The regional leader of northern Uganda has called for an
emergency parliament session to discuss a roadmap for a peaceful
resolution and reconciliation for the war-ravaged north.
Norbert Mao, chairman of the war-torn northern Uganda district
of Gulu, was quoted by Daily Monitor on Tuesday as saying
he tabled the proposal in a closed meeting with members of
parliament from the conflict affected areas.
"This is a request we have made and that is why we are meeting
representatives from the region," Mao said shortly after the
meeting.
According to Mao, the parliament should urgently put into its
statute books the functioning of traditional justice systems like
the Acholi ritual cleansing ceremony called "Mato Oput".
Under the Acholi traditional system of truth and reconciliation,
the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and the Uganda People's
Defense Force would come at a public ceremony and be required to
publicly apologize to the local community which has borne the brunt
of the insurgency for the last 20 years.
The rebellion, which has been characterized as the one of the
world's forgotten crisis, has left tens of thousands of people dead
and over 1.4 million people homeless.
Mao's request comes shortly after Joseph Kony, the leader of the
LRA wrote to Speaker of Parliament, Edward Sekandi, appealing for
the legislators' support for the ongoing peace negotiations.
The final peace negotiations between the government and the LRA
are expected to resume on Tuesday in the southern Sudan town of
Juba after a two weeks recess.
Kony and four of his commanders are wanted by the International
Criminal Court to answer for the war crimes they have committed in
the north but the Ugandan government insisted on using the
traditional justice system if the talks succeed.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni also offered a blanket amnesty
to the rebel leadership before the talks kicked off on July 14.
(Xinhua News Agency August 9, 2006)
