Milton Olupot
27 April 2008
Kampala — LRA leader Joseph Kony has invited leaders from northern and eastern Uganda to a meeting on May 10, at the assembly point in Ri-Kwangba.
South Sudan Vice-President Riek Machar said on Friday the list of people invited included religious, cultural and local leaders as well as members of Parliament from the conflict affected areas.
Machar said he had been in touch with Kony and said he would personally attend the meeting.
He said the LRA peace delegation, currently chaired by James Obita, would also attend.
"The peace process is on course. We have not yet given up. Kony has also been in touch with the Acholi Paramount Chief and has given him some specific names of people he wants to meet at Ri-Kwangba," he said.
Kony wants to discuss the traditional justice system, the special division of the High Court due to be established and the International Criminal Court, Machar added. "He wants to know how they are linked and how they would affect him."
The delegation selected to travel to Ri-Kwangba will first have a workshop in Kampala on May 6 and 7, to discuss the issues raised by Kony. The Government peace delegation, led by internal affairs minister Ruhakana Rugunda, is expected to attend.
On April 10, Kony failed to turn up for the scheduled signing of the final peace agreement at Ri-Kwangba.
Over 100 dignitaries, including foreign observers, waited for him for two days.
Rugunda attributed Kony's absence to conflicting messages sent to him by people in Uganda and the diaspora.
"Some of the people who communicate to Kony tell him wrong things, specifically focusing on the fear factor," he said in an interview with Sunday Vision.
"They tell him: 'If you come out, you will be arrested, you will be handed over to the ICC like Charles Taylor. They want to hang you'. They tell Kony that if he signs, he is going to die."
Rugunda warned the rebels of a regional response if they continued abducting people and attacking villages in Sudan, Congo and the Central African Republic.
In the past few days, LRA groups were said to be looting supplies and agricultural tools in villages around the Congolese town of Duru.
At least 500 civilians have been abducted in the past two months, according to UN sources.
They are undergoing military training in Garamba National Park in the mornings and are engaged in farming activities in the afternoons, according to abductees who recently escaped.
"If Kony continues to violate (the peace agreement) in that way, he will be mobilising the region and the international community to take action against him," Rugunda said.
He predicted that more fighters would surrender and take advantage of the amnesty act if Kony failed to sign.
"Refusal to sign the final peace agreement is going to prompt more people who had been supporting him to abandon him because they will realise that he is not interested in peace."
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