Amnesty the best option for northerners

An offer of amnesty by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's amnesty to rebel leader Joseph Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) is an "answered prayer" for many in the north. Media sources in the area confirmed to IRIN that opinion polls have proved that northerners are "very happy" with the offer and say the president "has seen the light". To them, the gesture will end the 13-year-old problem.

Analysts in Kampala said Museveni had "often shoved (rejected) this option and advocated for war instead". "When he [Museveni] saw the kind of weapons the rebels are using during his current tour and the extent of loss and depopulation, he opted for dialogue," one analyst told IRIN on Friday.

"I was angry with Kony as he killed many people, but now I have been persuaded and I have agreed to give him and his fighters amnesty," the semi-official daily 'New Vision' quoted Museveni as saying. According to the senior presidential adviser for media and public relations, John Nagenda, an open amnesty had been granted to the rebels a few years back. "The only new thing with this is that the names of Kony and two of his top lieutenants were named," he told IRIN.

"If Kony fails to respond, then the government has no option than to tackle him on the battlefield," Nagenda said. "The atrocities he has committed against his own people may weigh him down with guilt and make him either surrender or not."