By Kylie M Tsudama
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KAMPALA, Uganda – David Matsanga resigned on Friday from his post as chief negotiator for the Lord’s Resistance Army in order to run for President in the country’s 2011 elections.

“I decided to resign as the chief negotiator and leader of the LRA peace delegation,” he said.  “I will return to Uganda to challenge for the presidency in 2011.  I will take my stake for president of the Republic of Uganda as an independent candidate.  I will unseat President (Yoweri) Museveni with a campaign for peace.”

Matsanga was a controversial negotiator for the LRA.  During peace talks in southern Sudan he claimed to have ended the conflict in northern Uganda with a peace agreement.

“I have fulfilled my mandate,” said Matsanga.  “The mandate was to silence the guns in northern Uganda and I have done it.”

However, LRA leader Joseph Kony was promised to Ugandan and United Nations officials for a peace agreement signing but he repeatedly failed to appear.  Ugandan officials lost confidence in Matsanga with the faltering peace process.  According to Paddy Ankunda, a former Ugandan military spokesman who also participated in southern Sudan, Matsanga was a “comedian” who never communicated with Kony.

Negotiation team member Justine Labeja also resigned.  The two cited President Museveni and Kony’s lack of commitment to peace agreements aimed at ending Uganda’s decades-long civil war as the reason for their resignations.  They said they could not “chase” Kony through the Central African Republic for his signature and that the Ugandan government failed to grant a ceasefire that would have allowed Kony to come out and sign the Final Peace Agreement (FPA).

“Museveni says Kony must sign the FPA, but he has refused to grant him a temporary ceasefire.  How does he expect Kony to sign the agreement?,” Matsanga said.

The peace talks lasted from 2006 to 2008 and a final agreement was made.  In April, President Museveni went to Sudan to sign the agreement but chief negotiator Salva Kiir postponed the signing when Kony failed to come.

Kony has previously been indicted by the International Criminal Court on 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Uganda Rebel Negotiator Says to Run for President – 15 August 2009

AllAfrica – Uganda: LRA Team in Peace Talks Resigns – 15 August 2009

VOA – Chief Negotiator for Ugandan Rebel Leader Quits – 15 August 2009