Oxfam employee on kony’s peace team

By Emmy Allio

An employee of a British aid agency, Oxfam, is one of the 15 people appointed rebel leader Joseph Kony to represent the LRM/A at peace talks in the southern Sudanese capital Juba.

Sunday Ochaya from Kitgum, worked for Oxfam in Kitgum before he was transferred to Juba.

Recently, Oxfam locked horns with the government when it and 50 other NGOs working in northern Uganda authored a report saying the average weekly death toll in the north was higher than that in Iraq.

The Government attacked the report which was also later contradicted by a UN report, that indicated a sharp decline in civilian deaths.

On Wednesday, Uganda’s Consul to Juba, Busho Ndinyenka, delivered to the vice-president of Southern Sudan, Dr. Riek Machar, a letter from Uganda stating the government’s conditions for the talks with the rebels.

Sources said the government insisted that it was ready to talk but to a credible and genuine delegation which must not include those indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

After receiving the letter, Machar, who is mediating the talks, requested the ICC to drop criminal charges against the LRA leadership to give the talks a chance.

Security sources said the demands of the LRA delegation include government asking the ICC to withdraw criminal charges against Kony and four commanders and sharing cabinet portfolios.

Other LRA delegation members are Peter Ongom, Justine Labeja, Wilson Owiny, Rei Achama, Dennis Okirot, all in the UK, Otim Okullo from Germany, Rock Okidi, Crispus A. Odongo, a Kampala lawyer, Yusuf A. Okongo of Gulu, Obonyo Alweny in Kenya, Martin Ojul in USA, Joshua Otukene in Sudan, Col. Leonard Bwone and Lt. Col. Santos Alito, of Gulu. Sources said only Bwone and Alito were considered bona fide LRA officials.

Machar was pessimistic about the talks because Uganda had not sent a delegation.

New Vision