Ugandan president offers direct talks with LRA rebels leader

KAMPALA, Dec 24 (AFP) — Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has offered to hold direct talks with Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony if such a meeting would help end the war in northern Uganda, presidential sources said.

It is the first time Museveni is offering direct talks with Kony, whom he prefers to call “terrorist” and with whom he has been reluctant to hold a dialogue, maintaining that a military solution will end the bloody war.

“The president has never refused to talk to the LRA, but this offer is meant to reinforce the Ugandan government’s commitment to the peace process,” Minister for the Presidency Kirunda Kivejinja told AFP in Kampala.

The minister was commenting on a report published Friday by the state-owned New Vision newspaper saying Museveni was offering to talk directly to Kony if that would help end the civil war that has ravaged northern Uganda for the past 18 years, causing untold human and material destruction to the vast region.

“Museveni has offered to talk directly to Kony if this is what he wants and if this is what will end the war in northern Uganda,” Information Minister Nsaba Buturo confirmed.

“There have been persistent allegations, both within and outside Uganda, that the government did not want peace talks, but Museveni is answering these critics by offering direct talks with Kony,” Buturo said.

But Buturo, the official government spokesman, said Museveni’s offer was on condition that the rebels stopped atrocities against the northern Ugandan civilian population.

“Look, we want peace. We want the war to end, though we will not hesitate to use military means,” Buturo added.

He said the new gesture will convince the world that “if Kony refused to take up the offer, the government will not be the one at fault.”

“Kony has been offered access to the president, let us see what he will do this time,” he said.

“We have all along been committed to ending this war, putting in place a number of measures, including the amnesty law and allowing religious leaders to try talk to the rebels. Our recent announcement of a ceasefire was geared towards helping build confidence,” Buturo added.

State House officials said that Museveni had reconstituted a government negotiation team, led by Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, for talks with the rebels to be held in an area near the Sudan border at a date yet to be set.

Former minister and chief mediator Betty Bigombe said the meeting had been delayed, but declined to give reasons for the delay.

In 1994 Bigombe presided over a peace process between Kampala and the LRA, which collapsed after Museveni called on the insurgents to surrender or “face the might of army.”

Since then the war has raged on, with several false starts in the search for the elusive peace.

The LRA, which says it wants to set up a regime based on the Bible’s Ten Commandments, is notorious for its brutality against the civilian population, notably its kidnapping of children to serve as its soldiers.

Some 1.6 million people caught up in the conflict have fled their homes and are currently living in camps dotting the region.

Museveni announced a ceasefire, effective from November 15, which has since been extended twice to allow the rebels more time to consult with the government.

But the Ugandan army on Thursday accused the LRA of using the truce to reorganize and carry out more atrocities.