Uganda: Rebel leader denies killing deputy

(SomaliNet) In what the Ugandan rebel leader denies executing his deputy, Joseph Kony has admitted arresting his deputy on suspicion of spying, a mediator said on Friday, amid intense speculation about the fate of a man instrumental to peace talks.

However, Ugandan media, quoting unnamed government intelligence sources, say Kony killed his second-in-command Vincent Otti about a month ago after a dispute over money and control.

Norbert Mao, a senior politician from Kony\'s home area, told Reuters he spoke to the fugitive head of the Lord\'s Resistance Army (LRA) by satellite phone at an undisclosed location in the remote forests of northeast Democratic Republic of Congo.

\"He told me Otti is not dead,\" Mao said after talking to Kony. \"He is only under house arrest because of a disagreement.\"

Otti had been a prime mover behind the LRA joining peace talks that began last year in Juba, South Sudan, aimed at ending a 20-year insurgency. Analysts say his reported downfall would be a big setback.

But Mao, speaking by phone from north Uganda, said he believed the rift would not have a negative impact. \"Kony understands that to take Otti out of the equation will not help,\" he said.

In neighbouring Kenya on Friday, an LRA spokesperson insisted Otti was alive, but refused to say when he last spoke to him.

Both Kony and Otti are wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague for war crimes committed during their armed campaign against the government, which uprooted two million people in northern Uganda alone and destabilised parts of Sudan and Congo.


A truce was signed at the Juba talks in August 2006. But the LRA\'s top leaders have stayed hidden in Congo, fearing arrest if they show their faces.

Mao, a key player at the negotiations, said Kony told him he believed his deputy was a Ugandan government spy.

He said he had urged the rebel boss to remain calm.

\"Movements like the LRA operate on paranoia,\" Mao said. \"I told Kony he needs to deal with this internal disagreement without too much recklessness.\"

Otti - who was seen as the brains behind the group - often spoke to mediators and reporters by satellite phone from his hideouts.

But he fell silent in recent weeks and his various numbers went unanswered, prompting intense speculation about his fate.

Kony\'s first reported comments on Otti\'s whereabouts came as the LRA representatives at the Juba talks - mostly members of Uganda\'s Diaspora - toured the north of the country after a face-to-face session with President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala.

The rebel delegates are meeting local leaders and visiting camps for villagers displaced by the war, where they are trying to win support for their bid to scrap the ICC arrest warrants.

At a news conference in Nairobi on Friday, LRA spokesperson Godfrey Ayoo said the rebel officials were welcomed everywhere.

He insisted Otti was alive and still a member of the LRA high command. But he repeatedly refused to answer questions from journalists asking when he last spoke to the LRA\'s number two.-Reuters