Broader perspectives for them, maybe (via Flickr, Mel Kots and John Kots)
Today, for the first time in 20 years, negotiators from Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army visited the capital Kampala to before going north to discuss justice and reconciliation. The so-calleed „Juba talks“ had been going on since 2006, but only since this June a lasting peace seems reachable. Despite the positive auguries, there are still major issues to be discussed. While the LRA wants the international arrest warrants against more than a dozen of their leaders to be suspended, the Ugandan government insists on holding those who commited war crimes accountable (namely,at the International Crime Court). Until a mechanism is set up which allows Ugandan courts to deal with the crimes, like it happened in Rwanda some years ago, hard negotiations might be necessary.
Another point are rumours that LRA-leader Joseph Kony and his erstwhile right hand man Vincent Otti have split, which could lead to a new rebel group targetting the peace talks. Right now the northern region, where the militia has been enslaving, torturing, raping, and murdering civilians for years, is relatively stable. The LRA is said to have been weakened because of dwindling support from Sudan – but there could be more to come in the conflict between the LRA and the government which until now has left tens of thousands of people dead as well as 1.8 million displaced