Uganda rebels ready for peace
2008-09-13 14:28
Khartoum - Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army vowed on Saturday to sign a final peace deal but warned it will not disarm until International Criminal Court arrest warrants for alleged war crimes are "resolved".
LRA spokesperson David Nyekorach-Matsanga said rebel chief Joseph Kony was willing to sign a much delayed peace deal, speaking as military pressure mounts against the northern Ugandan insurgents.
"General Joseph Kony... instructed me to inform the world and announce that the LRA will sign the FPA (final peace agreement)," Matsanga said in a statement issued in the south Sudanese capital Juba where peace talks have been held since 2006.
"But the LRA will not disarm or demobilise until the ICC warrants of arrest and some other issues within the agreement are resolved."
These issues will be discussed by a joint committee of LRA and Ugandan government representatives, he said.
"This is exactly in line with the agreement that we negotiated," he added.
The rebels are now believed to be based in jungle hideouts in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
They have also been accused of attacking villages in the Central African Republic (CAR).
However, Congolese troops last week were reported to be planning to crack down on the fugitives.
Uganda's military have said it supports the move, which is also backed by troops from the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC.
The LRA supremo, a semi-literate former altar boy, took charge in 1988 of a regional rebellion among northern Uganda's ethnic Acholi minority.
Twenty years of fighting have left tens of thousands dead and displaced two million people, mainly in northern Uganda.