Key rebel leader attends Uganda peace talks

July 29, 2006 (NABANGA, Sudan) — A rebel leader indicted by the International Criminal Court attended peace talks Saturday aimed at ending a brutal 19-year insurgency in Uganda.

Vincent Otti, deputy leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, turned up for the talks in a clearing on the border of Congo and Sudan. Journalists were kept away and could not hear what he discussed with Riek Machar, vice president of southern Sudan’s autonomous government.

Southern Sudan is pushing to resolve the insurgency because it wants to secure the region as it prepares for reconstruction after its own 21-year civil war.

The LRA’s political agenda is unclear, although its leader has called for Uganda to be governed according to the Bible’s Ten Commandments. The group is known for abducting thousands of children, forcing them to become fighters, servants or concubines. Thousands of civilians have died in the conflict and more than 1 million were forced to flee their homes.

It was not clear Saturday if the group’s elusive leader, Joseph Kony, who also is under indictment by the ICC, will show up for the talks. Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has offered to protect him if the LRA agrees to give up its weapons. The LRA, however, has demanded that its fighters be incorporated into the national army.

A human rights group has denounced calls for amnesty.

“International law rejects impunity for serious crimes such as genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and torture,” New York-based Human Rights Watch said Friday.

The LRA set up rear bases in Sudan and Congo, and its fighters have been accused of attacking civilians and threatening stability in those countries. The rebel group is made up of the remnants of a rebellion that began after Museveni took power in 1986.

(ST/AP)