Amin’s son says willing to meet LRA rebel leader in Sudan

KAMPALA, Nov 25, 2003 (Xinhua) — Taban Amin, son of late Ugandan president Idi Amin, said on Monday that he was willing to go to Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel leader Joseph Kony’s military camp in southern Sudan to talk to him over peace if the Ugandan government could facilitate him.

Taban was quoted by Tuesday’s New Vision newspaper as saying that “I am ready to go to meet Kony in the Sudan even now if I am given a go-ahead and facilitation by the government.”

Speaking to journalists in Gulu town, northern Uganda, Taban said that “I know where Joseph Kony’s military camp is in Baraak in Juba, Sudan. I can go there because Kony knows me very well. I met with him once in the Sudan and I don’t think he will refuse to talk to me.”

“So, we shall do everything possible to convince Kony to end this war. Kony is an ordinary Ugandan like us. Kony was born just like any other person and I know he will accept to listen to me,” Taban said.

Taban arrived in Gulu on Saturday. He left Gulu on Monday for Kitgum district, which is bordering with the Sudan, to visit areas affected by the LRA’s 17-year-old rebellion.

Taban, who returned Uganda from self-exile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last month, also said his 2,500 fighters would return from the DRC within two days if their flight arrangements were completed.