By Skye Wheeler
JUBA, Sudan (Reuters) - With whoops and backslaps, Uganda'sgovernment and Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels signed aceasefire on Saturday, a big step towards a final peacesettlement to one of Africa's longest-running wars.
"It is the laying down of arms. It is the end of the war,"U.N. envoy Joaquim Chissano said after the parties signed the"permanent ceasefire" agreement during their fast-progressingtalks in southern Sudan's capital Juba.
With only a demobilization deal left to be agreed on,negotiators and mediators like Chissano are predicting a finalaccord will be reached next week to end one of the world's mostmacabre and least-understood conflicts.
After a tortuous process since talks began in mid-2006, thespeed of progress in recent days has taken observers bysurprise, particularly after the LRA delegation walked out atone point this week in a row over cabinet jobs and cash.
The LRA revolt against President Yoweri Museveni since 1986has devastated north Uganda, killed tens of thousands ofpeople, uprooted nearly 2 million, and become infamous for thebrutal methods of the rebels including mutilating victims.
At Saturday's signing, presided over by chief mediator andSouth Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar, rebel and governmentdelegates embraced each other warmly. Both teams thumped tablesin joy, as cries and whistles filled the hall.
BUFFER-ZONE
Saturday's deal prohibits any recruitment or rearmament bythe LRA, or movement beyond a temporary assembly area in southSudan where they will remain prior to demobilization.
The ceasefire, formalizing a cessation of hostilitiesagreed in mid-2006, creates a 10 km- (6 mile-) deep buffer-zonearound the LRA assembly area, guarded by southern Sudanesetroops.
All that remains on the talks' agenda is an agreement onhow the rebels should demobilize and disarm, which negotiatorscall a technicality that will be dealt with quickly.
Chissano, the former president of Mozambique, warned bothsides not to fall at the final hurdle. "Let us not beobfuscated by this joy. We must see clearly a way to completepeace."
The news from Juba will be music to the ears of thelong-suffering Acholi population of north Uganda, who haveborne the brunt of the conflict. They have suffered not onlyfrom rebel attacks and forced recruitment of children, but alsofrom rape and other abuses by Uganda's military at refugeecamps.
Violence has largely subsided during the peace talks, andsome refugees have begun returning. But the trickle back totheir old villages and homes could turn into a mass return oncethe final peace deal is signed, aid agencies say.
The fate of the LRA's self-styled mystic leader Joseph Konyremains uncertain. He is wanted by the International CriminalCourt in The Hague, but earlier in the week both sides agreedserious crimes during the war would be dealt with locally.
Analysts believe that satisfied Kony he would not beprosecuted abroad, and enabled the progress of recent days.
On Friday, the sides signed another agreement in which thegovernment committed itself to give the north betterrepresentation in public offices and the armed forces.
Although most of its atrocities were against Acholis, theLRA cast its rebellion as a fight for the rights of northernerswhom it said had been marginalized and oppressed by Museveni.
Italian peace worker and long-time observer at the LRAtalks, Vittorio Scelzo, said the demobilization and disarmamenthad been well prepared and would be signed quickly.
"We are talking one, two or three days," he told Reuters.
Uganda's Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said thepermanent ceasefire was a "milestone" and the peace talks hadreached a point of no return.
Kampala would ask the ICC to rescind its indictments ofKony and two of his commanders when the deal went through and"all documents and the necessary mechanisms are in place," hesaid.
(Writing by Andrew Cawthorne, editing by Mary Gabriel)
