Uganda 'attack' threatens talks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/africa/6056742.stm

Version 0 of 1.

Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebels say a number of their fighters were attacked in southern Sudan by Ugandan troops despite ongoing peace talks.

The LRA team at the talks told the BBC the alleged incident at dawn on Monday was "a severe provocation" which could threaten the negotiations.

Talks began in July to try to end the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda.

Negotiator Godfrey Ay said LRA fighters were attacked as they headed to one of two safe havens in southern Sudan.

He said two LRA soldiers had sustained life-threatening injuries in the attack on Birinyang in southern Sudan.

He called the incident a very grave violation of the truce which threatened the peace talks and he called for a thorough investigation of what had happened.

But UPDF spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye said he knew of no such incident taking place.

He said Birinyang was a former LRA base in southern Sudan which had been occupied since 2002 by UPDF troops.

The cessation of hostilities agreement signed by both sides at the peace talks had recently been extended after a monitoring group had found that both the LRA and the Ugandan government had so far failed to honour its terms.

The LRA had been given more time to assemble at two points in southern Sudan in return for amnesty from the Ugandan government.

But the gathering of the LRA fighters appears to be a sticking point in the peace process to end the war which has left tens of thousands of people dead and more than one-and-a-half million displaced.