Ugandan Rebels Spurn Peace Talks
Nji Che - All Headline News Staff Writer Kampala, Uganda (AHN) - Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels on Wednesday refused to send their top leaders to peace talks with the Ugandan government due to start in southern Sudan. The rebel chief, Joseph Kony, and his close aides are wanted by an international court for war crimes. Last week, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni promised to grant Kony amnesty if peace talks scheduled between the government and rebels succeeded this week. The United Nations' tribunal in The Hague maintained its arrest warrants on Kony and four of his commanders amidst the amnesty offer. The group is accused of killing several thousands of Ugandans in a 20-year conflict with government soldiers, despite claiming its principles are based on the Biblical Ten Commandments. Several rights groups have accused it of killing, abducting and raping teenage girls. Reacting to the Ugandan government accusations, that the group cuts off people's ears and lips, Kony insists he is not guilty of the atrocities blamed on his movement. He told the BBC earlier this month, "This is not true. I cannot cut the ear of my brother, I cannot kill the eye of my brother. I cannot kill my brother, that is not true."
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