DAR ES SALAAM (AFP) — The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda on Sunday urged rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) chief Joseph Kony to sign a definitive peace deal.
Joseph Kabila and Yoweri Museveni, the leaders of DRC and Uganda respectively, called on the LRA head to end years of atrocities by his men including torture, rape, and the murder of civilians including children.
"The two presidents urged Joseph Kony, head of the LRA which operates near Uganda's frontier, to sign urgently a final peace agreement," said a statement read out by Tanzania's Foreign Minister Bernard Membe after a meeting in Dar es Salaam.
Kony faces international criminal court indictments for alleged atrocities in northern Uganda.
His brutal militia earned notoriety for enslaving, torturing, raping, and murdering civilians, including children.
Twenty years of marauding by his followers have left tens of thousands dead and displaced two million people, mainly in northern Uganda.
Kony last Wednesday sent a delegation to Kampala for talks with the Ugandan government after failing to sign a peace agreement.
Delegation leader James Obita held talks with Uganda's chief prosecutor on the role of a proposed special division of Uganda's high court to handle alleged crimes of the LRA.
Kony failed to show for the signing of a final accord with the Ugandan government on April 10 in southern Sudan, saying he needed more information on criminal charges against him and other LRA members, as well as on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration of his men.
Kony and four deputies face indictments for alleged atrocities during the two-decade insurgency.
The LRA supremo, a semi-literate former altar boy, took charge in 1988 of a regional rebellion among northern Uganda's ethnic Acholi minority.
Kabila and Museveni also discussed troubled relations between their two neighbouring countries at the invitation of their host, Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete, currently chairing the African Union.
Relations between DCR and Uganda have been frosty amid mutual accusations that each side is supporting the other's armed opposition.
The two countries agreed last September to restore full diplomatic relations, a status reiterated Sunday by their respective leaders.
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