Raymond Baguma And Chris Ocowun
2 December 2008
Kampala — REBEL chief Joseph Kony is angry with Gulu leaders Norbert Mao and Maj. Gen. Walter Ochora for reportedly talking ill of the LRA in the media, an MP who met him in his forest hideout last week said.
Chua county MP Okello-Okello said Kony blasted Mao, the Gulu district chairman, and Ochora, the resident district commissioner, for bad-mouthing him. Another source said Kony attacked Mao for allegedly accusing him of receiving support from Khartoum.
Kony denied the allegation. "But even if I did," the source quoted Kony, "would I be the only rebel leader to receive support from a foreign country?"
He alleged that DR Congo president Laurent Kabila also received aid from Uganda when he was fighting Mobutu Ssese Seko's regime in the late 1990s.
Kony, according to the source, also accused Ochora of attacking him on radio talk-shows.
Kony, according to Okello-Okello, also blasted his former negotiators led by Martin Ojur, saying they had been compromised with money from the Government and donors.
Another source said Kony also accused lawyer Jacob Oulanyah of failing to advise him on contentious issues such as the International Criminal Court's arrest warrants. The court accuses Kony and his commanders of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Mao and Oulanyah could not be reached for a comment but Ochora said he would address a press conference over the matter. Mao said over the weekend that Kony was confused after he failed for the third time this year to sign the final peace agreement.
Okello-Okello was one of the 22 delegates who met Kony in his hideout in DR Congo's Garamba Forest. Team leaders Acholi paramount chief Rwot David Achana and Gulu Diocese Bishop John Baptist Odama flew back to home yesterday from Juba, the venue of the peace talks.
Lira Municipality MP Jimmy Akena, the traditional heads of West Nile, Teso, Bunyoro and Lango participated.
Okello-Okello said on meeting the elders, the first thing Kony asked was the whereabouts of Mao and Ochora.
Mao did not participate in the current peace initiative but Ochora stayed in Nabanga with the Government delegation, which was waiting for Kony to move to Ri-Kwangba for the signing.
Their absence, Kony said, was proof of their ill-intentions, Okello-Okello said.
Describing their experiences, Okello-Okello said the delegates walked for 2km from Ri-Kwangba in South Sudan to Kony's jungle camp. "It seems they do not live in one place and have several scattered camps," he said. "They had just returned to this camp to receive us."
The rebels, Okello-Okello added, searched the delegates thoroughly following reports that UPDF soldiers had infiltrated the peace envoys to kill Kony. "They took our telephones, pens and eyeglasses," he said. "But they left me with my glasses."
The delegates, Okello-Okello narrated, slept outside under the LRA guard. "There was no incident," he said. "We spent two nights around a bonfire. Only Kony's nephew and a sister, Betty, slept in a hut."
Okello also said the rebels wore uniforms similar to those of the SPLA soldiers.
The elders met Kony on Saturday from 1:00pm until 6:00pm. The following day, the meeting was chaired by Caesar Acelam, Kony's second-in-command from 9:00am up to 11:00am. Later, Kony met the Acholi traditional leader, the Rwot David Achana and Jimmy Luwala, the head of Kony's Puranga clan in private before the team left for Nabanga.
"We discussed a wide range of issues which included the arrest warrants," Okello-Okello said. Asked if Kony would sign the agreement, Okello-Okello said: " I believe we will get somewhere."
Odama said after the "frank and open discussions", Kony handed over to the delegates an orphan girl, whose parents, he said, died in the rebels' camp. The sick-looking girl was handed over to Unicef Juba for treatment.
"We were subjected to normal checks, which is expected anywhere, but without humiliation," he said. All I can say is the place had not had rain in a long time. It is as dry as our place here".
In April, Kony refused to sign the agreement at the last minute, saying the warrants must first be withdrawn. He said he did not understand how a special division of the High Court that the agreement provided for to try rebels accused of crimes would work. He also wanted clarification on how Mato Put, the traditional justice alternative, would work.
Last weekend, his spokesman Nyekorach Matsanga said Kony would only sign if he met President Yoweri Museveni in person and if his fighters were guaranteed places in the national army.
In a reaction, the Government said the negotiations were done with. Capt. Chris Magezi, the spokesperson, said: "It is up to him (Kony) to sign."
The peace agreement, except the parts which require Kony's direct participation, he said, would be implemented.
Magezi said the Government would only launch an appeal to drop the warrants after Kony signed the deal. "Anything less than that, Kony is simply wasting time."
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