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UN: AT
UN DEBATE, UGANDA CALLS FOR STEPPED-UP PRESSURE ON NORTHERN REBELS:
01/10/2007 (MaximsNews Network)
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UNITED NATIONS - / MaximsNews Network /
- 01 October 2007 -
Warning that peace talks “cannot go on
forever,” Uganda's Foreign Minister told the General Assembly today that the
international community must step up the pressure on the rebel Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA) to meet its commitments under an agreement aimed at ending
hostilities in the long-running civil war in the country’s north.
Sam K.
Kutesa told the Assembly’s annual high-level debate, held at United Nations
Headquarters in New York, that the LRA has not met any of the terms of the
agreement on the cessation of hostilities that it signed with the Ugandan
Government in August 2006.
“For
example, it is stipulated that LRA forces assemble at Ri-Kwangba in southern
Sudan,” Mr. Kutesa said. “They have, however, not done this. They are still
camped in Garamba National Park in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the
Congo].”
The
Foreign Minister said the international community must pressure the LRA to
assemble at Ri-Kwangba and to put a time frame on the peace talks.
“As we
inch towards a comprehensive peace agreement, international support and
understanding is required to balance the need for durable peace and stability on
one hand and the imperative for justice on the other.”
The
conflict between the Government and the LRA, which has raged since the
mid-1980s, has killed more than 100,000 people and forced 2 million others to
flee their homes.
The LRA
has also become notorious for abducting as many as 25,000 children and using
them as fighters and porters. The children were often subject to extreme
violence shortly after abduction, with many girls allocated to officers in a
form of institutional rape.
In
October 2005 the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first-ever arrest
warrants against five senior members of the LRA: the leader Joseph Kony, and
commanders Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo, Dominic Ongwen and Raska Lukwiya.
In his
address today, Mr. Kutesa also called on the Security Council to reinforce the
mandate and resources of the UN Organization Mission in the DRC (MONUC) to
enable it to work more effectively with the Congolese national armed forces
“to totally eradicate the threat of negative forces operating on the DRC
territory.”
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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