Uganda president promises rebels amnesty
By KATY POWNALL, Associated Press Writer Tue Jul 4, 5:36 PM ET
KAMPALA, Uganda - Uganda's president said Tuesday he might grant amnesty to a rebel leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
President Yoweri Museveni agreed Monday to begin peace talks in neighboring Sudan with the Lord's Resistance Army rebel group. If those talks go well, Museveni promised the group's leader, Joseph Kony, would not be arrested.
"President Yoweri Museveni has declared that the Uganda government will grant total amnesty to the leader of the Lord's Resistance
Army, Joseph Kony, despite the International Criminal Court indictment, if he responds positively to the talks with government in Juba, southern Sudan and abandons terrorism," presidential spokesman Onapito Ekomoloit said in a statement.
The Ugandan rebels, who have set up rear bases in neighboring southern Sudan and eastern Congo, are the remnants of an uprising that began in 1986 after Museveni took power in Uganda.
The Lord's Resistance rebels were once backed by the national Sudanese government. But southern Sudan, which has its own administration, is preparing to rebuild after a 21-year civil war of its own. It is now eager to help end the conflict because it wants to stop Ugandan insurgents from killing, abducting and attacking civilians in the region.
Lord's Resistance Army negotiators have gathered in the southern Sudanese capital of Juba for talks that will begin next week. They will be mediated by southern Sudanese
leaders.
The Netherlands-based International Criminal Court last July issued arrest warrants for Kony and four of his lieutenants for crimes against humanity including the killing of thousands of civilians and enslaving thousands of children. The court called on Congo, Sudan and Uganda to arrest the five.
Museveni assured Kony that his government will not renege on its promise of amnesty even under international pressure, the president's spokesman said.
He said the United Nations should have arrested him because it set up the International Criminal Court.
"The noble cause of trying Kony before the ICC has been betrayed by the failure of the United Nations, which
set up the court, to arrest him despite knowing his location" in neighboring Congo, the statement said.
"I am sending my people to talk to Kony because I have no partners" to arrest him, Museveni said.
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