Elusive Ugandan rebel leader says he wants peace in rare video
Joseph Kony, the elusive leader of Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and one of the world's most wanted men, says he wants to end nearly 20 years of brutal war, according to a rare video of the rebel supremo seen by AFP.
Kony says he is ready for peace with the Ugandan government in a DVD recording of an early May meeting between the LRA chief and members of southern Sudan's autonomous government who are trying to mediate an end to the conflict.
The rebel leader says he has "no problem" with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and accepts a mediation offer extended by Riek Machar, the vice president of southern Sudan.
"I have no problem with Museveni," Kony tells Machar, speaking English. "It is really possible we can end this war."
Machar is seen handing over food aid and what he says is 20,000 dollars in cash to the LRA chief as part of an agreement for the rebels to halt attacks in southern Sudan, and tells him not to spend it on arms.
Appearing healthy and wearing a green military uniform with general's pips and a blue beret, Kony complains he has been unfairly blamed for atrocities the LRA has been accused of commiting, according to the video.
"The whole (world), even the journalists, don't know me, because to get to me is very difficult ... so people believe that propaganda that Kony is a killer," he said.
But Kony expressed discomfort at Museveni's commitment to peace talks.
"If we talk to Museveni, it will take three days before he comes and attacks us. We are here for something which is good for and for everybody, not to kill people," he said.
"We are many people (and) we are fighting for peace. We want to talk peace in a good way, not by force. I want you to know that the LRA wants the war to end but in a good way, not in a local way as Museveni wants it."
Kony said the world should be involved in the peace efforts.
Kony and four other top LRA commanders -- including his deputy Vincent Otti who also appears in the video -- are on the run, having been indicted on war crimes charges by The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
"I am not a terrorist," he said. "I am a rebel in a military position ... I am in opposition. If Museveni says that, then it means that all opposition leaders in Africa should also be taken to The Hague."
Earlier this week, Museveni said he would "guarantee (Kony's) safety" if the LRA stops fighting and agrees to peace talks by the end of July, although the extent of such protection was not immediately clear.
The existence of the video, which contains the first images of Kony to have appeared in years, has been rumoured for weeks but was first disclosed by Uganda's state-run Monitor newspaper on Wednesday.
The Monitor said it had been given to Ugandan authorities by southern Sudanese officials after the May 2 meeting, which took place near the border between Uganda, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
In the days that followed the meeting, speculation was rampant among aid workers and diplomats in southern Sudan that Kony, a self-proclaimed prophet and mystic, had been taken into custody or agreed to stop fighting.
South Sudan is now run by the ex-rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army, which signed a peace deal with Khartoum last year, and a southern Sudanese official told aid workers on May 5 a deal had been reached with the LRA.
According to that official, David Lonkanga Moses, southern Sudan's government agreed to give money and 5,000 tonnes of food aid to the rebels in return for an end to raids in the region and an LRA commitment to peace.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and nearly two million displaced in conflict between the government and the rebels who have become infamous for their brutal attacks on civilians and abductions of children.
The LRA claims to be fighting to replace Museveni's government with one based on the Biblical 10 Commandments but has become better known for atrocities, particularly kidnapping children, girls to be sex slaves and boys as fighters.
The United Nations says the war in northern Uganda is one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters and complains that it has largely gone unnoticed by the international community.
Since the ICC indictments, which led to increased cooperation between Kampala and Khartoum, Uganda has accused the rebels of moving from bases in southern Sudan to the eastern DRC.
In January, eight Bangladeshi UN peacekeepers were killed in a gunbattle with LRA rebels in the eastern DRC's Garamba National Park, prompting Museveni to renew offers to send Ugandan troops in after them.
AFP
