Uganda vows to 'fight' Kony
2008-06-05 14:24
Kampala - Uganda has agreed with its neighbours Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo to attack the Lord's Resistance Army rebel chief Joseph Kony if he spurns peace talks, says an army spokesperson.
Ugandan army spokesperson Paddy Ankunda did not say when the offensive against Kony - believed to be in jungles between Central African Republic, the DRC and southern Sudan - would begin.
"Military chiefs from Uganda, DRC and Sudan have agreed that if Kony does not want to talk peace he should be attacked," Ankunda said.
He said the operation, agreed on in Kampala this week, would be headed by the DRC army backed by the United Nations Mission in the vast central African nation, Monuc.
Peace agreement
Kony failed to show up for the signing of a final accord with Kampala on April 10 in southern Sudan, saying he needed more information on criminal charges against him and other LRA members, disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of his fighters.
He said he would sign the agreement once the issues had been addressed. LRA chief negotiator James Obita said the decision to attack thwarted peace efforts.
"Any sensible person considers such agreement by those parties to use military option against the LRA as not good for peace," Obita said.
"Let them give us the last chance. It is pointless for them to refuse to talk peace."
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 had left tens of thousands dead and displaced two million people, mainly in northern Uganda. Several thousand had also been killed in southern Sudan, where the LRA had camps.