Museveni offer to LRA’s Kony sparks new concerns
May 21, 2006 (KAMPALA) — Uganda’s surprise offer to protect one of the world’s most wanted rebel leaders if he joins peace talks is seen as unlikely to bear fruit and could lead to a showdown with international prosecutors.
President Yoweri Museveni this week issued an August 1 deadline for Joseph Kony to end his 20-year insurgency after the chief of the cult-like Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) told officials in southern Sudan he was ready for talks.
The LRA leader’s direct message to Museveni was his first in more than a decade.
Museveni, who had previously written off holding any further negotiations with his long-time foe, said he would guarantee Kony’s safety if he was serious this time.
But that would put him at odds with the new International Criminal Court (ICC). Its first target is the LRA and it wants Kony in a dock, not round a negotiating table.
Many, however, doubt Museveni’s real commitment to a negotiated settlement.
“Museveni is trying to sound reasonable, but I think he has always wanted a military solution to Kony,” said Africa analyst Tom Cargill. “Certainly, with the U.S. comments this week, he will feel he has support for that.”
Speaking in London on Tuesday, the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Jendayi Frazer, said the Bush administration had made it a priority to “get rid” of the LRA by the end of the year.
Notorious for massacring villagers and kidnapping thousands of children, the shadowy guerrilla group has few clear political goals beyond rabid opposition to Museveni.
Led by Kony, a self-proclaimed mystic who believes he is possessed by the Holy Spirit, the LRA has spread terror from bases in southern Sudan, uprooting nearly 2 million people in northern Uganda and triggering a massive humanitarian crisis.
FOOD AND CASH
The war spread to a third country last year when a group of LRA fighters crossed from Sudan into the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This week, Museveni said the U.N. should expel Congo for harbouring terrorists.
Reflecting rising pressure to bring an end to the war, leaders of Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) held three meetings this month with Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti near the Congolese border, United Nations sources in Sudan said.
South Sudan’s Vice President Riek Machar said rebels agreed to stop terrorising local villagers and release those taken captive. The U.N. sources said he gave the LRA several thousand dollars and several tonnes of food.
“Of course, under the ICC indictments, the SPLA should not be meeting the LRA at all. They should arrest them,” said one Western diplomat who works extensively in northern Uganda.
“In an ideal world, people like Kony would face justice. But (apart from the SPLA meetings) there are few other signs of this war ending in the short term, so it is a quandary.”
Despite Museveni’s guarantee of safety, Uganda’s military were quick to say their operations were continuing.
Sporadic clashes with small bands of LRA fighters break out regularly in the north and southern Sudan, but Ugandan commanders say the top rebel officers are out of reach in DRC.
EXIT STRATEGY
Following Museveni’s offer, an ICC spokeswoman said it was he who had referred the LRA for investigation in December 2003, so he was now under an obligation to hand over the suspects.
Analysts say the ICC would face a dilemma if substantive talks began, as it would not want to appear to be a barrier to peace. But its supporters are determined the LRA leaders face trial, saying their atrocities make them exactly the type of targets the world court should be pursuing.
The ICC delayed announcing its arrest warrants to give more time to the last attempt at talks in late 2004. Those were the first meaningful dialogue for a decade, but stalled early last year after the main rebel negotiator surrendered.
The unveiling of indictments in October effectively ended the possibility of any further talks then with Kony. But he and his commanders have proved just as elusive as ever.
Kony’s whereabouts are always hotly debated in Uganda, and if there was any doubt about the danger of trying to bring the LRA to justice, the risks were underlined in January when eight Guatemalan commandos were killed in a secret U.N. mission to catch Otti in Congo’s remote Garamba Forest.
Many in northern Uganda see the conflict continuing, and say the ICC should step back if there are any hopes of talks.
“Kony will never come out of the bush peacefully if the ICC is waiting to nab him,” said Norbert Mao, an opposition politician who took office this week as chairman of the north’s Gulu district — the epicentre of the conflict.
“And if they really wanted to catch him, why not do it properly?” Mao told Reuters by telephone. “If Kony heard 1,000 NATO troops were landing in town, I can guarantee you he would very quickly start looking for an exit strategy.”
(Reuters)