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Friends, every progress toward peace
generates more hope for a genuine
and lasting one.  Let's pray about it.

Cheers!

Richard
<><><><>================================>

 BBC Wednesday, 29 December, 2004, 19:29 GMT

Peace in sight for Ugandan north

Some 1.6m people have fled their homes because of the fighting
The Ugandan government has announced a truce with Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels in the north which could mark the end of the 18-year conflict there.

"We have agreed that the war should end," Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda told the BBC.  Speaking after the first direct talks with the LRA, he said a formal peace accord would be signed within two days.

The head of the rebel party at the talks near the Sudan border was cautiously optimistic about peace.

"If the government continues showing us what it has just shown us, then the suffering will soon end," said Brig Sam Kolo, at the talks in the Kitgum area.

A signed accord would build on the limited cease-fire already in place in the region.

Some 1.6 million people have been driven into refugee camps in what aid workers call one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. Thousands of children were also abducted by the LRA to become fighters or sex slaves.

'Embraces'

Mr Rugunda said the talks had been tense initially.

Uganda's invisible war

"By the end of the meeting we were not only shaking hands but actually embracing because we had agreed on ending war," Mr Rugunda told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

According to the BBC's Ali Mutasa in Kitgum, people are optimistic that the peace talks will succeed, as high-level negotiations have never reached this far before.

LRA leader Joseph Kony did not attend the talks, as he is over the border in southern Sudan.

But with the cessation of hostilities there is now a possibility that he will join the talks, correspondents say.

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