THE Chinese say “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me”. It was possible to rationalise about the no show by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony on April 10, 2008 when literally the whole world held its breath waiting for him to sign the agreement negotiated between his delegates and the delegates of the Government of Uganda.
But one month later, Joseph Kony again snubbed our delegation consisting of religious leaders, cultural leaders, elders, opinion leaders and political leaders from northern and eastern Uganda.
The first time round he claimed that he had been misrepresented; that he had not said he was ready to sign. This time he was the one who said he wanted a face-to-face meeting with selected community leaders to discuss the practical aspects of the agreement relating to accountability, justice and reconciliation. He said he wanted further and better particulars on how the traditional justice mechanisms and the special division of the high court will function.
Coming from a man who has an indictment and warrant of arrest out for him from the International Criminal Court, the reservations sounded reasonable. Most commentators gave Kony the benefit of doubt. The man was not in Juba where the details of the agreement were hammered out. In addition, it appears like his delegates were only giving him patchy briefings.
“Give the man a chance to internalise the agreement and its full implications,” everyone seemed to say.
So in order to contribute to this process of internalising the agreement, key leaders from the affected areas met in the Kampala Fairway Hotel on May 6 – 7 2008. Representatives of the LRA and the Government of Uganda were there. In the two days we were all convinced that the agreement signed in Juba relating to accountability, justice and reconciliation was the best possible in the prevailing context.
There would be no impunity. There would be peace. And peace would make it possible for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people to escape the squalid conditions responsible for countless deaths.
And so, on Thursday, May 8, 2008 we took a plane to Juba. It was a delegation comprising everyone or at least the representative of everyone that mattered in the war-affected areas of West Nile, Acholi, Lango and Teso. We were all optimistic that Kony would meet us for a frank discussion about his fears.
After a night in Juba, we were airlifted in UN helicopters to the SPLA outpost of Nabanga and accommodated at the tented camp run by African Expeditions. At least the basics were there. We could not complain. The only problem was that the borehole had broken down and was only yielding trickles of water.
The day we arrived in Nabanga, which is about six kilometres from the LRA assembly area of Ri Kwang Ba (the proposed venue of the meeting), Rwot Achana convened a meeting. The LRA head of delegation Dr. James Obita said the next day they would travel to Ri Kwang Ba to meet their principals.
Indeed on the morning of Friday May 9, 2008, a pick-up truck took the LRA delegates to meet their principals. They came back at about lunchtime.
“Everything is OK. We met the people we were supposed to meet and we are now waiting for a programme for a meeting with the entire group from Uganda. We may even have to travel to Ri Kwang Ba and start the meeting this very evening. We should be ready to even spend the night in Ri Kwang Ba in order to continue with meetings tomorrow,” the LRA delegates told us.
Something told me that we were not being told the whole truth. I sought out one of the LRA delegates and asked him whether they had really had a face-to-face meeting with Joseph Kony.
“Kony was not at the venue of the meeting. We met Captain Ladere (currently said to be LRA chief of intelligence) and some other commanders. But we spoke to Kony on phone and he said we should come back to Nabanga and await further arrangements,” he told me.
I sensed that things were not really normal. But still we hoped for a breakthrough.
That night a few of us (Jane Anywar, Caleb Alaka, MP Okello Okello, Archbishop Odama, Bishop Ochola and myself) spent several hours preparing key talking points to be presented to the LRA relating to the issues of accountability. We met till past midnight. The generator had been switched off so, we continued our discussion by torchlight.
The next morning (Saturday May 10, 2008) was the day for the meeting with Kony.
After breakfast, I asked James Obita whether he had got any news.
“No,” he told me. “And all their phone lines are off,” he added. “But let us keep waiting. Maybe it is a network problem.”
The waiting continued until the afternoon of Tuesday May 13, 2008 when we all met and decided to leave Nabanga the next day. In the meeting, the frustration and disappointment of our delegation was impossible to hide. Words like “dead end” and “impasse” were uttered. Everyone lamented the turn of events. The meeting resolved that for the sake of peace we would take the humiliation in our stride and persist on the path to peace through dialogue.
But that resolution did not come before some strong denunciation of “spoilers”, “conflict entrepreneurs” and those manipulators sending wrong information to Kony. Some spoilers told Kony that our meeting at Fairway Hotel was to plot his assassination and that there were snipers in our delegation!
We also warned the LRA delegates to avoid being unwitting accomplices to schemes that undermine peace. We wondered why for instance if Kony was all for peace, he would order his delegates to purchase for him over 300 metres of heavy-duty ropes (the type one would use for crossing a river)!
Even as we boarded the plane to Entebbe from Juba, one Alex Oloya from London was still sending an sms to Mr. Warner Ten Kate of Chissano’s office saying he was now the new leader of the LRA delegation! Why now when the delegation has finished negotiations and all that is left is the formality of signing?
Our message to Kony was simple — either sign the agreement or disown it. If he does neither then the non-contentious parts of the agreement, especially those relating to post-conflict reconstruction should be unpacked and implemented notwithstanding the uncertainty. There is also urgent need to isolate, expose and take stern action against all the spoilers who are still fishing in troubled waters.
