“I want peace”, says Uganda LRA rebel leader
May 24, 2006 (NAIROBI) — One of the world’s most wanted rebel chiefs, Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), has called for an end to his 20-year war with the Ugandan government in the first images of him seen for years.
And in an act bound to spark controversy around Africa, the video obtained by Reuters on Wednesday also showed the elusive Kony taking $20,000 in cash from the No. 2 of the ex-rebel Southern People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A).
“Most people do not know me … I am not a terrorist… I am a human being, I want peace also,” the elusive Kony said in the lengthy clips of talks between the LRA leadership and the vice president of southern Sudan about three weeks ago.
Led by the former altar boy and self-proclaimed mystic who believes he is possessed by the Holy Spirit, the LRA has spread terror in north Uganda and southern Sudan, often targeting civilians and mutilating survivors by slicing off lips and ears.
The conflict, one of the world’s worst yet most neglected, has killed tens of thousands, displaced two million, and led the International Criminal Court (ICC) to name Kony and his deputies in its first warrants last year.
Wednesday’s footage, verified by sources in Uganda, showed about an hour of the meeting between the delegations of Kony and SPLM vice president Riek Machar in the bush of southern Sudan.
The pair pledged to end fighting. And Machar said he was ready to mediate between the LRA and President Yoweri Museveni.
“I want you to know that we, the LRA, want peace,” Kony, replied, looking less relaxed than his deputy Vincent Otti. “That is why I was in the bush … I am fighting for peace.”
Dressed in green military fatigues, and speaking with passion though rambling at times, the rebel leader looked wiry and more hardened than in the few other images existing of him.
CASH FOR KONY
After the Kony-Machar meeting, news of which emerged about a week ago, Museveni issued a statement saying he would guarantee the safety of Kony if he ends war. He had previously written off any further negotiations with his long-time foe.
While Museveni’s offer and the SPLM-Kony meeting have raised the prospects of new peace talks, they have also, however, greatly complicated efforts by the ICC to catch him.
The cooperation of the SPLM, a sworn enemy of Kony in the past, had been viewed as key to helping hunt him down.
Responding to the footage, a spokeswoman for ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo referred to a statement saying governments of the region were obliged to give effect to the arrest warrants. “And we are confident that they will honour their joint commitment to do so,” the statement said.
Machar said the SPLM was not among those seeking to collaborate with the ICC warrant.
At the end of the meeting, he is seen handing Kony an envelope stuffed with cash. “Twenty thousand dollars, ok? Buy food with it, not ammunition,” Machar told Kony.
Analysts said Kony’s aim in attending the meeting and allowing himself to be filmed was impossible to tell, but that those interested in peace should try and seize the moment.
“Is he genuine? You can’t trust Kony’s intention,” said Paul Omach, political scientist at Uganda’s Makerere University.
“It could be because they are very desperate and under a lot of military pressure that they are buying time but you have to be careful. Every peace offer should be welcomed. You should take advantage of this instead of writing it off.”
DISTRUST
In the only previous known footage of Kony, he was not heard speaking. But the images of his meeting with Machar showed his greetings and a lengthy address to the gathering, where both the LRA and SPLM delegations are flanked by soldiers.
“I am General Kony … I thank Allah very much,” Kony said at the start, surprising words for a man who has said he wants to rule Uganda by the Biblical Ten Commandments.
“There will be no exchange of fire between our people and your people,” he added, saying LRA fighters were only defending themselves in past clashes with SPLA troops.
“We are all brothers, we are all Christians, we are all blacks, we are all Africans,” he added.
Kony said he wanted to talk with the Museveni government, but was distrustful of his intentions.
“If we talk to Museveni, it will not take four, three days, he will come and attack us, in the middle like this.
“They say Kony is a terrorist…(But) I am fighting for the right cause.”
Otti, who comes across as the LRA strategist in the meeting, warned the gathering that peace would be “very, very difficult.” “Peace cannot come within a day or a year,” added Otti, pictured with greying hair and wearing spectacles.
Machar said the SPLM was prepared to help mediate peace talks, but would not tolerate future fighting on southern Sudanese soil between the LRA and Ugandan troops.
“If you want to fight yourselves, you get out of our country. But if you want to make use of us, we are ready.”
Other officials from around the region were present at the Kony-Machar meeting, and shook hands with the LRA leader one-by-one. The only white man present introduced himself to Kony in a French accent as “Simon Simon”.
Notorious for massacring villagers and kidnapping thousands of children, the shadowy LRA guerrilla group has few clear political goals beyond rabid opposition to Museveni.
(Reuters)