Uganda will not pardon LRA rebel leaders – Museveni
June 16, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said here on Friday that the government will not pardon rebels leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as the peace talk mediated by the southern Sudan was stalled.
Museveni said the National Resistance Movement government cannot accept the idea of pardoning the LRA ring leaders who are responsible for the murder of civilians, noting that the LRA remnants will be destroyed totally if they do not return to Uganda voluntarily, the Chinee Xinhua reported.
The President’s comment of its first kind came on Friday when he met a German delegation in the State House, one day after contradicting stories published in local media about the seemingly gloomy peace talk.
The Ugandan clear rejection of talks with Kony means that Uganda didn’t take in consideration the offer made by the government of Southern Sudan and its desire to stop Ugandan war inside the Sudanese territories. It may lead in the future to the deterioration of the good ties between Museveni and the southern Sudan ruling party SPLM.
Daily Monitor, owned by Kenya’s Nation Group, reported that Ugandan delegation for peace talk arrived at Juba in southern Sudan while the headline of the state-owned New Vision daily said the government will not talk to Joseph Kony, the leader of LRA.
The Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir, has offered to mediate in the talks between Uganda and Kony, who were indicted by the Hague-based International Criminal Court and wanted by the Interpol.
Kony has dispatched a 14-member team to Juba in southern Sudan early this week for talks with the Ugandan government after concluding a three day meeting with Riak Machar, a deputy to Kiir.
The LRA has waged a war in northern Uganda for the last 20 years, leaving tens of thousands of people killed and over 1.4 million homeless. The conflict was labeled the “worst neglected humanitarian disaster in the world” by a United Nations envoy.
(ST)