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| Africa: Subsaharan | |
| Senior Uganda Rebel Surrenders, Raising Peace Hopes | |
| 2005-02-16 | |
| A top officer in Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army rebel group surrendered on Wednesday, boosting hopes that other senior commanders could soon abandon their 18-year insurgency, a mediator and army intelligence chief said. Brigadier Sam Kolo, the head LRA negotiator at the first face-to-face peace talks with the government in a decade in December, was the most senior of a series of rebels to respond to a government amnesty offer in recent weeks. "Kolo came out today. We went on a mission to meet him and we have been successful," Betty Bigombe, the chief mediator at peace talks held in the past few weeks, told Reuters by telephone from the northern town of Gulu. Colonel Charles Otema-Awany, head of military intelligence in northern Uganda, confirmed that Kolo had given himself up and said he was expected to arrive at the army's 4th Division headquarters in Gulu later on Wednesday. "It is true. Kolo surrendered today and we are very happy," he told Reuters. The rebels, who operate in small groups roaming the forest and bush of the north, were not available for comment. The government is using a combination of military pressure and talks to convince the LRA to give up its rebellion, hoping to end a conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and forced more than a million to flee their homes. The government is likely to point to Kolo's surrender as a major blow against the LRA, representing the defection of one of LRA leader Joseph Kony's closest allies and a man who served as the group's top spokesman. Other rebels who have surrendered have appeared on radio programs to encourage their former comrades to follow their example, saying they have been treated well by the army. Observers say that the conflict, which has blighted development in much of northern Uganda but had relatively scant impact in the more prosperous south, is unlikely to end until LRA leader Joseph Kony -- a self-styled mystic -- surrenders.
It was not immediately clear where Kolo was picked up by members of the team of peace negotiators acting on behalf of the government, although Kolo had been present at peace talks held about 31 miles northeast of Gulu town in recent weeks. The area, near Uganda's border with Sudan, is covered by a temporary government ceasefire aimed at creating a safe environment for more talks to end the war, during which the LRA has abducted thousands of children for use as fighters. | |
| Posted by:Steve |