Confusion sets into LRA peace process FRANK NYAKAIRU KAMPALA
After a difficult 16 months of going back and forth, the Juba peace process
is now faced with yet another storm. Garamba, where the Lords Resistance Army
(LRA) leadership is holed up, is dead silent and the news trickling out is
deeply worrying: The two topmost rebel commanders, Joseph Kony and his deputy,
Vincent Otti, have disagreed and a major split is feared.
Otti's fate remains a mystery. Kony's signaller, Labal Piny, is in possession
of Otti's satellite phone set. "Everyday for almost a month now, I have failed
to talk to Otti. Kony is not taking my calls, I wonder what is happening, last
night I went to Mega FM and personally asked Kony to quickly explain what is
going on," Col. Walter Ochora, Gulu's resident district commissioner said.
Col. Ochora has been an instrumental channel of communication between the
rebels and the government but now finds himself in a vacuum.
Kony and Otti, both indictees of the International Criminal Court for war
crimes and crimes against humanity, have led the LRA during the best and worst
of times for the shadowy organisation.
It is now difficult to say what their reported disagreement will mean for the
peace process, especially since up to 33 rebels are said to have died in a
reported gun battle on October 10 that pitted Kony loyalists against Ottis
people. If true, this is unprecedented even in the rebels long history of
dishing out harsh treatment to its members who fail or are suspected of
disloyalty.
So, attempts by the LRAs delegation to the peace talks to either downplay or
vehemently deny that there is anything wrong within the rebel ranks only serves
to further complicate the already unclear picture.
No substantive or verifiable information as to what may have sparked the
disagreement is currently available. Only rumours; first about an alleged
dispute over how to spend the $600,000 ostensibly provided for consultations by
the donor community, and then over claims that a power struggle was afoot
between the top two rebel leaders.
"Kony was increasingly accusing Otti of doing things behind his back which he
considered betrayal," a security source told Sunday Monitor.
Otti had also reportedly sanctioned recruitment of 128 former rebels of the
Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF II) "to boost their numbers should things go
wrong [with the peace talks]. It is not clear if Kony was aware of this.
The UNRF II largely operated in West Nile region before it signed a peace
agreement with the government in December 2002. Its leader, Maj. Gen. Ali
Bamuze, is currently living in Kampala.
The purported recruitment by a former senior member of the UNRF II in mid
August, however, reportedly went bad with many of those said to have been
recruited deserting upon realising that they had been duped. The men had
reportedly been told that they were being hired to go and work on a huge
bricklaying project.
Adding to the confusion was the strange decision by Sudanese Peoples Defence
Forces (SPLA) troops to detain members of the LRAs negotiating team for almost
one hour when they travelled to Maridi last Saturday (October 20). Mr Martin
Ojul and Mr Yusuf Okwonga Adek were held as they travelled to Maridi on their
way to Kony's base.
"When our negotiators landed at Maridi and got into a convoy to Maridi Hotel
they were quickly arrested by SPLA. We still wonder why and we are demanding an
explanation," said LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayoo during an interview with Sunday
Monitor during the week.
Maridi is a small town near the border between south Sudan and the DR Congo
through which the Garamba National Park, where the LRA are based, can be
accessed.
The search for answers continues after Kony snubbed the UN envoy for northern
Uganda, Joacqim Chissano, who he was scheduled to meet on October 22.
A week to this appointment Mr Chissano lost contact with Kony. Desperate that
the lack of contact was affecting the peace process, Mr Chissano decided to try
to meet Kony face to face but he was only able to get as far as Maridi where he
met the LRA negotiators, themselves stranded after they failed to meet their
leader.
Mr Chissano who flew back to Kampala on the same day, later told donors that
he had been told that Otti was ill with cholera and could not travel for the
meeting. The LRA also promised Mr Chissano that they would come to Uganda by
this weekend for consultations. This has not happened either.
Though there is speculation over the future of the peace process, Dr Ruhakana
Rugunda, the government's chief negotiator and minister for Internal Affairs,
is confident that the process is still on course.
"In peace talks we have hitches and corners but we are in touch with the LRA
and the peace talks are still on course," Dr Rugunda said on Friday. Meanwhile,
the issue of money is becoming a sticking point. The government delegation has
expressed concern over what they perceive as indirect funding of the LRA
through "exorbitant per diems."
Sunday Monitor obtained information, which we could not independently verify
though, that there is an unwritten rule that every LRA delegate in Juba must
hand over $50 of $120 they receive as allowances everyday to the LRA
leadership.
There are 15 LRA delegates participating in the Juba negotiations; 13
negotiators and two members who constitute the rebels membership on the
Cessation of Hostilities Team.
If this allegation is true then the LRA leadership in Garamba would be
receiving $750 (Shs1.3 million) daily and that translates to $5,250 (Shs9
million) in one week.
"We have information that this is happening and we ask ourselves who is now
bankrolling LRA? The donors?" said one government negotiator, who declined to
be named in the interests of harmony.
The government, according to our sources, has expressed this concern to the
donor group, Partners for Development and Governance. The group includes
European Union countries, the US, Norway and Canada that are contributing to
the Juba Initiative Fund managed by the UNs Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Assistance.
France, the European Union chair, which had earlier expressed concern over
LRAs direct handling of large sums of money declined to comment on this
development.
But the LRA rubbished the claim saying its delegates are free to use their per
diems as they wish.
"What is it that the Uganda government is worrying about when [they] are
stealing millions of dollars from impoverished tax payers?" asked Godfrey Ayoo,
LRAs spokesman, in a telephone interview from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
"No one is going to tell us how to run our affairs," he added.
The peace talks are open-ended with no time table, a fact that is
increasingly unsettling the government that has now resorted to applying
pressure on the Congolese authorities to take action against LRA.
But with the uncertainty of what is going inside the Garamba, especially in
respect of Ottis fate, and no actual movement by Kinshasa on the rebels
despite having made several commitments to do so, a sense of helplessness is
beginning to set in
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