Kony pleads with Chissano for ceasefire
Jan 11, 2009
UNDER heavy fire from a joint military offensive, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader, Joseph Kony, has intensified his appeal for a ceasefire.
By Henry Mukasa
and Justin Moro
UNDER heavy fire from a joint military offensive, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader, Joseph Kony, has intensified his appeal for a ceasefire.
The LRA spokesperson, David Nyekorach Matsanga, led a delegation to Maputo over the weekend to deliver a letter to the UN envoy to the LRA-affected areas and former Mozambique president, Joaquim Chissano.
“I have just delivered a special message from General Kony to president Chissano. We want a halt in fighting. We are calling for a ceasefire. We are for peace,†Matsanga said on telephone from Mozambique yesterday.
A joint force comprising the Ugandan, Congolese and Sudanese armies is engaged in the military offensive against the rebels in densely forested Garamba national park in northeastern DR Congo.
The offensive, code-named Operation Lightning Thunder, with its tactical headquarters in Dungu, Congo, was launched on December 14, after Kony refused to sign the final peace agreement reached in Juba, South Sudan.
The LRA letter addressed to Chissano, who was a key player in the Juba peace talks, was also copied to presidents Yoweri Museveni, Joseph Kabila (DRC), Mwai Kibaki (Kenya), Salva Kiir (South Sudan), Africa Union chairman, Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and the chief peace talks mediator, Dr Riek Machar.
Matsanga declined to state the content of the letter and what response his team had received from Chissano.
However, in a copy of the letter seen by the New Vision, the LRA says the call for a truce was based on the past failure of the army to defeat the rebel group rather than feeling the heat of the operation.
“That’s why the LRA peace delegation has been left with no option but ask you to convene an urgent meeting,†Matsanga wrote.
He singled out the International Criminal Court warrants of arrest for Kony and his top commanders as the biggest stumbling block to signing the peace agreement.
“The matter of the ICC warrants has overshadowed the very nerve centre of our peace process since inception in 2006,†he wrote.
President Museveni’s press secretary Tamale Mirundi said the rebels were given one option by the President, to assemble at Ri-Kwangba.
“By the time the Government took the decision of the military offensive, the President had realised that these people were not for peace. They continued to kill and abduct civilians,†Mirundi noted.
On Matsanga’s assertion that the operation will not crush the LRA, Mirundi asked the Matsanga not to waste his breath.
“In wrestling, someone on top cannot call out to be separated. It’s the person suffocating who cries out,†Mirundi explained.
This is the second time the LRA is pleading for a ceasefire since the military offensive was launched. On December 31, Kony appealed to President Museveni to declare a cessation of hostilities.
Meanwhile, according to The Sudan Tribune, of January 10, a statement purporting to come from the LRA, announced the immediate termination of its negotiating team.
The LRA ended all contacts with David Matsanga, Miss Abalo and Justine Labeja. Matsanga had once before been dismissed as spokesperson by Kony before being allowed to resume his duties. The LRA statement gives no clear reason for the termination.
and Justin Moro
UNDER heavy fire from a joint military offensive, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) leader, Joseph Kony, has intensified his appeal for a ceasefire.
The LRA spokesperson, David Nyekorach Matsanga, led a delegation to Maputo over the weekend to deliver a letter to the UN envoy to the LRA-affected areas and former Mozambique president, Joaquim Chissano.
“I have just delivered a special message from General Kony to president Chissano. We want a halt in fighting. We are calling for a ceasefire. We are for peace,†Matsanga said on telephone from Mozambique yesterday.
A joint force comprising the Ugandan, Congolese and Sudanese armies is engaged in the military offensive against the rebels in densely forested Garamba national park in northeastern DR Congo.
The offensive, code-named Operation Lightning Thunder, with its tactical headquarters in Dungu, Congo, was launched on December 14, after Kony refused to sign the final peace agreement reached in Juba, South Sudan.
The LRA letter addressed to Chissano, who was a key player in the Juba peace talks, was also copied to presidents Yoweri Museveni, Joseph Kabila (DRC), Mwai Kibaki (Kenya), Salva Kiir (South Sudan), Africa Union chairman, Jakaya Kikwete (Tanzania), the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon and the chief peace talks mediator, Dr Riek Machar.
Matsanga declined to state the content of the letter and what response his team had received from Chissano.
However, in a copy of the letter seen by the New Vision, the LRA says the call for a truce was based on the past failure of the army to defeat the rebel group rather than feeling the heat of the operation.
“That’s why the LRA peace delegation has been left with no option but ask you to convene an urgent meeting,†Matsanga wrote.
He singled out the International Criminal Court warrants of arrest for Kony and his top commanders as the biggest stumbling block to signing the peace agreement.
“The matter of the ICC warrants has overshadowed the very nerve centre of our peace process since inception in 2006,†he wrote.
President Museveni’s press secretary Tamale Mirundi said the rebels were given one option by the President, to assemble at Ri-Kwangba.
“By the time the Government took the decision of the military offensive, the President had realised that these people were not for peace. They continued to kill and abduct civilians,†Mirundi noted.
On Matsanga’s assertion that the operation will not crush the LRA, Mirundi asked the Matsanga not to waste his breath.
“In wrestling, someone on top cannot call out to be separated. It’s the person suffocating who cries out,†Mirundi explained.
This is the second time the LRA is pleading for a ceasefire since the military offensive was launched. On December 31, Kony appealed to President Museveni to declare a cessation of hostilities.
Meanwhile, according to The Sudan Tribune, of January 10, a statement purporting to come from the LRA, announced the immediate termination of its negotiating team.
The LRA ended all contacts with David Matsanga, Miss Abalo and Justine Labeja. Matsanga had once before been dismissed as spokesperson by Kony before being allowed to resume his duties. The LRA statement gives no clear reason for the termination.