Okello Jabweli And James Odong
27 August 2002
PRESIDENT Yoweri Museveni has passed over his telephone hotline to Lord's Resistance Army rebel commanders for direct communication with him, Aswa MP Reagan Okumu said yesterday.
Addressing a press conference at Parliament House, Okumu said their team of mediators had linked the rebels and Museveni.
The rebels have lately been active on phone, calling media houses and other contacts.
"I am happy that we have managed to convince the President to pass his telephone number to the rebels as they had requested. On Wednesday, the President gave us his telephone which we took to the rebels," Okumu said.
over the weekend, Museveni named Okumu on the government team to spearhead talks with rebels. The MP, however, expressed concern at the slow pace towards the talks.
He said the rebels had been calling him since declaring a ceasefire on Saturday to be assured the UPDF would respect it.
Okumu said, "On Sunday, they (rebels) called me saying the UPDF was not honouring the ceasefire. They said their forces in Gulu, Pader and Kitgum were being pursued by the UPDF. They wanted to know if the ceasefire is holding or not."
He said he had been updating State House on the rebels' demand for immediate talks, supply of food and medicine and announcement of the venue for the talks.
Okumu, who received a call from the rebels during the press conference, said Col. Sam Kolo, the rebel chief political commissar, had called him five times before the meeting.
"My only disappointment is that the Government is not honouring this thing (peace talks). Since Saturday they are saying wait, we'll get back to you. The rebels keep calling and now I have nothing to tell them," he said.
Okumu threatened to pull out of President Museveni's peace team due to "lack of honesty among some elements in the political and military circles."
He named defence minister Amama Mbabazi as one of the hardliners frustrating the President's peace overtures and urged Museveni to restrain individuals misusing intelligence reports.
He promised to reveal other personalities who are allegedly working hard to frustrate the talks.
"I received reports of how some of us should be neutralised in order not to continue with the peace process. If this kind of thing continues, some of us will back off from the peace process," he said.
On concerns that the rebels were not serious about peace talks, the MP said all signals are that they are genuine.
"I think the rebels are genuine. From the minutes of our meetings with them, I think they have been consistent ever since they crossed from the Sudan," he said.
He said the enemies of the peace process could be the ones staging ambushes to ruin the talks.
"With all these saboteurs who are opposed to talks and also hold guns, it is difficult to know who is staging ambushes," he said.
Asked if the rebels were seeking peace talks because of the UPDF pressure, Okumu said, "The question of who is having the upper hand at the moment does not arise.
"We've given very strong reasons for the talks. We are not saying the UPDF is a weak army. The fact is that, however strong the army is, they have failed to protect our people. It is now up to the people of Uganda, especially the Acholi, to see for themselves who is interested in peace and who is not."
But army spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said Okumu was ungrateful to the UPDF, which he said had protected him and his people for 17 years.
"Without the UPDF doing what it has done, the Acholi people would have been extinct because Kony wants to establish a new Acholi community from Sudan," he said.
"We are not the ones killing people as he is alleging, but may be people he is allied to," Bantariza asserted.
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