Ugandan rebel leader seeks guarantees

UGANDA:  Uganda's fugitive rebel commander Joseph Kony wants guarantees of his safety and financial security before he signs a peace deal to end one of Africa's longest wars, a spokesman said yesterday.

Ugandan government officials left the site of a planned signing ceremony on the remote Sudan-Congo border after Kony failed to appear. That cast into doubt the fate of nearly two years of tortuous negotiations with his Lord's Resistance Army.

"Kony wants clarification of his physical and financial security, and once that is cleared up he will sign the peace agreement," rebel spokesman James Obita said.

Uganda's 22-year civil war has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted two million more and destabilised neighbouring parts of oil-rich south Sudan and mineral-rich eastern Congo.

Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court, had been due to sign the deal on Thursday. But he first asked mediators to clarify part of the text and then fired his chief negotiator. 

© 2008 The Irish Times

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