Uganda rebels vow peace, want ICC warrants lifted

RI-KWANGBA, Sudan-Congo border, Sep 20 (Reuters) The deputy commander of Uganda's notorious Lord's Resistance Army rebels said today the group was serious about peace talks but wanted international warrants scrapped to aid the process.

Emerging from the bush with about 40 LRA fighters into an assembly camp agreed under a truce, Vincent Otti told reporters that lifting the International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against himself and other top LRA leaders was a pre-condition to a full peace deal.

But Otti, accompanied by another wanted LRA commander, Okot Odhiambo, then suggested a deal could be signed before that.

''Lifting the indictments of the ICC is the first condition, because without that one we cannot go back home, because it might be a trap,'' Otti told reporters at a clearing in grassy woodland on the Sudan-Democratic Republic of Congo border.

However, he then said: ''We are going to talk peace, we are going to sign (a comprehensive peace deal), then wait for the indictments to be taken off.'' Asked about the whereabouts of LRA leader Joseph Kony, Otti said: ''We are here now, not exactly here but 500 metres away.'' Otti has repeatedly said his fighters would stay in the bush unless the ICC dropped the war crimes indictments.

The LRA launched one of the world's most vicious insurrections from northern Uganda 20 years ago, killing and often slicing the lips and noses off civilians, before moving to southern Sudan and lately hiding in the jungles of east Congo.

Kony and Otti's full transfer to the camp would be crucial to negotiations seen as the best chance to end a war that has killed tens of thousands and uprooted nearly 2 million.

Surrounded by about 10 fighters, of whom half appeared to be teenagers, Otti spent over an hour at the camp before disappearing back into the bush with his armed fighters.

Dressed in military uniform and gumboots, he spoke to reporters and met with mediators and LRA representatives to talks in the southern Sudanese capital Juba.

''I WANT TO GO HOME'' The cult-like movement is also accused of abducting tens of thousands of children for use as soldiers and sex slaves.

When asked about the release of women and children as called for by the United Nations, Otti said: ''We are not going to release our children back home, leaving their parents in the bush. We shall all go back home together.'' He also accused President Yoweri Museveni of using child soldiers in his bush war that catapulted the former guerrilla leader to power in 1986. ''The Museveni soldiers were young boys. They could not even hold a gun,'' Otti said.

Under a truce signed last month, the LRA had to be in two camps yesterday, but Uganda's government has indicated the deadline and alleged ceasefire violations would be reviewed later this week.

''The way forward will depend on the general feeling,'' said Ruhakana Rugunda, leading the government's negotiating team.

Some 60 rebels have assembled in Ri-Kwangba, according to truce monitors. But a Reuters reporter saw only a handful before Otti arrived with a group of fighters looking tense and nervous.

A Reuters witness saw 800 LRA gathered at Owiny-Ki-Bul, east of the Nile in Sudan. Sporting dreadlocks, military fatigues, T-shirts and gumboots, many were armed with AK-47 rifles.

Experts say LRA rebels are under pressure, with the threat of an ICC prosecution, and cut off from years of support from Khartoum which had used them against its own rebels in the past.

''I want to go back home,'' Otti said. ''After signing the CPA (comprehensive peace agreement) we shall go back home.'' Museveni initially urged the ICC to issue warrants for the LRA, but is now offering amnesty if a peace deal is struck.

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