U.N. envoy says Uganda rebel talks can be saved

By Francis Kwera

RI-KWANGBA, Sudan, April 14 (Reuters) - Peace talks to end northern Uganda's civil war are not dead, a U.N. envoy said on Monday, despite rebel infighting that apparently killed a fugitive commander and delayed the signing of a final deal.

Hopes of an agreement to end one of Africa's longest conflicts were dashed last week after Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, failed to appear on the remote Sudan-Congo border, stalling nearly two years of tortuous negotiations.

United Nations envoy Joaquim Chissano, the former Mozambican president, blamed a breakdown in communication with the elusive guerrilla boss.

"The peace process is not dead. There is a lack of effective communication, and that is what the LRA leader wants," Chissano told Reuters in the frontier hamlet of Ri-Kwangba.

"There are people who are assisting in establishing that effective communication, and once that clarification is made the peace process will be back on the road."

The U.N. envoy then boarded a helicopter for Juba, Sudan, where security was tight as Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni flew in for talks with his south Sudanese counterpart Salva Kiir.

The 22-year civil war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted 2 million more in northern Uganda alone. It has also destabilised neighbouring parts of Sudan's oil-producing south and eastern Congo, which has large mineral wealth.



ICC TARGET DEAD?

Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, had been expected to sign a final agreement in Ri-Kwangba on Thursday. But he failed to show up.

An LRA spokesman has said the rebel leader remains ready to sign, but wants guarantees of his safety and financial security.

Then on Sunday, rebel sources said disputes within the LRA over the proposed deal triggered gun battles last week that killed at least nine people -- including Okot Odhiambo, a top commander who is also wanted by international prosecutors.

Kony, Odhiambo and a third senior rebel, Dominic Ongwen, were accused by the ICC in 2005 of offences including rape, murder and the abduction of thousands of children who were forced to serve the group as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

If confirmed, Odhiambo would become the third of five LRA suspects named by the ICC who have since died.

Kony executed his deputy Vincent Otti last October after accusing him of being a government spy, while fifth indictee Raska Lukwiya was killed by the Ugandan military in August 2006.

Even if Kony does sign a peace agreement, the LRA says it will not disarm until the ICC indictments are scrapped. The Ugandan government has said it will only call for the warrants to be lifted after a final deal has been reached.

The world court says its warrants remain active, and that Uganda has a legal obligation to arrest the targets. (Writing by Daniel Wallis, editing by Mark Trevelyan) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: africa.reuters.com/)