Peace Treaty Might be Signed Tomorrow!

LRA leader to sign Uganda peace deal Thursday: mediator

KHARTOUM, April 9, 2008 (AFP) - Joseph Kony, the Ugandan rebel leader hiding from arrest by the International Criminal Court, will on Thursday sign an historic peace deal in the jungle on the Sudan-Congo border, the top mediator said.

Southern Sudan vice president Riek Machar said the Lord's Resistance Army had told him Kony would attend the signing, which was last week delayed at the rebels' request, and that the ceremony would take place as planned.

"They told me he would be there," Machar told AFP by telephone from Juba, the capital of southern Sudan. "I expect him to turn up."

The Lord's Resistance Army has waged 20 years of war in northern Uganda and is notorious for raping and mutilating civilians, enlisting child soldiers and massacring thousands.

A ceasefire was struck in August 2006, paving the way for peace talks in Juba that have dragged on for more than a year and a half.

Machar said he could provide "no guarantees" but that Kony had always turned up previously at Ri-Kwangba, the jungle area on the Sudan-DR Congo border where the rebels were told to assemble under a ceasefire agreement signed in 2006.

"Tomorrow he signs the peace agreement, hopefully, then we bring it to Juba. On the 14th the (Ugandan) president comes and signs," he added.

The government negotiating team will fly into Ri-Kwangba to witness the signing ceremony, which Machar said he hoped would be held at midday.

Ugandan rebels last week asked mediators to delay the signing of the peace agreement citing inadequate facilities such as toilets.

Machar dismissed the allegations of inadequate services as "rubbish", insisting that southern Sudan was providing food and facilities.

Kony has been in hiding to avoid a war crimes arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court.