By Chris Kiwawulo

THE LRA peace team is to visit rebel chief Joseph Kony at his hideout in Garamba to ascertain whether second-in-command Vincent Otti is still alive.

LRA technical adviser Dr. James Alfred Obita said yesterday the visit would take place within the next two weeks. He added that Kony had assured them that Otti was under house arrest.

But he admitted that he had not spoken to Otti in the last three weeks. “The appropriate time will come and this issue of whether Otti is dead will be made public,” he explained.

There have been reports that Kony executed Otti recently, accusing him of conspiring with his enemies to kill him.

Obita announced the new effort to establish if Otti is dead during the meeting between the LRA team and the Uganda Joint Christian Council officials at Pope Paul Memorial Centre in Ndeeba, a Kampala suburb, yesterday.

The team ends its consultation on December 5, when it meets the Judiciary and the Amnesty Commission in Kampala.

Obita apologised to all Ugandans for the atrocities caused by the rebels in the 20-year-long war.

“In all the centres we have gone to countrywide, we have openly delivered a direct apology to the people from Kony and all the LRA fighters. We are sorry for the suffering and damage inflicted on the people of Uganda,” Obita said.

He added that the LRA had also forgiven those who wronged them and collaborated with the Government to attack them.

Assistant Kampala Bishop Zac Niringiye, who leads the council’s task force, said the council strongly hoped the conflict would end peacefully. “This is what we have longed for.”

The council brings together leaders of the different Christian denominations in Uganda.

The religious leaders, led by the UJCC secretary general, Canon Grace Kaiso, prayed for the success of the peace talks.

The two parties meet again on December 6 for more talks.

The LRA team, led by Maj. Gen. Wilson Deng from the South Sudan government, arrived for the consultations at 4:00pm under tight security.

Deng, who chairs the cessation of hostilities monitoring team, hailed Caritas International, which has been supplying food to the rebels on behalf of the donors.

LRA legal adviser Chrispus Ayena Odongo commended the church’s contribution towards the peace talks, saying the two parties could only speak the truth in the presence of church leaders because they would fear to lie.

“You are a depository of the blessing of God as spiritual leaders. We are here to get spiritual guidance from you. We can go no further until God’s blessing is bestowed on this process. Twenty years has been a long time with neither the Government nor the LRA claiming defeat of the other. It needs the spiritual touch of those involved in the peace process for better results,” Odongo noted.

He called for trust and commitment from Kony and President Yoweri Museveni. Odongo also called for a traditional system of justice (mato put) as opposed to subjecting the indicted LRA commanders to the International Criminal Court.

Kony and the commanders are wanted by the international court for war crimes and crimes against humanity.