Ugandan delegation meets Kony
Aug 01, 2006
Ugandan government officials met overnight with the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony ahead of the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the 19-year-old northern insurgency, officials said Monday.
By Chris Ocowun
and Agencies
UGANDAN government officials met overnight with the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony ahead of the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the 19-year-old northern insurgency, officials said Monday.
The team of elders headed by Gulu resident district commissioner Col. Walter Ochora, met Kony in his hideout in DR Congo.
“We know that Kony met with Ochora last night. We shall get details of their discussion later,†spokesman Paddy Ankunda told AFP in Kampala.
Ochora’s team returned to Nabanga border point on Sunday night, where other members of the peace mission were camped.
Meanwhile, the LRA deputy commander, Vincent Otti, said he was excited to have met Ochora, whose head he had been longing for.
Otti, who called the Gulu-based Radio Mega from their jungle base in Congo, where he met Ochora and other Acholi leaders on Saturday, urged the Acholi to take heart and forget the past as peace was being sought in the region.
Ochora, the former Gulu LC5 chairman and the current district chairman, Nobert Mao, are heading cultural, religious and political leaders to meet the rebels.
“It is strange but true. I had wanted the head of Ochora and he also wanted mine, but today we are together with him in our base. Who will take the other’s head,†Otti asked jokingly.
Talking on a programme monitored by thousands of listeners from northern Uganda, Otti revealed that he hugged Ochora, Acholi paramount chief Rwot Onen Acana II, Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama and other Acholi leaders on the peace mission.
Ochora said he was also excited to be with the LRA leaders in the jungle.
Odama said, “I am so excited to be together with the LRA leadership. It is a big surprise and we must praise God. We Acholi people should pray to God to bless the government and LRA peace teams so that they reach a peace deal.â€
Acana said Kony was now committed to a peace deal and called upon Acholi leaders and the people in the region to desist from making statements that may derail efforts to build confidence of the LRA commanders.
One LRA commander who identified himself as Abudema, also speaking on telephone to the listeners of Radio Mega, sent greetings to the Acholi and urged them to pray to God so that their meeting with the Acholi leaders yields peace in the region.
The Kony meeting with the elders came as both sides prepared to resume talks mediated by Riek Machar, the vice-president of the semi-autonomous region of southern Sudan, to end the bloody conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced around two million.
LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny told AFP the delegates were scheduled to meet traditional and religious elders who will “actively participate in the reconciliation and confidence-building phase of the talks.â€
The talks in Juba are seen by many as the best chance to end the civil war, which is regularly described by aid agencies as one of the world’s worst and most forgotten humanitarian crises.
The negotiations, which opened on July 14 and adjourned 10 days, started shakily after the LRA refused to include any senior leaders in their negotiating team, fearing they would be arrested on international war crimes charges.
The LRA’s self-proclaimed prophet and mystic Kony says he is fighting for the Acholi to oust Museveni and replace his government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
His group is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan authorities.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Kony and four of his top commanders.
The commanders are Vincent Otti, Domic Ongwen, Raksa Lukwiya and Okot Odhiambo.
and Agencies
UGANDAN government officials met overnight with the elusive Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader Joseph Kony ahead of the resumption of peace talks aimed at ending the 19-year-old northern insurgency, officials said Monday.
The team of elders headed by Gulu resident district commissioner Col. Walter Ochora, met Kony in his hideout in DR Congo.
“We know that Kony met with Ochora last night. We shall get details of their discussion later,†spokesman Paddy Ankunda told AFP in Kampala.
Ochora’s team returned to Nabanga border point on Sunday night, where other members of the peace mission were camped.
Meanwhile, the LRA deputy commander, Vincent Otti, said he was excited to have met Ochora, whose head he had been longing for.
Otti, who called the Gulu-based Radio Mega from their jungle base in Congo, where he met Ochora and other Acholi leaders on Saturday, urged the Acholi to take heart and forget the past as peace was being sought in the region.
Ochora, the former Gulu LC5 chairman and the current district chairman, Nobert Mao, are heading cultural, religious and political leaders to meet the rebels.
“It is strange but true. I had wanted the head of Ochora and he also wanted mine, but today we are together with him in our base. Who will take the other’s head,†Otti asked jokingly.
Talking on a programme monitored by thousands of listeners from northern Uganda, Otti revealed that he hugged Ochora, Acholi paramount chief Rwot Onen Acana II, Gulu Archbishop John Baptist Odama and other Acholi leaders on the peace mission.
Ochora said he was also excited to be with the LRA leaders in the jungle.
Odama said, “I am so excited to be together with the LRA leadership. It is a big surprise and we must praise God. We Acholi people should pray to God to bless the government and LRA peace teams so that they reach a peace deal.â€
Acana said Kony was now committed to a peace deal and called upon Acholi leaders and the people in the region to desist from making statements that may derail efforts to build confidence of the LRA commanders.
One LRA commander who identified himself as Abudema, also speaking on telephone to the listeners of Radio Mega, sent greetings to the Acholi and urged them to pray to God so that their meeting with the Acholi leaders yields peace in the region.
The Kony meeting with the elders came as both sides prepared to resume talks mediated by Riek Machar, the vice-president of the semi-autonomous region of southern Sudan, to end the bloody conflict, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced around two million.
LRA spokesman Obonyo Olweny told AFP the delegates were scheduled to meet traditional and religious elders who will “actively participate in the reconciliation and confidence-building phase of the talks.â€
The talks in Juba are seen by many as the best chance to end the civil war, which is regularly described by aid agencies as one of the world’s worst and most forgotten humanitarian crises.
The negotiations, which opened on July 14 and adjourned 10 days, started shakily after the LRA refused to include any senior leaders in their negotiating team, fearing they would be arrested on international war crimes charges.
The LRA’s self-proclaimed prophet and mystic Kony says he is fighting for the Acholi to oust Museveni and replace his government with one based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
His group is considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan authorities.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Kony and four of his top commanders.
The commanders are Vincent Otti, Domic Ongwen, Raksa Lukwiya and Okot Odhiambo.