Milton Olupot and Agencies
30 March 2008
Kampala — The Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader, Joseph Kony, is walking to the Sudan-Congo border to sign a final peace deal this week with the Government, Western diplomatic sources said yesterday.
South Sudanese officials, who have been mediating the protracted peace talks to end the two-decade war, have said the LRA leader will sign two days ahead of the official ceremony in the South Sudanese capital, Juba, because he fears arrest.
Government officials insist the elusive Kony, whom no outsiders have seen for months, should sign the agreement in person in Juba on April 5.
A diplomatic source at the long-running negotiations in Juba said Kony was instead expected to sign the pact at Ri-Kwangba on April 3.
"He is then likely to sneak back into Central African Republic, where he has established a base," the diplomat said.
The final peace deal calls for LRA fighters to disarm within a month. The leader of the LRA delegation to the talks said yesterday that Kony would sign, but the group would not lay down its arms until the international arrest warrants were scrapped.
"Kony will not disarm if the ICC has not dropped those indictments, he has sworn on that," said David Nyekorach Matsanga.
Kony and two of his senior deputies are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes including rape, murder and the abduction of children. Fearing arrest, they have never appeared at the Juba talks.
Meanwhile, the mood in the LRA camp in Juba is heating up, as they gear-up for the signing of the final peace agreement with the Government.
Part of the LRA team, led by Matsanga, has moved to Ri-Kwangba to prepare the venue and to receive guests that are reportedly swarming the place to witness the historic event.
"Part of my team will now be stationed there to welcome the guests that are coming from all over the world. We are setting the stage for the function," Matsanga said on Saturday before departing to deliver equipment for clearing and construction at the venue.
"The commanders are already present at the venue," Matsanga said.
LRA sources also said a number of people from northern Uganda and the diaspora were preparing to travel to Ri-Kwangba to witness the signing.
Some animals have also been donated for slaughter after the signing of the agreement.
The South Sudan government has invited several heads of state to witness the signing at the Parliament grounds in Juba.
In a separate incident, the Sudanese Vice-President Riek Machar said an investigation had been launched after a local politician said Ugandan troops using helicopter gunships killed at least 20 people in a March 4 raid into south Sudan.
"Some cattle were taken and also some citizens were taken across the border," Machar told Reuters.
He could not confirm the exact death toll or whether helicopters had been used.
Colonel Paul Lokech, the commander of the UPDF forces across the border from where the attack was said to have taken place, denied the killings but said several Sudanese had been arrested.
"They crossed 52 miles into Uganda with hundreds of cattle and armed with G3 rifles. We rounded them up and disarmed them," Lokech said.
"Our gunships did not kill anyone. We have released all 41 suspects along with their cattle, but we withheld their arms. We also cautioned all of them not to cross the border illegally."
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