Uganda will enter talks with leaders of the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) guerrillas without preconditions if they give up arms and denounce war, a government spokesperson said on Tuesday.
The government will also be willing to pardon rebel commander Joseph Kony and his four commanders who are wanted for trial by the United Nation’s International Criminal Court (ICC).
A government delegation sent to Sudan on Monday is consulting with Sudanese Vice-President Salva Kiir, who is mediating in the peace contacts with the LRA, but no timetable for talks between the Ugandan government and the rebels has yet been set, officials said.
”There is no precondition for the talks from our side,” Information and National Guidance Minister Ali Kirunda Kivejinja told reporters.
”There is no immediate plan to meet Kony. For a rebellion which has taken 20 years, I am not optimistic that the talks will be held in the next few days or next week. We don’t give the rebels a timetable and they don’t give it to us. It’s a process which takes time,” Kivejinja said.
”Vice-President Kiir is commuting from our delegation to the rebels. He is engaged in a shuttle diplomacy to break a common line under which we can talk.”
Arrest warrants against Kony and four of his top commanders were issued by the ICC last year on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
”From our understanding, if he [Kony] can completely give up arms, disband his forces and denounce the rebellion, we can accept to give amnesty to Kony’s forces and to him and the four wanted rebel commanders,” Kivejinja said.
”It may be a problem to the ICC, but if he stops causing problems to Uganda, then our problem is solved and he may then become a problem at an international level.
”We have been striving to end this war and since we have got this opportunity of peace talks, we have to use it,” the minister said.
The 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda has seen the rebels kill and mutilate tens of thousands of civilians and force up to 30 000 children into fighting for them. About 1,5-million people have been displaced and now live in camps dotted all over the war-ravaged region. — Sapa-dpa