Uganda’s LRA boss denies killing deputy
November 9, 2007 (KAMPALA) — The leader of Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army rebels (LRA) Joseph Kony has denied media reports that he killed his second-in-command, a leading peace activist who spoke with Kony said on Friday.
Norbert Mao, a politician and key player in peace talks between the rebels and the government aimed at ending a brutal 20-year war said he called the reclusive Kony on Thursday and that he told him that Vincent Otti is alive.
Both Kony and Otti are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes during their insurgency and have stayed hidden in remote northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fearing arrest if they attend peace talks.
“He told me Vincent Otti is not dead. He is only under house arrest because of a disagreement with Kony,” Mao told Reuters by telephone from war-ravaged northern Uganda.
Otti was seen as the public face of the LRA and a strong influence on their decision to open dialogue.
He often talked to mediators and reporters by satellite phone from his jungle hideout. But he has fallen silent in the past month, prompting speculation that Kony had killed him.
Mao said Kony had accused his deputy of being a Ugandan government spy and imprisoned him at an undisclosed Congolese forest location. Mao had cautioned Kony not to kill Otti.
“Movements like the LRA operate on paranoia,” he said. “I told Kony he needs to deal with this internal disagreement without too much recklessness.”
Uganda’s conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted two million and destabilised parts of Sudan and Congo.
LRA delegates arrived in Uganda last week for a historic visit and meeting with President Yoweri Museveni. Talks started in South Sudan in July last year.
LRA delegates are touring the north to shore up support for an effort to prevent Kony, Otti and two other commanders from being tried for war crimes at the Hague-based ICC.
“These internal disagreements in the LRA will not derail the talks,” Mao said. “Kony understands that to take Otti out of the equation will not help.”
But he admitted that the rift between Kony and Otti was a concern for peace. Otti is articulate and more predictable than his volatile, press-shy boss.
Kony himself is never contactable for comment.
(Reuters)