Rebel Kony to sign peace deal in the bush
- Details
- Created on Saturday, 29 March 2008 10:01
- Written by Pachodo.org News Room
Skye Wheeler ,Juba-Sudan
Uganda's fugitive rebel chief Joseph Kony will sign a final peace deal with
the government on the South Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border two
days before an official ceremony, South Sudanese officials said on
Friday.
South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar has been chairing long-running negotiations between the two sides in Juba.
Kony, leader of
the shadowy Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), has never attended the talks in
person, fearing arrest and extradition to the International Criminal Court
(ICC).
"There will be two signatures ... Kony in his headquarters in
Ri-Kwangba on April 3 and the Ugandan president will come to sign here in Juba
on April 5," said South Sudan's Information Minister Gabriel Changson
Chang.
Ri-Kwangba lies on the remote frontier between South Sudan and the
DRC. Kony's refusal to leave camps in the DRC will frustrate Ugandan government
negotiators, who say they expect him to emerge from hiding to sign.
"The
parties agreed that the signing of the Final Peace Agreement be April 5 in Juba,
Southern Sudan," Kampala said in a statement late on Thursday. "The government
of Uganda expects Kony to come to Juba and sign the final peace
agreement."
No outsiders have seen elusive rebel commander in
months.
Rebel representatives in Juba say they will leave for Ri-Kwangba
with the document on Tuesday. The deal calls for LRA fighters to disarm within a
month after it is signed.
Kony and two of his top deputies are wanted for
multiple war crimes by ICC prosecutors in The Hague. During a two-decade
insurgency, their fighters became notorious for mutilating their victims and
abducting thousands of children.
Fearing prosecution, the rebels have
repeatedly insisted any final peace deal be contingent on the ICC scrapping its
arrest warrants first, while the government says it will only ask for that after
an agreement has been signed.
The war has been one of Africa's longest
conflicts, killing tens of thousands of people and uprooting two million more. -
Reuters
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