(Adds details, Ugandan government) By Francis Kwera and Skye Wheeler RI-KWANGBA, Sudan, April 10 (Reuters) - Uganda's fugitive rebel commander Joseph Kony delayed signing a final peace deal with the government on Thursday and asked for clarification of some parts of the agreement, mediators said. Kampala's chief negotiator said the request by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) leader was "absolutely legitimate". But Kony never showed his face at the planned ceremony on the remote Sudan-Congo border, and appeared to have left the area again. "We're happy to be patient with him," Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda told Reuters in a forest clearing at the frontier hamlet of Ri-Kwangba. "We know he's here and we hope he'll sign soon." Kony's 22-year rebellion has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted 2 million more in northern Uganda alone and destabilised neighbouring parts of southern Sudan and eastern Congo. South Sudan's Vice President Riek Machar said Kony, wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), was unsure how the Ugandan government planned to use its courts and traditional reconciliation rituals to counter ICC arrest warrants. He said that when he sent a team of religious and cultural leaders from the rebels' native northern Uganda into the bush to explain the details to him, Kony and his bodyguards had gone. Machar, who has chaired tortuous talks between the two sides in the south Sudanese capital Juba since mid-2006, said the meeting was now set for Friday. ICC prosecutors in The Hague accuse Kony and two deputies of offences including rape, murder and the abduction of thousands of children to serve as fighters, porters and sex slaves. WORLD COURT Even if Kony does sign a final peace deal, the rebels have vowed never to disarm until the indictments are scrapped. Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni is due to sign the agreement at a separate ceremony on April 15 in Juba. His government has said it will only call for the ICC warrants to be lifted after a final deal is reached. It was not clear whether that meant the rebels have to disarm first too. The ICC has said its warrants for Kony and the two other commanders -- Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen -- remain active. But the U.N. Security Council could ask the court to put them on hold if members see a real chance for peace. In a bid to convince the ICC the matter can be handled internally, Kampala and the rebels have agreed to set up a special division of Uganda's High Court to deal with war crimes. The government also plans to employ the north's ancient "Mato oput" ritual, in which parties confess their sins publicly and ask for forgiveness. Backers of the ICC say only a judicial process delivering stiff jail terms for grave crimes is an acceptable alternative. But the court does not want to be seen as the last barrier to peace if talks look like ending one of the continent's most brutal and intractable conflicts. (Writing by Daniel Wallis) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)
A soldier from Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) keeps guard at the assembly point in Ri-Kwangba on the Sudan-Congo border, Western Equatoria, April 10, 2008. Uganda's fugitive rebel commander Joseph Kony ...
