Ganzi Muhanguzi
3 December 2008
Kampala — ALLEGED death threats from UPDF officers and Gulu residents scared Joseph Kony from signing the peace deal on Saturday, Uganda People's Congress (UPC) vice-president John Okello Okello has said.
He told journalists that the rebel leader said he had received a message from a brigadier vowing to kill him if he did not sign the peace deal.
Okello was part of the team of traditional, religious and civic leaders that met Kony at Garamba in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
He said Kony was also worried the Government would upholding the international court indictment.
Okello said the rebel leader stripped elders of their mobile phones, cameras and other accessories for fear of being assassinated.
"He had been told that some of us were army people who had been planted in the group to kill him," he said.
Okello added that Kony also said he had received a message from a Gulu resident who accused him of conniving with President Museveni to escape being punished.
"She told him that even if the Government waived the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment, Gulu residents would be waiting for him," he said.
Okello was speaking at the weekly UPC press briefing at the Uganda House in Kampala yesterday.
"We believe these messages were calculated to scare him from signing the peace deal," he said.
The Government was to withdraw Kony's case from the ICC after agenda number three of the peace talks, which they did not do, Okello said.
Agenda number three of the peace talks includes discussions on reconciliation and accountability between the Government, the people and the rebels.
"I tried to explain to him that his signature was required for the indictment to be removed, but he was not convinced," he said.
Okello, however, denied press reports that the team had been stripped naked and beaten by the rebels.
"Those reports were untrue. You would have to be mad to strip your guests," he said, adding that the team was only subjected to thorough security checks.
Okello warned the Government against punishing the rebels, who he said were unwilling participants abducted to fight in a war that had claimed thousands of lives since 1986.
"It would be a double crime for the UPDF to kill them since it is the Government that failed to protect them from being abducted," Okello said.
However, state minister for defence Ruth Nankabirwa said she doubted the authenticity of Kony's claims.
"I wasn't there but I have also heard that some Acholi had threatened to kill him, but whether it is true or not, it cannot be a reason for him not to sign," Nankabirwa said.
She said the only way Kony would be helped was if he came out and signed the peace deal.
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