Frank Nyakairu & Reuters
19 March 2008
Kampala — REBEL leader Joseph Kony has established contact with Chad's main rebel leader, General Mahamat Nouri, days after the LRA chief relocated to neighbouring Central African Republic, information available to Daily Monitor indicates.
This development undermines hopes that a peace deal to end the 21-year civil war in northern Uganda could be signed on March 28.
The Uganda government had given the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander until March 28 to sign the deal. In return, the government said it would call for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to drop arrest warrants for him and two of his deputies.
However, multiple sources corroborating this potentially disturbing development told Daily Monitor that Kony could be headed to the Sudan-Chad border where Chad's Mahamat-led rebel Union of Forces for Democracy and Development (UFDD) has bases.
"Kony is now 50 miles inside Central African Republic and is with Chadian rebel Mahamat Nouri," a knowledgeable source told Daily Monitor on Monday but preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue. Daily Monitor could not readily verify this information.
Kony's actions come only days after Daily Monitor reported that the rebel LRA leader had relocated from his forested Garamba hideout in the northeast DR Congo to a new base in the Central African Republic, which borders Chad in the north.
The UPDF yesterday warned that if Kony is not back in Garamba, it would amount to a breach of the truce deal. "Kony has shifted most of his troops to CAR, that is already a blatant breach of the cessation of hostilities agreement and if he fails to come out and sign a peace deal, he will have proved to the world that peace is not his priority," said Maj. Paddy Ankunda, the Defence and Army spokesman. He said the UPDF was still "trying to ascertain the whereabouts of Kony."
But another source told Daily Monitor that the government had reached consensus that "Kony is repositioning himself and a major player is backing him." Earlier intelligence reports indicated that Kony's advance forces were headed north of Obo town in CAR towards the border with Chad. The Ugandan warlord was backed by the Khartoum Government but President Omar El-Bashir said such support was halted in 2001.
Chadian rebels, led by Gen. Mahamat, have been battling President Idriss Déby's government. Last month, the rebels seized control of large parts of the capital N'Djamena but lost it when French forces intervened.
However, back to South Sudan's provincial capital Juba where the peace talks have been taking place, the rebels' representatives said they are still pursuing peace.
"I am tired of this nonsense," said LRA chief negotiator David Matsanga in a telephone interview from Nairobi on Monday night. "Kony will be in Ri-Kwangba (on the Sudan/DR Congo border) to meet religious leaders on March 22 and all those pessimists will be embarrassed," he added.
He, however, said Kony would only sign the final agreement after the ICC has dropped indictments against him. The LRA have been accused of being behind attacks and abductions of people near the southeastern town of Obo. But CAR's Deputy defence Minister Jean-Francis Bozize said on Monday his country was investigating whether Kony had led a raid on a remote border town in CAR earlier this month.
Mr Bozize, the son of CAR President Francois Bozize, said some 200 "uncontrolled elements" had gone on a looting spree near the southeastern town of Obo, carrying off large quantities of provisions in the March 5-6 raid.
They later crossed back over the Mbomou River border into the DR Congo, he told Radio France International (RFI). "They are no longer in the Central African Republic," he added. Mr Bozize said the raiders had kidnapped around 100 people to help them carry their loot from the raid, but that 80 per cent of the captives had subsequently been freed and returned to their homes.
Asked whether Kony had been among the raiders, he replied: "At this moment, I can't confirm anything. We are carrying out investigations into this".
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