Uganda's Rebels Walk Out of Peace Talks with Government

Catherine McDuffie February 21, 2008 10:02pm Global Crime

After a 22 year war, yet another Peace talk for the Ugandan government and the Lord's Resistance Army has been abandoned. The rebels left the southern Sudanese town of Juba Thursday afternoon after their demands were not met. The rebels wanted an agreement signed that the war criminals would not be tried by the ICC but by the local Ugandan government. The Ugandan government agreed to this and signed off on it earlier in the week with the rebels, but the ICC continues to butt in and demand that the criminals be tried within the ICC. The new agreement calls for the most severe rebels to be tried in the Ugandan High Court and those of lesser charges to be tried in the local courts. The ICC continues to be a sticking point for those rebels, and they have agreed not to sign a peace agreement until the charges by the ICC are dropped.

I feel very frustrated with the ICC at this point because of how drawn out they are causing these peace talks to be. A peaceful agreement is so close we can almost touch it, yet when the ICC continues to act as it does the peace gets further and further away. I think the ICC should back off and let the Ugandan government handle this on their own. Sure, they needed some help getting the rebels to back off and calm down, but at some point we have to allow them to work it out for themselves.

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-02-21-voa58.cfm