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NEWSDESK
FACTBOX- Uganda's rebels
05 Jul 2007 14:10:00 GMT
Source: Reuters
July 5 (Reuters) - It is not often that families of murder victims petition the courts to forgive their killers.
But in Uganda, almost an entire tribe whose relatives were slaughtered and children kidnapped by Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels are lobbying for them not to face trial.
Fugitive LRA leader Joseph Kony and three deputies are wanted by The Hague-based International Criminal Court on charges including mass killing, mutilation and using child soldiers. But in northern Uganda, few want them jailed.
Here are some facts about the LRA and Kony:
* Self-proclaimed mystic Kony began one of a series of initially popular uprisings in northern Uganda after President Yoweri Museveni seized power in 1986. But tactics of abducting recruits and killing civilians soon alienated supporters.
* The LRA is infamous for kidnapping children for use as soldiers, porters and "wives". Although there are no universally accepted figures, the children are believed to number many thousands. Some are freed after days, others never escape.
* A landmark truce was signed in August 2006 and was later renewed. But negotiations have frequently stalled and in January 2007, LRA representatives walked out, saying they distrusted the south Sudanese mediators. They returned in March.
* At the end of June, both sides signed phase three of a five-stage deal at talks in south Sudan aiming to end 20 years of war.
* Kony's force was once supported by the Khartoum government as a proxy militia, although Khartoum says it has now cut ties with the LRA. Kony left his hideouts in south Sudan in 2005 for the Democratic Republic of Congo's remote Garamba forest.
* Many northerners revile Kony for his group's atrocities, but also blame Museveni for setting up camps for 1.7 million people as part of his counter-insurgency strategy, fuelling one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.
* Kony says he is fighting to defend the Biblical Ten Commandments, although his group has also articulated a range of northern grievances, from the looting of cattle by Museveni's troops to demands for a greater share of political power.
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Last updated:Sun Jul 15 09:49:07 2007