VZCZCXRO0442
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0671/01 1191429
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 291429Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7025
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHDR/AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM PRIORITY 0007
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA PRIORITY 0080
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA PRIORITY 0077
RUEHLS/AMEMBASSY LUSAKA PRIORITY 0001
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO PRIORITY 0013
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 2518

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KHARTOUM 000671 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF/SE NATSIOS AND AF/SPG, NSC 
FOR PITTMAN AND SHORTLEY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/29/2017 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MARR KPKO UG CG KE CT MZ ZA TZ SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN/UGANDA/DRC:  LRA PEACE TALKS RESUME IN JUBA 
 
Classified By: CDA R. Powers, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: Warning the parties not to squander an 
opportunity for peace, Former Mozambique President Joaquim 
Chissano formally reopened talks in Juba between the Lord's 
Resistance Army (LRA) and the Government of Uganda (GOU) 
April 26.  Chissano and Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) 
GOSS President Salva Kiir lauded increased international 
support for the peace process, including the participation of 
five new African states.  Immediate problems facing the talks 
include the assembly of LRA forces at the designated location 
on the Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border, 
monitoring the renewed Cessation of Hostilities agreement, 
finalizing an interim agreement on "root causes" of the 
conflict, and*-most critically-*identifying a "justice 
mechanism" for Kony and other LRA leaders indicted by the 
International Criminal Court (ICC).  Underscoring these 
problems, there were continued reports of LRA attacks in 
southern Sudan.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (C) Action request in paragraph 14. 
 
------------------------------- 
Chissano Tells Parties to Seize 
The Opportunity for Peace 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3. (C) Citing Mozambique's experience in negotiating a 
lasting peace after a "long, fierce and destructive war," 
Chissano urged the parties to press on to a final agreement. 
"Don't let this opportunity go," he urged, for it "will never 
return."  Both the UN Secretary General and "various African 
leaders" with whom he has recently consulted give "full 
support for these efforts," Chissano stressed.  Chissano is 
the Secretary General's special representative for 
LRA-affected areas, which currently include northern Uganda, 
southern Sudan, northeastern DRC and a small bit of the 
Central African Republic (CAR).  He has met recently with 
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and DRC head Joseph Kabila, 
among other regional leaders.  (He flew back to Uganda April 
27 to consult again with Museveni.) 
 
¶4. (C) "We in Africa have enough capacity to deal with 
conflicts," Chissano vowed, noting that South Africa, Kenya, 
Tanzania, Mozambique and DRC have now provided observers to 
the talks and contributed two persons each to the small 
Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team (CHMT).  Peace talks 
recessed last December, giving way to mutual recrimination 
and an LRA announcement that it had withdrawn from the 
process.  Chissano broke the logjam and secured a renewal of 
the Cessation of Hostilities agreement in a face-to-face 
meeting with LRA Chief Joseph Kony at Ri-Kwangba on the 
Sudan-DRC border April 13.  The parties also agreed that the 
LRA would be allowed to move all its forces to Ri-Kwangba, 
abandoning sites east of the Nile in southern Sudan and in 
northern Uganda. 
 
¶5. (C) "The difficulties that have kept you away for four 
months" have been resolved, Chissano told the parties.  Nor 
could all remaining issues be fully addressed at the talks, 
Chissano said.  Matters like the creation of new Ugandan 
government structures would require "legislative initiatives" 
in Kampala.  After months of protracted negotiations and four 
draft agreements on "agenda item two" dealing with the "root 
causes" of the LRA conflict, the parties should be able to 
reach a final agreement on that agenda item within "a matter 
of days," Chissano admonished. 
 
---------------------- 
The Problem of Justice 
---------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Pausing to read carefully from a prepared text, 
Chissano sought the "unreserved commitment of the parties to 
develop a well-argued and implemented agreement on how to 
achieve justice."  It is critical, Chissano said, that the 
parties identify a way to deal with the problem of impunity 
"in accordance with the norms of international law."  The UN 
would assist the parties, he said, in developing a "process 
of delivering justice that meets international standards." 
Four LRA leaders, including Kony and second-in-command 
Vincent Otti, are under ICC indictment for crimes against 
humanity. 
 
KHARTOUM 00000671  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶7. (C) Prior to the reopening of the talks, the parties had 
reportedly agreed in principle on the concept of alternative 
justice, incorporating traditional Ugandan justice mechanisms 
and other elements.  Under this arrangement the indictees 
would not be turned over to the ICC, but it is not clear 
whether the ICC would drop the indictments.  By one account, 
Kony and Otti have reportedly agreed to at least a brief 
period of incarceration in Uganda.  According to the British 
High Commissioner to Uganda, an LRA negotiator told the 
Kampala-based diplomats before the talks reopened that the 
LRA required "a framework in place to address the ICC issue" 
before a final agreement was reached.  In any case, the LRA 
negotiator said, the signatures of the ICC indictees would be 
essential to any peace agreement.  UN and GOSS mediators have 
quietly reached out to several legal experts for advice on 
these issues, and at least one lawyer has consulted closely 
with Kony, Otti and other indictees.  The LRA have also added 
a legal expert to their negotiating team. 
 
------------------------------------- 
GOSS Not Ready for "Open-Ended" Talks 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (C) GOSS President Salva Kiir also struck some stern notes 
at the opening of the talks.  "The stability of Uganda and 
that of southern Sudan are inseparable," Kiir said.  He is 
"gravely concerned that the war zone has shifted" to southern 
Sudan.  "Many atrocities have been committed against our 
people," Kiir said.  These acts discredited GOSS before "the 
citizens of eastern and western Equatoria."  The GOSS is not 
prepared for "open-ended peace negotiations," he said, and 
"knows what it will do" if talks fail.  "I beg you" to 
negotiate in good faith, Kiir concluded. 
 
------------------- 
LRA and GOU Respond 
------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) GOU chief negotiator Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda's 
Minister of the Interior, told poloff privately that his 
delegation is unwilling for talks to continue for "weeks and 
weeks."  In brief remarks at the opening session, Rugunda 
said the Ugandan government is committed to the peace 
process.  However, he stressed, the negotiators were charged 
with reaching peace, not rewriting the Ugandan constitution 
or drafting a history of the conflict. 
 
¶10. (C) In his opening remarks, Martin Ojul, head of the LRA 
delegation, demanded that the other parties "formally submit 
a pledge in writing" that they would honor the agreements 
reached between Chissano and LRA Chief Kony at their most 
recent meeting in the bush.  Nor would there have been a 
four-month delay, Ojul said, if the mediators had listened to 
the LRA and not treated the LRA delegation as 
"inconsequential."  GOSS Vice President Riek Machar, chief 
mediator at the talks, glared visibly at Ojul, who went on to 
request "direct material assistance and support" from the 
international community.  Nevertheless, Ojul said, the LRA 
recognized that the peace process is the "only way" to 
resolve the conflict. 
 
¶11. (C) In a meeting in Juba with a group of Kampala-based 
diplomats prior to the opening of the talks, LRA 
representatives also asked that their organization be removed 
from lists of terrorist organizations.  This, they explained, 
hampers their efforts to get financial support.  They also 
complained that the revised allowances for their 
representatives at the talks (lodging plus USD 70 per day, 
and an additional USD 50 for satellite and cell phone air 
time) are too low, and requested a USD 300 daily stipend. 
 
---------------------------- 
Large International Presence 
---------------------------- 
 
¶12. (C) A large contingent of Kampala and Juba-based 
diplomats, including a representative of ConGen Juba, 
attended the opening session.  There, Chissano also 
introduced representatives of four of the five new African 
observers to the talks (the DRC representative had been 
expected but did not appear).  Chissano said the five new 
African observers represent the AU, and will also contribute 
 
KHARTOUM 00000671  003 OF 003 
 
 
two military officers each to the CHMT.  According to GOSS VP 
Machar, Zambia will also contribute one military monitor. 
Half the monitors will reside in Juba, Machar said, and the 
other half at the Ri-Kwangba assembly point.  About 16 donor 
countries were now contributing to the process, Machar said. 
Nevertheless, he argued, more support is required, 
particularly for the CHMT.  (Note:  Machar and Maj. Gen. 
Wilson Deng, the senior Sudan People's Liberation Army with 
responsibility for the peace process, have approached us 
repeatedly seeking help for the monitoring teams.  End Note.) 
 
----------------------- 
LRA Reportedly Kill Two 
----------------------- 
 
¶13. (C) At approximately the same time the opening session of 
the peace talks drew to a close, a presumed LRA unit 
reportedly killed two civilians, and seriously injured a 
third, at Kimoro Village in Magwi County, Eastern Equatoria 
State.  The attack was the latest in a series of small 
attacks in the area.  SPLA Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Oyai Deng 
told ConGen April 27 that the SPLA is conducting anti-LRA 
operations in the Magwi area.  For their part, LRA 
representatives at the peace talks told European diplomats 
they had received "sensitive information" that the Uganda 
People's Defense Forces (UPDF) plan to "wipe out" LRA forces 
in Eastern Equatoria.  The UPDF are still attacking and 
killing LRA forces in southern Sudan, the representative 
claimed.  According to several sources at the peace talks, 
the parties have agreed in principle that there will be 
designated routes for LRA groups east of the Nile to cross to 
the west and gather at the Ri-Kwangba assembly point.  The 
SPLA Chief of Staff, however, told us that these routes have 
not yet been agreed and that he has seen no evidence yet that 
the LRA are actually moving to assemble. 
 
-------------- 
Action Request 
-------------- 
 
¶14. (C) It is encouraging that the peace talks have resumed 
in Juba.  Our sense is that Chissano has re-energized the 
process, while signaling at the same time that it cannot go 
on forever.  It remains to be seen whether the LRA are 
serious about peace or merely buying time.  One way to find 
out is to field effective "Cessation of Hostilities 
Monitoring Teams" of African military observers.  GOSS has 
sought support for these teams.  We seek the Department's 
guidance on how to respond to these requests.  We recommend 
positive consideration of a modest material contribution to 
the monitoring teams, perhaps in the form of 4-6 vehicles, 
through existing U.S. security assistance or peace-building 
programs. 
POWERS