Ugandan rebels apologise in camp they massacred hundreds
KAMPALA (AFP) — Ugandan rebels said Saturday they had apologised to survivors of a massacre of some 400 civilians their fighters carried out in northern Uganda three years ago.
Santa Okot of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) said the rebels toured the camp in Uganda's Lira district Friday and apologised to widows and orphans of the February 2004 killings, in which their fighters mowed down fleeing civilians and burned them alive. The attack was one of the country's deadliest in years.
"They asked for forgiveness as people narrated the ordeal of the attack and its impact thereafter," said Walter Ochola, a northern Uganda politician who accompanied the rebels.
The visit is part of ongoing consultations by the LRA with the public and leaders in northern Uganda on peace talks with the government, following a truce signed between the two in August 2006.
Talks between Ugandan officials and LRA members in the southern Sudanese capital Juba are considered the best chance to end a nearly three-decade-old conflict that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced 1.8 million -- out of a total population of 2.8 million in northern Uganda.
The LRA rebels say they are fighting to establish a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
