Rebels from Uganda delay peace deals once again
April 11th, 2008 | by admin |
Joseph Kony, the infamous, phantomlike leader of a brutal rebel army in Uganda, on Thursday delayed signing a landmark peace treaty once again, but Ugandan officials remained hopeful that peace was still close.
Mr. Kony, the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, said he needed more time to consult Ugandan elders and think about the war crimes charges he faces, according to Ugandan government sources.
“We are giving him the benefit of the doubt. He is expected to sign tomorrow. If he doesn’t, that will be his problem,” said army spokesperson Capt. Paddy Ankunda.
Over 200 officials, journalists, elders, diplomats and family members of Mr. Kony have camped out in a jungle clearing in the vicinity of the Sudan-Congo border, waiting for Mr. Kony to come out of his hiding place.
If the peace deal goes ahead this time, it could mark the end of a brutal, 20-year-old civil war that began with a trace of ideology — the liberation of the Acholi people of northern Uganda — but quickly declined into barbarism and crime. The infamous Lord’s Resistance Army was known for carving its way across the Ugandan countryside, kidnapping kids, burning down houses, and slicing off lips and ears of anyone who got in its way.
Many locals have said that they are more enthusiastic about lasting peace than international tribunals, and they have been urging the court to withdraw the indictments against Mr. Kony, who was a former altar boy thought to be about 45.
But so far the court is not moving. “The I.C.C.’s position has been over and over again that the indictments stand and they are valid,” said Maria Mabinty Kamara, a public information officer for the court in Uganda, on Thursday.
Ruhakana Rugunda, Uganda’s internal affairs minister, said the key factor to ending the conflict was balancing accountability with reconciliation.
“Our legal system and the traditional system will provide an adequate framework for dealing with impunity and justice and reconciliation,” he said.
He said Uganda went to the international court in the first place because Mr. Kony was in hiding outside Uganda in the dense forests of neighboring Congo.
