Kony's Stark Choice
New Vision (Kampala)
February 5, 2003
Posted to the web February 5, 2003
Kampala
RETIRED BISHOP OF Kitgum Baker Ochola has been seeking help abroad on behalf of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative.
He has insisted to American and British officials that the Uganda government must open peace talks with the Lord's Resistance Army, or face perpetual war in the north.
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Kony and the LRA may not yet have been eliminated but they are in bad shape.
They have lost the support of Khartoum and no longer have secure base camps and munitions dumps inside the Sudan. The UPDF is hounding them everywhere. The LRA is constantly losing soldiers in combat and through desertion.
Northern Uganda has obviously paid a high price for Operation Iron Fist. Kony resumed fighting in Acholi and on occasions the LRA have succeeded in attacking protected camps, ambushing vehicles, and raiding trading centres.
Kony lives for war. The government has asked him to name representatives to meet their negotiating team but he has not done so. He met the bishops last year but this was inconclusive. He declared a ceasefire last year but ambushed vehicles on the same day.
There are now signs that Kony may genuinely want to talk. The fact that he called Mega FM and Norbert Mao to present his case indicates that he is under pressure and is seeking a way out.
One way out is to negotiate a peaceful end to war. Bishop Ochola is right in that respect.
But government should not slacken the military pressure on the LRA in the meantime. It is that pressure that is bringing Kony to the negotiating table. Kony now faces a stark choice between peace talks and eventual destruction.
