When Joseph Kony almost came in from the cold: Juba peace talks (+video)
(Read article summary)Joseph Kony showed his face to the world in 2006. Peace talks in the South Sudan city of Juba between 2006 and 2008 held out the promise of an end to Africa's longest insurgency. Here's how they ended.
When Joseph Kony finally showed his face to the world, in an exclusive television interview with British journalist Sam Farmar in the jungles of the Democratic Republic of Congo, he was wearing a blue sports t-shirt and camouflage pants.
The timing was propitious. The International Criminal Court had just lodged its first-ever war-crimes charges against Mr. Kony and demanded his arrest. The Ugandan government was expressing willingness to negotiate a peaceful settlement to what at the time was a 20-year insurgency. The South Sudanese government had offered to hold the peace talks in Juba. And here was the man of the hour, a man who denied charges of abducting child soldiers, of mutilating or murdering his enemies, a man who promised his willingness to seek a peaceful settlement.
“I’m a person like you,” Kony told the British reporter. “I have eyes. I have a brain. I wear clothes also. I’m a freedom fighter, who is fighting for freedom in Uganda, but I’m not a terrorist.”
IN PICTURES: Lord's Resistance Army
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