Kampala — UGANDA should cooperate with her neighbours to have LRA leader Joseph Kony killed or captured, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs has said.

Gendayi Freizer said the LRA issue was no longer a Ugandan issue, but an international affair because Kony and his fighters had killed other nationals and was a threat to peace in the region. Freizer met President Yoweri Museveni at his ranch in Mpigi before visiting Gulu, to witness the conflict's toll on the people in the camps.

While addressing the press at Lake Victoria Windsor Hotel in Entebbe, before her departure on Tuesday, Freizer said the International Criminal Court's (ICC) indictment for Kony and his top commanders was very important and should be supported.

"The war in northern Uganda should be put to an end, by either killing Kony, capturing him and bringing him to justice or he surrenders due to the pressure," Freizer, flanked by the US embassy staff in Uganda, said. "The strategy is for the UPDF to work with DRC, Sudan, in conjunction with the UN mission in Congo, to keep Kony on

pressure.We believe that the priority has to be peace for everybody," she added.

She said she was impressed by the commitment of the leadership to return to peace."I am optimistic that peace will return to the region." She described the living conditions in the camps as unacceptable. "People shouldn't live in such conditions in this century. I was torn apart by optimism on one side and despair on the other. I feel very angry about it," she said. She said she would make a report to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a course of action wouldbe decided.

Asked whether the US government had turned around to support Museveni's third term in office contrary to its earlier

position against the third term, Freizer said, "We continue to have a position that we encourage countries to keep

term limits."