Some Acholi leaders have accused President Yoweri Museveni of violating the Juba peace talks agreement by using provocative and abusive language.
Pader LC5 chairman Peter Odok W’Oceng, who is also the chairman of the peace mobilisation team of leaders from Lango, Teso, Acholi, Bunyoro, West Nile and Karamoja, cited Museveni’s remarks during his recent visit to the north.
Odok told a press conference at Rainbow hotel in Gulu yesterday that Museveni’s remarks on Radio Mega on September 19 were provocative and dangerous to the peace process.
Odok was flanked by former Pader woman MP Santa Okot.
“He (Museveni) called the LRA a terrorist outfit. Has the president become a spoiler of the peace process? He even stated that they would hunt the LRA and finish them up. Is he unaware of the LRA assembling in the agreed areas in Southern Sudan, awaiting the amicable conclusion of the peace talks?
He appealed to Museveni to “stop his intention to spoil the peace talks in Juba in order to hunt Kony and kill our children and Southern Sudanese children now present in his (Kony’s) camp. This might spark up a new tier of resistance from the people of the greater north and southern Sudan which the president will never defeat.
“Let us resolve the conflict by peaceful means and save the lives of thousands of our innocent children. Some of us are more interested in these peace talks because of our children who were abducted and are still in the rebel camps. We don’t want them to be hunted and killed. When a snake coils around your baby, you don’t take a stick to fight it, you throw a frog or rat and it will uncoil and leave your baby alone,” Odok said.
Meanwhile, the President’s press secretary Onapito Ekomoloit, said Museveni was just being factual. “Do you want him to call them angels? They are not angels, they are not freedom fighters, they are not even rebels because they haven’t presented an agenda. They are terrorists because anybody who indiscriminately uses violence is a terrorist. How else can you describe him (Kony) even if you loved him,” Onapito said.
He said the LRA has come out of the bush due to military pressure not through pleading with them.
“I am sure there is nobody in Acholi who disputes that Kony did something wrong. It is only through the magnanimity of the president and other Ugandans that they said ‘fine, people make mistakes but you can still come out’. Museveni is a firm leader who speaks his mind assertively. It should be understood with a sense of urgency because the people continue to suffer,” Onapito said.
