KAMPALA (AP) -- Ugandan government and rebel negotiators signed a major agreement Tuesday on how the country will deal with crimes committed during a brutal 20-year insurgency in the north, mediators said.

The agreement outlines how Uganda should handle allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during an insurgency the Lord's Resistance Army has waged since 1987.
The deal represents a major development in the difficult peace talks.
""The signing of today's agreement is a sign that the peace talks are progressing toward the final stages,"" said David Matsanga, leader of the rebels' negotiation team.
Under the deal, those charged with severe crimes would be tried in the High Court, and those accused of lesser crimes would be tried through northern Uganda's traditional justice system, known as Mato Put, according to Chris Magezi, a spokesman for government negotiators.
Former Mozambique President Joaquim Chissano, a special UN for rebel-affected areas, cited the agreement in saying that ""progress is being achieved in the ongoing negotiations,"" UN deputy spokeswoman Marie Okabe said at UN headquarters in New York. She said Chissano was in Juba, the site of the talks.
The peace talks, mediated by southern Sudanese leaders, began in July 2006.
The conflict has been one of Africa's longest running, sparked by a 1986 rebellion in the north when President Yoweri Museveni, a southerner, took power.
Lord's Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and four other top LRA leaders have been indicted by the International Criminal Court on atrocities charges, including rape, mutilation and murder. But court officials have no power to arrest, and Museveni's government has promised not to turn over the LRA suspects if they sign a peace deal.
Magezi also said they agreed Uganda would continue to try to convince the ICC to drop indictments against Kony so he can be tried in Uganda after signing a comprehensive peace agreement.
LRA fighters are notorious for cutting off the tongues and lips of civilians and abducting thousands of children, turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into fighters.