By Tim Cocks KAMPALA, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Uganda's government has said it will not restart a 20-year war with Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, even if both parties fail to agree on the extension of a ceasefire due to expire at the end of this month. The landmark truce signed in August and renewed in December had brought relative peace and stability to war-weary northern Uganda, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly 2 million displaced by war. But the ceasefire expires on Feb. 28 and the LRA have since walked out of talks in south Sudan after Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened to "get rid of the LRA from Sudan," where many fighters remain camped out. "We want to reassure people we will not restart hostilities," said Foreign Affairs State Minister Oryem Okello, a senior government negotiator at peace talks, told Reuters. "If the ceasefire expires, it does not mean that on March 1st the UPDF (Uganda People's Defence Forces) will launch an attack on LRA positions." He added that the government would even consider bowing to an LRA demand to move the venue for talks away from the south Sudanese capital, Juba, to Kenya or South Africa. The rebels were not immediately available for comment, but last week LRA deputy commander Vincent Otti threatened to re-invade Uganda from rebel bases on the Sudanese border unless a new venue for talks outside Sudan is found. "In exceptional circumstances that would allow us to achieve peace talks, we could consider changing the venue," Okello said. But he added that the government was committed to Juba for the time being. On Tuesday, aid agency World Vision, which rehabilitates former LRA child soldiers, said it had been reassured by the both sides in a teleconference that they were committed to peace, despite hiccups in the process and deepening mistrust. Even with the truce in place, the Ugandan army and LRA have clashed in south Sudan. The rebels accuse the army of using LRA assembly points agreed under the deal to besiege them. Aid agencies fear that if the LRA re-enter Uganda, they could again start a spate of killings of civilians and abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves.
