----- Original Message ----- 
From: Elum aniap Godfrey Ayoo 
To: [log in to unmask] ; [log in to unmask] 
Cc: Edward Mulindwa 
Sent: Sunday, September 28, 2003 10:12 PM
Subject: Kony rejects govt amnesty 


Kony rejects govt amnesty 
By Richard M. Kavuma 
September 29, 2003

      KAMPALA - Rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army have rejected government's offer of amnesty to end the rebellion in northern Uganda.

      However, the Amnesty Commission says that the Joseph Kony-led LRA rebels are still the biggest single group to have taken advantage of the three year-old amnesty.

      LRA commander Brig Sam Kolo called The Monitor on Thursday to say that President Museveni "has no moral authority" to grant the rebels amnesty.

      He said that, instead, it is the people of Uganda and the LRA that should give Mr Museveni amnesty.

      Parliament passed the Amnesty Act in 2000, pardoning rebels who give up fighting and report to the Amnesty Commission.

      But Kolo claimed that Museveni needs amnesty for his role in wars in DR Congo, Rwanda and Sudan, which left many people dead.

      "It is unfortunate that Museveni has never accepted having killed the people of Uganda even during his five-year guerilla war," Kolo said. "He considers himself clean and holy. 

      This amnesty is useless for LRA"

      Amnesty Commission spokesman, Mr Moses Draku, said more than 3,000 LRA rebels have "reported" to the commission since it started work in July 2000.

      "Even if the LRA leaders say they oppose the amnesty, that does not stop the [amnesty] law from operating," Draku said on phone. "Some more [of the rebels] will take advantage of this law."

      Kolo denied that the LRA is receiving any arms from Sudan, as claimed by the Uganda government.

      He claimed that the Sudanese army joined the UPDF to attack LRA positions in southern Sudan on March 22 last year.

      "The statement by government that LRA gets support from Sudan is intended to deceive the world so that Museveni continues [arming] his friends the SPLA"
      But the Uganda army (UPDF) spokesman Maj. Shaban Bantariza said the UPDF has not carried out any joint operations with the Sudanese army, even if the Operation Iron Fist protocol provides for them.

      President Museveni has repeatedly said that Sudan continues to arm the LRA despite allowing the UPDF to flush them out of Southern Sudan.

      Kolo told The Monitor that the LRA has its armory inside - and gets its support from-Uganda.

      Pressed further, however, Kollo said they get support from "countries that do not support dictatorships and undemocratic governments" but not from Sudan. 

      The Monitor could, however, not get a comment from President Museveni's spokesperson. Ms Mary Karooro Okurut could not be reached on her mobile phone while Mr Onapito Ekomoloit was reportedly out of the country.

      The Minister of Information James Nsaba Buturo was attending a function, according to his bodyguard who answered his mobile phone.

     


© 2003 The Monitor Publications


"And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, 'When will you be satisfied?' We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities (.) No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream". (Martin Luther King, 1964 Nobel Peace prize laureate, assassinated for his struggle)

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