Milton Olupot
13 May 2008
Kampala — Once again, LRA leader Joseph Kony keeps his guests in suspense. A team of elders and leaders from northern Uganda have been waiting for him in South Sudan for the last three days.
By press time, the LRA leader had not shown up for the meeting at the assembly point in Ri-Kwangba, which was scheduled for May 10.
Sources in South Sudan said Kony was camped in the jungle between Garamba and the Congolese border. The team, comprising religious and traditional local leaders and Members of Parliament, was by last evening still camped in Nabanga. Chief mediator South Sudan's Vice-President Riek Machar accompanied the group.
A source said Kony was in touch with the traditional leaders and had raised the issue of money and a house. "He wants to know how much money he will get and which house he will have in Kampala," the source said.
International relations minister Henry Okello Oryem said Kony's advance team, led by Lt. Col. Opio, the commander of Independent Brigade, was in Ri-Kwangba.
"The local leaders and the LRA peace delegation are in touch with Kony and they expect to meet anytime."
The meeting was convened at the request of Kony. He had invited the elders to explain the implications of the peace agreement, especially the clauses on accountability and reconciliation.
On April 10, the elusive rebel leader snubbed Government officials and foreign dignitaries by not showing up for the signing of the final agreement.
He said he wanted more information about the traditional justice system and the special division of the High Court that will be set up to try those who committed serious crimes in the northern war.
He also wanted to know how these related to the warrants of arrest by the International Criminal Court. But internal minister Ruhakana Rugunda, who led the Government delegation in the peace talks, said certain Acholi in the diaspora convinced Kony not to sign, telling him that he would be hanged if he surrendered.
Security sources yesterday confirmed that between 100 and 200 LRA fighters were moving to the meeting point of Ri-Kwangba.
"They returned from the Central African Republic last week and are within the vicinity. But we do not know whether they are there for the meeting."
Meanwhile, the authorities of Dungu, a town in eastern Congo, in a letter of April 23, have issued a list of victims of LRA attacks in the area.
The letter lists 13 people killed, 13 abducted and 57 people whose property was stolen and fields looted in the last few months.
A local chief, a teacher and four pupils of Ndolomo Primary School were among the abducted.
The pupils, three of them girls, are aged between 12 and 16 years.
Computers, satellite telephones, medicine, chicken, goats, pangas, agricultural tools, radios, bags of food and cash were stolen.
Some 5,000 people in this remote part of Congo are said to have been displaced by the LRA attacks.
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