By Skye Wheeler and Francis Kwera
RI-KWANGBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Ugandan government officialsquit peace talks on Friday after fugitive rebel leader JosephKony delayed signing a final deal, casting doubt over the fateof nearly two years of tortuous negotiations.
The draft deal with Kony's Lord's Resistance Army had beendue to be signed on Thursday, but the elusive guerrilla chiefasked mediators to clarify part of the text and then fired thehead of his negotiating team.
"We are going back to Uganda until we are informed by thechief mediator when the Lord's Resistance Army will be ready tosign," Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said on theremote Sudan-Congo border.
He said a separate signing ceremony by Ugandan PresidentYoweri Museveni that had been planned for Tuesday in the southSudanese capital Juba had been indefinitely postponed.
And Rugunda said that "unless circumstances significantlychange", the government had no plans to extend an earlier truceagreement between the two sides that expires next week.
Uganda's 22-year civil war has killed tens of thousands ofpeople, uprooted 2 million more and destabilised neighbouringparts of oil-rich south Sudan and mineral-rich eastern Congo.
The LRA commander Kony and two of his top deputies arewanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court inThe Hague, including rape, murder and the abduction ofthousands of children to serve as fighters, porters and sexslaves.
South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar, who has chairedtalks between the two sides since mid-2006, said the LRA leaderhad been unsure how the government planned to use its courtsand traditional reconciliation rituals to counter the ICCwarrants.
Even if Kony does sign a final peace deal, the rebels havevowed never to disarm until the indictments are scrapped.
Elders from northern Uganda tried to meet him earlier onFriday to salvage talks to end one of Africa's longest wars.
But it was not immediately clear if the small group ofreligious and cultural leaders had found Kony, who skippedplanned talks with them on Thursday.
Sources involved in the peace process said the rebel chieflater fired his chief negotiator, who returned to camp alone.The negotiator said he had resigned because Kony refused to seehim.
(Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Matthew Tostevin)
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