ri-Kwangba, the LRA can not be considered to be in breach of the CoH-agreement on this account.
3.) The UPDF has withdrawn from Palutaka and Tabika, as promised.
4.) Clashes between LRA and UPDF took place at 29 November (between Mogiri, Nisitu and Ngangala) and 30 November in the area of Liria. These are both areas where both forces are not supposed to be under the CoH truce.
5.) On 30 November, a UPDF helicopter dropped bombs near Opari (very close to Owiny-ki-Bul).

Yet even though CoH implementation is weak, there are good prospects that recent confidence-building measures will give new momentum to the agreement. The delegations in Juba agreed this week to extend the CoH until the end of February 2007. Still, finding #5 of a UPDF helicopter attack near a LRA assembly point remains especially troubling. Uganda-CAN continues to urge that both parties adhere to their obligations under the truce and put peace in northern Uganda first and foremost.

Following concerns that the peace negotiations between the Government and the LRA in Juba were taking longer than expected, the two sides have adopted a strategy to fast track the process including holding joint sessions without the mediator. The LRA and the Government delegations have since Saturday been meeting at Civicon Oasis Hotel in Juba, raising hopes that the differences and suspicion that have hindered the smooth negotiations have been overcome. Sources said yesterday's meeting centred on item number two on the mediator's agenda, which is accountability. Read more at The Monitor.

The Ugandan Amnesty Commission has set aside sh350m for 1,000 LRA rebels who may denounce rebellion should the Juba peace talks succeed. Justice Peter Onega, the commission chairman, on Friday said each of the rebels would be entitled to a sh350,000 package. He said the World Bank, under the Multi-Country Demobilisation and Re-integration Project, was funding the exercise. He said since the start of the peace talks in the South Sudan capital, the commission has been on standby to receive the rebels. "We are ready to move to any assembly point chosen by the rebels who may opt to surrender even if it is in South Sudan," Onega said. Read more at The New Vision.

The Government and the LRA delegations in Juba have extended a ceasefire until the end of February 2007. South Sudan vice-president Riek Machar witnessed the signing ceremony on Saturday. The leader of the government negotiating team Ruhakana Rugunda seized the moment to invite the LRA negotiating team to Kampala for the season's holidays. Meanwhile, Nora Anek, mother of LRA leader Joseph Kony returned to Uganda on Saturday from Garamba, with a message to her son and President Yoweri Museveni to stop the fighting in northern Uganda. "Both of them (Museveni and Kony) are my sons. They should stop the war," Anek said. Read more at The Monitor.

The peace talks in Juba officially resumed on Thursday night with a dinner hosted by the mediator and Vice-President of South Sudan Riek Machar. Machar appealed to both parties to sign a pact on solutions to the causes of the war as a Christmas gift to the affected people in northern Uganda. The Government team invited the leader of the LRA delegation, Martin Ojul, to their Christmas celebration, which the latter eagerly accepted. Machar urged both parties to respect the cessation of hostilities agreement and the addendum signed so far. Machar declared the fourth round of talks open at around 9:00pm. Martin Ojul said his team was equally committed to a faster negotiation process and the need for a timetable. Read more at The New Vision.

Uganda's LRA rebels appealed today to African leaders attending a summit in Kenya to press President Museveni to withdraw his troops from south Sudan to pave way for progress in the Juba peace talks. The LRA spokesman, Obonyo Olweny, said insurgents feared gathering at assembly points in line with a truce because of the presence of government forces in the region. "The presidents should also support the peace process in general because this is the most genuine attempt to restore peace in northern Uganda," Olweny said. Read more at The New Vision.

The peace talks between the Ugandan government and LRA in Juba are set to resume tomorrow. The parties are scheduled to review the cessation of hostilities pact and conclude discussions on finding comprehensive solutions to the conflict. They will then move on to the next topics on the agenda: accountability and reconciliation, the ceasefire and the disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of the LRA. The talks have been boosted in the past week by direct talks between President Museveni and LRA commander Vincent Otti and by the reunion of Joseph Kony and his mother, who told him to sign a peace deal within the next two weeks. However, the talks continue to be plagued by accusations of ceasefire violations. The LRA maintain that it was attacked in late November by UPDF forces, and today a UPDF spokesman accused LRA rebels attacking a caravan on the Juba-Torit road in South Sudan and kidnapping an unknown number of passengers. Read more at The New Vision.

A spokeswomen for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday that 20,000 Sudanese refugees would begin returning home this week to southern Sudan from Ethiopia and the Central African Republic. The return will be an expansion of the UNHCR’s post-war voluntary repatriation programme, which has so far assisted 91,000 Sudanese refugees in returning home, mostly from Kenya and Uganda. An estimated 350,000 Sudanese refugees still remain abroad. The January 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between southern SPLA rebels and the Khartoum-based Sudanese government ended a bloody 21-year civil war in the south which helped perpetuate the conflict between the LRA and the Ugandan government. However, recent clashes between SPLA forces and the Khartoum-based military have threatened to undermine not only the CPA, but also peace talks between the LRA and the Ugandan government in Juba, South Sudan. Read more at The Sudan Tribune.

The mother of LRA leader Joseph Kony has reportedly set a two-weeks deadline for a peace agreement to be signed. "The matter should be concluded in two weeks and people in Juba should go home," 83-year-old Nora Anek reportedly told her son in Garamba in DR Congo. "President Museveni and Kony should face each other directly and iron out their problems once and for all. They are both my sons," she said. However, the ICC arrest warrants keep hanging like a sword over the whole process. "Kony complained that the ICC had indicted them without listening to their side of the story," Gulu RDC Walter Ochora said. Read more at The New Vision.

LRA leader Joseph Kony has said he will hold direct peace talks with President Museveni in a bid to end the northern conflict. He said the need to hold direct talks with Museveni follows demands and advice from his mother, Norah Anek Oting, who is currently with him at his hideout in Ri-Kwangba. The development comes barely a day after President Museveni had a 30-minute telephone conversation with LRA's second in command, Vincent Otti on Sunday. The LRA leader also said he wants to cross to Owinyi-ki-Bul assembly area in South Sudan to be with his troops but fears the UPDF presence. He demanded that the government withdraws its troops so that he joins his forces. Read more at The Monitor.

"It seems peace talks have only really started now, with the arrival of my mother," LRA leader Joseph Kony said while meeting his mother for a third successive day. "My mother is second to the Almighty God to me. I cannot but heed her advice to stop fighting and come back home. But we want the Government to meet some of the demands we are putting across." Kony further asked the Government to facilitate his mother’s return to her home village in Gulu, Odek, now that people in the north are heading home. Read more at The New Vision.

Uganda's army and the LRA rebels have agreed to pull their forces apart, after talks between President Museveni and the deputy LRA leader Vincent Otti. The reported deal seems to be intended to restore confidence in fragile peace talks held in southern Sudan. Read more at the BBC News.

President Museveni yesterday held a telephone conversation with LRA's second-in-command Vincent Otti for the first time. Ochora said the President spoke with Otti via satellite phone for over 30 minutes, discussing their commitment to the Juba peace talks, withdrawal of UPDF forces from the assembling areas and allowing Kony to have more days with his mother, all of which the President reportedly honoured. On Saturday, Kony, for the first time since he launched an armed rebellion, met his mother and his eldest son a few kilometers from Ri-Kwangba. "I and my commanders are overwhelmed by the government's generosity in facilitating this meeting between me and my mother," Kony reportedly said. Read more at The Monitor.

The Ugandan government yesterday chartered a plane and flew the mother of LRA leader Joseph Kony to meet her son at his hideout in Ri-Kwangba on the Sudan-Congo border. Norah Anek Oting, 83, flew together with Gulu RDC Col. Walter Ochora, the leader of the delegation, Gulu LCV Chairman Norbert Mao and John Lacambel Oryema, a presenter at Mega FM. This is going to be the first time Kony is meeting his mother face to face since he launched his rebellion against the government of President Museveni 20 years ago. The trip is in line with government's mission of confidence building measures between LRA rebels, government and civilians as part of the peace process. Read more at The Monitor.

The Ugandan military and LRA rebels violated a landmark truce by clashing in parts of south Sudan that had been out of bounds for both sides, the head ceasefire monitor said today. "Both sides have violated," ceasefire monitoring chief Major-General Wilson Deng Kuoirot said. "They had clashes in places they were not supposed to be." Under the cessation of hostilities truce, the rebels had until December to assemble at two locations. The LRA said a group of rebels east of the Nile tried to reach one of the two, Owiny-Ki-Bul, but were then attacked by the Ugandan army. Kuoirot said the clashes happened in two places east of Juba and hundreds of miles from where the rebels claimed. "Neither the LRA nor the UPDF (Uganda People's Defence Forces) are supposed to be in those places," he said. The LRA admitted the clashes took place where Kuoirot said. The Ugandan army reiterated its denial: "We were not there, so there was no clash," spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye said. Read more at Reuters AlertNet.

Dr. James Obita, a member of the LRA who has been living in United Kingdom, has been appointed LRA's new technical advisor to the negotiating delegation in Juba. LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti confirmed Obita's appointment, saying it was necessary because the team in Juba needed a more senior person like Obita to advise on technical matters. Meanwhile the LRA have welcomed the move by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to appoint the former president of Mozambique Joachim Chisano as UN envoy for northern Uganda. Read more at The Monitor.

The Dutch Minister for Development Cooperation Agnes van Ardenne has suggested that the stalemate in the Juba peace talks is a result of the continued presence of the UPDF in South Sudan. In an interview with Miraya FM, a UN radio in Juba, van Ardenne said the LRA fighters are reluctant to assemble because of fear for their security. "What I know is that the LRA has problems with the fact that the UPDF is still in South Sudan. I think there is a ground for that accusation. It is not an accusation but an issue of security," van Ardenne said. In a reaction, the UPDF said the minister was misinformed. The army spokesman, Maj. Felix Kulayigye, said: "It would be prudent for her to know that the UPDF entered South Sudan because it has always been a sanctuary for the LRA. The LRA would enter Uganda, commit atrocities and run back to the safety of South Sudan." He said the UPDF was nowhere near the assembly points. Read more at The New Vision.

The Juba peace process might now depend on an 83-year-old woman, Nora Anek, mother of LRA leader Joseph Kony. Living in Mukono, the old lady is preparing to go and see her son in the DR Congo. "I am very excited about going," says Anek, who last saw her son in 1989. "I really want to see him so that I can advise him to get in contact with the President and agree on bringing peace." Kony’s mother wants to warn her son about those who are trying to use him and encouraging him to keep on fighting. She was scheduled to travel to her son’s hide-out in DR Congo today, but the trip has been postponed because of a bad cough. She revealed she talked to her son briefly by satellite phone 10 days ago, assuring him that she was alive and telling him she was looking forward to seeing him face-to-face. Read more at The New Vision.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday that he is willing to talk directly with LRA leader Joseph Kony. Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Museveni said, "I talk to all sorts of people. I can talk to Kony. When you send messages, why can’t you talk directly?" He also expressed confidence in the peace process, while warning that its failure would lead to renewed military operations against the LRA, saying, "Whatever happens in Juba, there will be peace in northern Uganda. This business of fujo is finished. They (LRA) cannot come back and disturb us. We have the means to fight them. The army is almost complete now." Read more at The New Vision.

LRA leader Joseph Kony has asked the state for 3 million head of cattle to be sent to northern Uganda. Betty Amongi, the chairperson of AMANI Uganda Chapter told the group Friday at Parliament: "He [Kony] said the people of northern Uganda lost their cattle to Karimojong warriors and the government should compensate them with 3 million head of cattle as part of the demobilisation, disarmament, reintegration and resettlement of the Lords Resistance Army," Amongi said. The LRA also demands that a referendum be held in 12 months after signing the agreement, a move the rebels say will show that there is genuine demand for a federal form of government as the only way for guaranteeing political stability of the country. There is further information that the LRA team has tabled a new set of refined demands, including special protection for its fighters and the establishment of a fully-fledged ministry in which the rebels would have a stake, a proposal the government has flatly rejected. The 26-page document, containing fresh LRA demands, surfaced after the LRA delegation was joined by a team from the US and UK. Read more at The Monitor.

The monitoring team of the Cessation of Hostilities truce was yesterday scheduled to visit the scene of alleged clashes between the UPDF and LRA rebels. The LRA walked out of the Juba talks last week, citing attacks by the UPDF on their fighters moving to Owiny Ki-bul, one of the assembly points. UPDF has denied the allegations. Further, as a confidence-building measure, the Government is facilitating a visit of Kony’s mother, Nora Oting, to her son at his base at the border of Sudan and the DR Congo tomorrow. "We are leaving on Wednesday morning," the team leader, Gulu RDC Walter Ochora, disclosed. "We shall charter a plane to Maridi and proceed with a UN helicopter to Nabanga in Southern Sudan." Read more at The New Vision.

The war-affected community has welcomed the Juba peace talks and expressed willingness to reconcile with their tormentors for the sake of peace. However, experts believe a comprehensive peace where communities will have to reconcile with each other is one way of addressing years of horrific suffering and human rights abuses. The government has indicated its readiness to plan a process of national reconciliation. "It is impossible to achieve national peace if we do not have peace within ourselves and families. Peaceful families are essential ingredients in the recipe for community and national peace," Prime Minister Apolo Nsibambi said on Friday while presenting a paper. However, Prof. Makau Mutua, the chairperson of Kenya’s Human Rights Commission in a paper presented by Gulu District Chairman Nobert Mao, said national reconstruction and reconciliation is not possible without truth and justice. "Domestic truth and reconciliation processes might yield several options. Some commission processes seek the truth, others justice and reconciliation and others all the three," he said. "In Uganda the process must combine truth telling with justice and national reconciliation." Read more at The Monitor.

Members of the Ugandan Parliament on Friday accused the government of double standards following its failure to convince the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop arrest warrants issued against LRA leader Joseph Kony and his top commanders. While brainstorming on the peace talks at a workshop organised by the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum, MPs said the case the government filed with the ICC is hindering the peace process in Juba. "The high command [Kony and Otti] is unable to attend because of the ICC. It's high time the government dropped the case. It's no longer helpful to pursue the case because our people are tired of war and need peace," Obongi MP Hassan Fungaroo said. In response to the MPs attacks, Ruhakana Rugunda, the chairman of the government's negotiating team and minister of internal affairs, said the ICC is not an enemy to peace in Uganda and that they are partners. Read more at The Monitor.

LRA leader Joseph Kony has asked for direct talks with President Museveni. He gave this message to a team that went to see him in his hideout in the DR Congo last week. "Museveni and Kony can bring peace faster than the Juba talks as long as Museveni understands Kony," the LRA leader told the team. "This can happen if there is no misunderstanding between the two and there is direct communication between them in a straight and frank way, without any distortion. Whatever is agreed upon should be implemented." Kony also requested to meet his mother. "Bring my mother to meet me here. Her coming to me is more important than the Juba peace talks. I would believe my mother next to God and take her advice very seriously as she is one person who would never want me to die, so she would never betray me," he said. "The President said he would respond in writing to the LRA leader’s demands," Walter Ochora said. Plans are also being made to take Kony’s mother to him at his Congo base. Read more at The New Vision.

Last week (while our site was down), ICC expert Katherine Southwick wrote on The Washington Post's famous PostGlobal blog about the challenges of peace and justice in northern Uganda. Southwick writes, "To insist on international prosecution when peace is at hand (a determination to be made largely by the parties) and when an alternative vision for accountability is emerging on the ground is to allow one idea of the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Having long failed to help resolve this brutal war, the international community, including the ICC, now has an opportunity to help Uganda achieve -- through peaceful means -- lasting peace with justice." Read and comment on Southwick's article at PostGlobal.

LRA leader Joseph Kony has threatened to return to war if the peace talks in Juba collapse. "We shall resume our normal activities in case the government plans to jeopardise the peace talks," Kony said Thursday night. "We are going to fight to defend our lives if the government is not taking these peace talks seriously," he said. "They are alleging that the LRA has violated the truce by not assembling at Owiny Ki-bul. How should we assemble when they have deployed 12 lorries of UPDF around Owiny Ki-bul?" Kony complained. Talking by satellite phone from his base in Garamba in DR Congo, the LRA leader discouraged the resettlement of the internally displaced persons, contradicting his call last week for people to go home. Kony's second in command, Vincent Otti, added that the peace talks should be shifted from Juba to another country. Read more at The New Vision.