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 Joseph Kony calls for peace talks restart
Joseph Kony, the Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader has issued a statement expressing interest in revamping the Juba peace talks and renewed interest in signing the Juba Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
In a statement issued by the LRA delegation head on Tuesday, Dr. David N. Matsanga, speaking as the Chief Mediator/Spokesman for the LRA announced that this time "there is hope for dialogue and signing of the Final Peace Agreement."
The rebel group spokesman also said that the Uganda People's Defense Force was unable to win the war militarily leaving the dialogue between the rebel group and government as the only option.
Read the entire statement:-
PRESS RELEASE.
DAWN OF HOPE FROM LRA AND FINAL LIFE LINE TO DIALOGUE.
1. The LRA High Command has instructed me to issue the following statement regarding the status of dialogue initiatives that both the LRA High Command and LRA Peace Negotiators
have undertaken in the last 6 months.
2. As you might have noticed the LRA had stopped issuing out press statements. As LRA Chief Peace Negotiator I decided to embark on silent diplomacy and avoided operating like a military spokesman due to intensive nature of the operation against LRA. Secondly the confusion caused by warmongers in Uganda government and the Diaspora Ugandans FORCED me to seek authority from General Kony to reply to some of baseless gossips that does rounds regarding the war. I have now received those instructions and I can announce that there is hope for dialogue and signing of the FPA.
3. It is clear that the Objectives of Operation Lighting Thunder (OLT) have not will not be achieved militarily. The objectives of ordering operation (OLT) were:
To force General Kony and LRA to sign the FPA.
To apprehend LRA commanders and release the noncombatants.
To implement the Juba Agreement.
4. These objectives have not been achieved and the operation now lies in a state of comma given the inability of Uganda (UPDF) as a country to win this war militarily. This leaves the world with dialogue as the only option that is sustainable in the Northern Uganda conflict.
5. Under my leadership of the LRA Peace delegation I have maintained that peace can not come through military force. I have since the inception of the Operation Lighting Thunder (OLT) of 14th December 2008 become increasingly defensive as I have staked out claims to the relevance, spelling out all links of peace initiatives made by myself to the world and liaisons obliterated by the passage of time. I have maintained that both parties should reengage and seek dialogue as the only route to find long lasting solution for the Northern Uganda conflict.
6. I want to make it clear to the world that history is written or more accurately written out by conquerors. LRA peace delegation under my guidance might not conquer but we have made a contribution to our history by defending and negotiating a good agreement that was destroyed by the ICC indictments and by ignition of a useless war on 14th December 2008.
7. The LRA Peace Delegation wants to state that if the Government of Uganda has been lost in a milky haze of amnesia, it surely cannot be unconnected to the fact that so many former Chief Peace negotiators of LRA ended up the same way like the route I will take soon. There are those war entrepreneurs and merchants of conflicts in Uganda government who want me to quit like Mrs. Betty Bigombe did in 2004 so that they continue using the Northern Uganda war as politicking gimmick
8. I might secure or not secure the signature of General Kony on the FPA. But I want to state that I indeed negotiated a good Agreement in Juba that removes most of the root causes that have brought many rebellions in Northern Uganda in the last 23 years. If this agreement is implemented our country Uganda will prosper. That is our contribution as peace lovers and President Museveni should thank us instead of fabricating stories against some of us. I have never harbored any military expansionism and I have traits of militarism. That is why I will die fighting for peaceful means.
9. I Believe that if the FPA is fully implemented it will reform Northern Uganda for many years to come. My presence on the LRA peace delegation will leave a mark on our national character and history of unity between the North and the South. The passion for bringing peace to Uganda will continue at all costs. The few greedy and grim opportunists, war merchants who hide under the umbrella of war will never separate me from the peace route.
10. I have encountered glaze eye reactions during the painstaking process in the Juba Peace talks. I will not give up in looking for further avenues of bringing peace to Uganda. I want to say that the deeper I delved, the clearer it became that Uganda had never been obscure backwater suggested by the polite, blank expressions of our people and President Museveni in particular. Uganda's narratives are entwined in its political history of militarism that I personally want to change once for all. Our people need peace and dialogue not guns and war. That is why General Kony has now instructed me for a renewed dialogue so as to resolve the Northern Uganda crisis peacefully.
11. As a result of my efforts and continued contacts with the LRA High command, the LRA has agreed to SEND 2 Military commanders to join the new LRA dialogue TEAM that I will formally present to the Chief Mediator in Juba when they arrive. This is the team that General Kony has himself chosen. Their role is to look at the FPA with the aim of fast tracking the signing it as soon as possible. It is not re- negotiation as some malcontents in Uganda government would like the world to believe.
12. General Kony has further instructed me to continue with my silent dialogue with President Chissano the UN Envoy, Dr. Riek Machar the Chief Mediator and with President Museveni personally until the matter is resolved. I have made several trips to Maputo and to Juba to meet the two peace mediator and UN Envoy on the way forward. My insistence on dialogue with General Kony has brought about the new direction that we might witness in the coming weeks.
13. The LRA High command also wants to distance itself from any attempts to drag the LRA's name in the current arrests and detentions in Northern Uganda and Eastern Uganda of some members who had allegedly formed a shadowy outfit of Peoples Patriotic Front (PPF). General Kony says he has never and will never instruct anyone from LRA to wage war in Uganda during the time of the peace process. He is aware that some of those who frustrated the signing of FPA on a number of attempts are the same ones who have been allegedly caught and implicated in the PPF.
14. Genera Kony went further and instructed me to inform Ugandans and international community that the LRA are aware that a section security agencies and one wing of military agency in the government of Uganda have paid and re-armed ex-LRA combatants to go out and hunt down Kony. But the young men who promised the military agency to do so had no clue of the tough task ahead of them. When these senior officers in military agencies requested for results from the ex-LRA men - the deal went sour.
15. This has not surprised General Kony because most of them in the Shadowy (PPF) had already been sacked by Kony for agitating for a formation of new rebel group against LRA. The LRA has no links and will never have links with PPF today or tomorrow. General Kony also said that allegations that PPF has links with local civic leaders namely vocal MPS and Norbert Mao from the North are based on mere hate campaign against the people of Northern Uganda.
16. The Document was not a secret at all. Its authors are the same who have hated Dr. MATSANGA and Peace Talks and are well known. There is nothing to link Mao and MPS from the North. Most of the PPF architects are well known same hardliners misled LRA before and promised air to the LRA leader that made it difficult for General Kony to sign the FPA.
17. General Kony also instructed me to warn several former LRA delegates who were sacked by him and are based in Uganda to desist from using his name and in particular he wanted to warn Miss Jolly Laker Okot of the INVISIBLE CHILDREN an American NGO outfit of CIA for the tricks that have created the current stalemate that we see in LRA today.
18. The same Ms Jolly Laker Okot on 29th November 2008 scared General Kony with a text message and changed his mind from signing the FPA. General Kony has on a RECORDED tape delivered to me given me instructions to warn many others who claim that they have talked to him by phone to stop the habit.
19. Those who want to discuss LRA Peace talks and have any valuable contribution in helping the process to have Kony sign the FPA are welcome to contact me on +8821643333391. All communication regarding the new changes has been delivered to the Leader of the new dialogue team (I) which I will publish later.
20. Those who names do not appear on the new list as LRA dialogue members have been thanked and told to wait for the day when General Kony will sign the FPA. Those misleading many EU many other embassies in Kampala about LRA will receive a telephone call from General Kony soon. The only official channel fortunately remains I and my route towards peace.
God Bless Uganda
David Nyekorach- Matsanga (PhD)
LEADER OF LRA PEACE DELEGATION/ CHIEF NEGOTIATOR
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