Individuals from the Diaspora and Uganda implicated
LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony - failed to sign pact again
After nearly two years of painstaking negotiations to secure permanent peace in northern Uganda, the elusive leader of Africa’s most brutal rebel groups the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) once again refused to sign the peace agreement.
Two reasons have emerged for the snub. Firstly, according to LRA spokesperson David Nyekorach, Kony did not sign the agreement because of the ICC indictment. Secondly, some individuals in the Diaspora and in Uganda have been accused of discouraging Kony from signing the pact.
The latest snub led to a swift offensive, code-named “Operation Lightning Thunder”, on rebel bases in Garamba National Park, DR Congo by the joint forces of Uganda, Southern Sudan and DR Congo.
Sensitive security documents and communication equipments recovered from LRA bases after the strike have provided vital clues to sources of support for the rebels.
While addressing Ugandans on radio on Monday 22 December 2008, President Museveni said: “We have now gathered more intelligence on Kony’s activities and those who support him by entering Kony’s camps in Garamba. As we continue operating, we shall gather even more information against him”.
President Museveni also lambasted politicians who have been drumming support against military option and urging Kony not to sign the pact. “Those criminal politicians who encourage Kony to avoid peace maybe, paradoxically, God’s agents in bringing about Kony’s death”, he said.
Members of Parliament under the Acholi Parliamentary Group (APG), opposed to military option, listed a number of people whom they accuse to be involved in the deviation of the peace process that seeks to end conflict in Northern Uganda.
APG Chairman Livingstone Okello Okello revealed that in a meeting held before the strike between LRA leader Joseph Kony and leaders from Acholi and Lango sub-regions, Kony revealed that there are some people who have been threatening him and others discouraging him from signing the Final Peace Agreement.
Okello says that Kony mentioned Brigadier Otema Charles Awany, the 4th Division Commander, who in a text message threatened Kony that if he does not sign the peace agreement, he (Kony) would be killed.
Brigadier Otema has vehemently denied the allegation. He said the allegation was a creation of MPs Jimmy Akena and Livingstone Okello-Okello. “These opposition politicians are mad; they just oppose things for the sake of it,” Otema said.
Some of the people who allegedly discouraged Kony from signing the peace agreement, according to Okelo, include former Pader Woman MP, Santa Okot who was part of the LRA delegation and Onen Ogwang, an Acholi living in the United Kingdom who warned Kony that he would be putting himself in danger if he signed the peace agreement.
According to Rupiny, a northern Ugandan vernacular newspaper, some individuals from the Acholi and Lango communities in the Diaspora sent messages to the rebel leader discouraging him from signing.
Jimmy Akena, MP for Lira Municipality, said some messages were from a former woman MP from the north, a prominent Acholi living in the UK, and a humanitarian worker based in Pader.
Various individuals and groups of northern Ugandan origin from Europe and USA also expressed unwavering sympathy with the rebels soon after the military strike on LRA bases. Some have gone to the extent of issuing death threats against peace activists.
APG chairman Livingstone Okello notes that most of those discouraging the signing of the peace agreement have benefited from the peace talks and are fearful that once the agreement is signed, they will end up losing out.
Other people see LRA rebellion as an expression of long standing grievances of northern Ugandans against the NRM government and would like to use the rebellion as a bargaining chip for the affected people.
Another group of Ugandans in the Diaspora view the conflict as proof of instability in Uganda which thus provides valid reasons for political asylum.
Nevertheless, there is widespread support among Ugandans for government action against the rebels in spite of opposition from APG and some Ugandan exiles.
Filed under: LRA
