Uganda's rebels seek peace talks
Wednesday, 3 November 2004
Uganda's rebels seek peace talks
Ugandan rebel group whose attacks have driven more than one and a half million people from their homes says it wants peace talks with the government.
A spokesman for the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Brigadier Sam Kolo, spoke to the BBC's Focus on Africa radio programme. He said that he believes there is no military solution to the 18-year civil war. Kolo said President Yoweri Museveni's government should realise talks were the only way to end the fighting.
“We do accept any peaceful settlement to this conflict" he stated “If the government still believes military options can solve the northern conflict, then the war will continue."
The rebels want President Yoweri Museveni to say the government is looking for a peaceful end to the war.
The LRA has been severely reduced in recent months. From an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 fighters in 2002, the army now claims there are less than 200 armed fighters remaining though this claim is impossible to verify.
Earlier this year Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he would order a ceasefire if LRA rebels were willing to hold direct peace talks.
The United Nations have described the situation in northern Uganda as the most neglected humanitarian crisis in the world with 20,000 children caught up in the war.
