Kony calls for peace talks

The leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), Joseph Kony, has reportedly telephoned a radio station in northern Uganda to say he is ready to enter peace talks with the Ugandan government, according to news agencies. "I want genuine peace talks with government. I initiated a ceasefire, but it is government which seems to work against peace," the BBC quoted Kony as saying on Saturday in a phone-in to Mega FM, a radio station based in the northern town of Gulu. Kony, who has not been seen in public for many years, said he was in northern Uganda, but did not disclose his exact location, the BBC reported. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni last month established a six-member team for peace talks with the LRA. However, Museveni has set certain preconditions for talks, including that a ceasefire be agreed; that the LRA undertake to stop kidnapping and killing civilians; and that the entire LRA force confine itself to only three sites in southern Sudan where the group has bases. The Ugandan minister of the presidency and member of the government negotiating team, Gilbert Bukenya, said Kony would have to name negotiators if talks were to go ahead. "The issue is Kony fulfilling conditions laid down by the government, which include Kony naming his delegation for the talks," he was quoted by The New Vision government-owned newspaper as saying. Since its rebellion began in 1987, the LRA is widely thought to have been responsible for the regular abduction of children, torture and mutilation of civilians, and the pillaging of villages in northern Uganda. In his communication with the radio station, however, Kony denied that the LRA was responsible for such atrocities, and blamed the Ugandan army. "Some of the killings are being carried out by government agents bent on tarnishing the image of the LRA," the BBC quoted Kony as saying. The Fourth Division army spokesman, Lt Paddy Ankunda, who was in the radio station at the time of the call, confirmed to IRIN on Monday that it was indeed Kony who made the call. Ankunda added that the request from Kony for talks was probably the result of intense military pressure brought to bear on the rebels by the Ugandan army. "It is all about our continuous pressure on him," he said. "This is what he should have done earlier." The Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) have - with the permission of the Sudanese government - since March this year been waging a military campaign, dubbed Operation Iron Fist, against LRA rear bases in southern Sudan. The UPDF have also offered a US $11,000 reward for information leading to the capture or killing of the rebel leader. More than 500,000 people in the three northern districts of Gulu, Kitgum and Pader are forced to live in poor conditions in camps for internally displaced persons as a result of persistent attacks by the LRA.