Uganda: Fugitive rebel commander seeks assurances

Uganda's fugitive rebel commander Joseph Kony wants guarantees of his safety and financial security before he signs a peace deal to end one of Africa's longest wars, a spokesman said on Friday.

Ugandan government officials left the site of a planned signing ceremony on the remote Sudan-Congo border after Kony failed to appear. That cast into doubt the fate of nearly two years of tortuous negotiations with his Lord's Resistance Army, Reuters reported.

"Kony wants clarification of his physical and financial security, and once that is cleared up he will sign the peace agreement," rebel spokesman James Obita told Reuters.

Uganda's 22-year civil war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted 2 million more and destabilized neighboring parts of oil-rich south Sudan and mineral-rich eastern Congo.
Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, had been due to sign the deal on Thursday. But he first asked mediators to clarify part of the text and then fired his chief negotiator.

Before boarding a helicopter to leave on Friday, Uganda's Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said his team would return when the LRA leader was ready.
"We're not negotiating with angels, we knew that," he said.

He said a separate signing ceremony by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that had been planned for next week in the south Sudanese capital Juba had been indefinitely postponed.

Republished with permission of Focus News Agency

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