Kampala/Juba — AN opportunity is being offered to over 1, 000 ordinary Ugandans to meet the elusive rebel leader Joseph Kony in Garamba National Park in the DR Congo.

Gulu LC5 Chairman Nobert Mao, who is currently compiling the list, told Daily Monitor the request for a meeting came from Kony himself.

"I got a call from Joseph Kony to make this request. He first suggested meeting members of the community particularly those affected by the war as far back as 2003," Mao said.

" He is very excited about the meeting and seems to be looking forward to it".

An advance delegation composed mainly of relatives of Kony and his top commanders has already left Juba aboard two Russian Antonov planes to meet the rebels.

The meetings, which are part of confidence building measures agreed upon by the rebels and the government, could pave way for an end to the 20-year-old war in the north.

According to Mao, the LRA by meeting relatives, cultural and community leaders was setting the stage for coming out of the bush.

"They want the community to be part of their decision to get out of the bush", he said.

According to Mao, the delegation he is organising will be free and open to everyone.

"Joseph Kony suggested even teachers and local people should come," he said.

No date has been set yet for the delegation which is expected to travel by road on several buses. By press time, the Juba group, altogether numbering 180 people was expected to have landed at Maridi airstrip.

Southern Sudan Vice President Reik Machar heads the group.

From there, they will embark on a six-hour road journey to Nabanga at the western Sudan border where the meeting with the rebels is expected to take place.

The Ugandan delegation includes 30 relatives of the LRA commanders including Kony, 15 members of the LRA delegation, 10 elders, religious leaders from northern Uganda, about 20 chiefs, council and religious leaders and other members of the Southern Sudan government.

Also four officials from the Ugandan consulate in Juba, journalists and security officials are among the delegation.

Among the leaders from northern Uganda is Archbishop John Baptist Odama.

Kony's mother, Ms Nora Oting and the State Minister for Defense, Ms Ruth Nankabirwa, were also expected to fly from Kampala directly to Maridi yesterday according to government sources.

The delegation is the largest ever to attempt to meet Kony, save for Mao's planned visit dubbed the Community Peace Convoy. Their meeting follows a one-week pause in formal peace talks in Juba between the LRA and the Ugandan government in Juba.

The talks hit a deadlock last week with government negotiators refusing to sign a ceasefire agreement with the LRA before other issues had been dealt with, saying they might use the occasion to regroup and rearm. The talks resume next week.

To mediate

Daily Monitor has established that Prof. Dani Nabudere, the head of the Africa Study Centre in Mbale, has been asked by the LRA to join the mediation.

Speaking on the phone yesterday, Nabudere , a peace and conflict expert, confirmed that he had been contacted by Machar.

"He said the invitation was made by Mr Leo Onek of the LRA who said I could help give the talks a national perspective. I think that the LRA should form a political party because the issues now need to be framed politically and not through fighting" Nabudere said. At the time the talks adjourned, no agreement had been reached.

But yesterday a high-ranking government official close to the talks said the two sides had reached an agreement "in principle" with the Lords Resistance Army rebels that will include a cessation of hostilities.

The official position of the Ugandan side, however, is that the country will only sign a comprehensive agreement that is capable of ending the two-decade war.

The government has been pursuing a multi-faceted strategy, on the one hand engaging the rebels in formal talks while maintaining direct contact with the rebel leadership in Garamba. Highly placed government sources said Uganda was willing to back up its offer of amnesty to the rebels, upon successful negotiations, by approaching the Peace and Security Council of the African Union.

Ugandan negotiators told Daily Monitor that President Yoweri Museveni is willing to convince the AU that his offer is meant to guarantee stability to the war-torn Great Lakes Region.

Once the AU accepts, Uganda argues, the LRA leaders some of who are facing arrest on charges of human rights abuses would be immunised from the fear of ending up in the International Criminal Court.

A major demand of the rebels is that this threat be extinguished as part of any deal.

Additional reporting by Grace Natabaalo