Paul Amoru & Andrew Mugyema
4 June 2008
Kampala — The military option has finally prevailed over the voice of reason, and hopes of ever peacefully solving the 22 year old northern Uganda conflict now remain a wishful thought.
The government of Uganda has once again preferred a military approach to silence the dreaded leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, but this time with the full support of other countries in the Great Lakes Region (GLR).
The sad twist of events was yesterday announced by the Army and Defence spokesman Maj Paddy Ankunda in his office at the National Social Security Building (NSSF), in Kampala.
"The negotiations are no more, the man (Kony) doesn't know what he wants and we have resolved to go the military way," said Maj Ankunda.
Major Ankunda added: "He is in real trouble, serious trouble," he said in direct reference to Kony. This means the series of negotiations between government and LRA for a negotiated peace deal has gone to waste.
The decision came on Monday after a high powered meeting of all security chiefs in the Great Lakes Region held in an undisclosed venue but in Uganda.
Uganda's Chief of Defence Forces Aronda Nyakairima chaired the high profiled regional security meeting attended also by the Chief of Defence Forces (DRC) and Chief Operations Person (COP) Gen Amuri Diodonne also from DRC.
Others were Force Commander of the UN Mission in Congo (Monuc) Lt Gen Baba Kagai, Chief of Defence Forces SPLA, Lt Gen Oyai Deng and other intelligence officers.
Maj Ankunda said the members reached a consensus to fight Kong because the peace talks option seemed to have failed and was already in balance since Kony had refused to sign a negotiated deal.
The security meeting notably resoled to give tasks to different actors (members in the meeting) and other countries in the Great Lakes Region also affected by activities of the LRA.
Monuc forces pledged medical, food and other logistics for the foot soldiers of the new found unity against Kony and his commanders.
UPDF and SPLA were tasked to provide Intelligence for the mission while the Congolese forces are the ones to directly battle with the LRA in Garamba forest.
Maj Ankunda said the UN mission in Congo pledged to support the offensive against Kony so that it does not get worn out mid way.
He said the decision takes effect immediately: "This month some action will be taken against him (Kony". Maj Ankunda said the UPDF has already deployed some forces in West Nile and the border areas to deal with any spill over.
He said the government achieved an immense diplomatic success by making several efforts to talk to Kony. Maj Ankunda questioned Kony's reasoning that he didn't understand how the Mato oput, the Acholi traditional option for justice would work.
"Kony knows very well the Acholi cultural practices, so he erroneously snubbed several meetings we planned to enable him sign the peace deal," Maj Ankunda argued.
He said the general concern was Kony has been making contacts with Mahamat, who heads another banned rebel group in Chad. He added that there were allegations that the Khartoum government supports the group.
The talks which were held in Juba, the capital of autonomous Southern Sudan, began in July 2006 and were mediated by Riek Machar, the Vice President of Southern Sudan.
It had resulted in a ceasefire by September 2006, and was described as the best chance ever for a negotiated settlement for the 22-year-old war only for it to finally fall flat on its face yesterday.
Khartoum backed the LRA in a proxy war with Uganda in the 1990s in retaliation for Uganda's support for the SPLA. But a peace deal in Sudan in 2005 removed Kony's safe haven in its south, forcing him to relocate to eastern Congo.
Kony and two of his senior deputies are wanted by the Hague-based ICC for war crimes including rape, murder and the abduction of children. Fearing arrest, they have never appeared at the now defunct Juba talks.
A section of the peace deal on justice for war crimes had outlined ways in which Uganda would try to deal with rebel atrocities internally, using a mixture of traditional tribal reconciliation rituals and Ugandan courts.
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