6 November 1997 His Excellency Mr President, I am writing this letter to you on behalf of the Military High Command of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), and its political wing, the Lord’s Resistance Movement (LRM) who have authorised me to communicate this message to ou personally. We acknowledge in the national interest of our country, that of the people of northern Uganda, and especially the Acholi people the urgent need for a just and permanent resolution to the armed conflict in northern Uganda, between the LRM/A and your government which has gone on relentlessly for the last eleven years. We also recognize the overwhelming demands by a wide section of fellow Ugandans as well as the international community for peace to be restored to northern Uganda and indeed throughout the country. We further recognize that without peace and security, there will never be any economic development or prosperity for our people and they will be consigned to perpetual poverty and underdevelopment. We hereby, therefore, inform you that in response to the demands and wishes of the majority of our people, the Lord’s Resistance Movement/Army have resolved to pursue a peaceful resolution to the northern conflict through constructive, meaningful and honest dialogue with your government. This decision to give peace a chance has not been reached lightly, but was agreed upon after exhaustive and widespread consultations of our people. Our resolution to pursue peace is in line with our commitment to consider all viable means of achieving a lasting sustainable peace in our land and a clear benchmark of good will, responsibility and courageous leadership on our part. Given the seriousness and sensitivity of this matter, we have decided to communicate this message directly to you, in order to give you the opportunity to consider and respond to its content without the constrains of publicity. If you and your government are equal to the challenges for peace, and sincerely wish to see an end to the suffering of the northern people, especially the Acholi people, then we will expect reciprocal initiatives from you, which will facilitate further dialogue and subsequent meaningful negotiation between the two parties. We would like to make it clear that although we have chosen to communicate directly with you at this stage, we will at an appropriate time in due course require the involvement and participation of neutral third parties in any peace process that may evolve. In April 1997 at the Kacoke Madit (KM) in London, United Kingdom, the LRM/A’s publicly declared intention of pursuing a peaceful resolution to the northern conflict was enshrined in the conference resolutions. We are aware that in a recent letter ‘on behalf of the government of Uganda’ to the KM international coordinator, the Director General of external security organization Mr David Pulkol stated that your government was waiting for an unequivocal communication from the LRM/A concretising their declared intention to seek a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Acholiland. I therefore hope that this letter now removes any obstacles on your part and that you will now respond appropriately to the demands and wishes of the people of Acholi and Uganda as a whole and will fully commit yourselves without any further ambiguity to a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue with us. The multiple causes and effects of the 11 years of war in Northern Uganda, and the modalities for a just and permanent resolution are enormously complex and require detailed and systematic consideration of all the underlying factors and related issues. As a result, there are no short cuts nor quick fixes to achieving a lasting and meaningful peace. It will require serious and demonstrable commitment on all sides. We hope that in the national interest your government will also make such a declaration of your intentions. Yours thankfully, Dr James A. Obita Letter from President Museveni to the LRM/A 22 November 1997 Dr James Obita Dr Obita, I have received your letter of 6th November 1997, which states that you are ready for a peaceful settlement of the sustained campaign to attack, maim and kill innocent civilians in the North of Uganda. This is not to forget the kidnapping, raping and defilement of young girls and press-ganging young boys into military service. These criminal activities have gone on for too long. We have never hesitated to negotiate peace with former enemies: Mustapha Adrisi, Moses Ali, Ateker Ejalu, Omaria, Otema Allimadi, late Tito Okello, late Odong Latek, Angello Okello, Luwero, Kironde and many others. We have negotiated with or pardoned all the above people. As far as your group is concerned, we have never prosecuted any of your members that have been surrendering; not even the ones we captured. Indeed, some years ago, Betty Bigombe negotiated with Mr Kony to the East of Gulu. We gave your group a safe zone, where to stay with your force. When we got impatient with the negotiations, we publicly gave you seven days in which to decide to come out of the bush. We did not launch a surprise attack on you. You decided to return to the bush. All along, therefore, we have never needed convincing to engage in dialogue with enemies. However, following the breakdown of the Betty Bigombe/Kony talks and the intensified atrocities against the population of Uganda, we decided to adopt the policy of forgiving all members of your groups except: Kony, Lagony and Otti Vincent because they were the authors of these heinous crimes against humanity. I personally feel very strongly against these individuals because of the damage they have done to our people in Northern Uganda. As I said previously, however, Uganda is not my personal property. Since reasonable numbers of Ugandans feel that we should talk even to the Konys in spite of these crimes, we have been ready to do so for sometime and you cannot say that you do not know this. Sister Rachele has told some of your people; the priests of Sant’Egidio of Rome have contacted some of your people; Dr Martin Aliker, in addition to attending Kacoke Madit, has contacted some of your people, etc. You have been evasive or even arrogant. On our part we are determined and able to bring peace to Northern Uganda by peace or by war. The latter costs much more in terms of lives and money. Therefore, since you have, at last, contacted me indicating your readiness to negotiate an end to this criminality with few parallels, I only need to inform you that we have always been ready, our revulsion at your methods notwithstanding. Therefore, our delegation is ready to discuss with your representatives anywhere and we are ready to reach a peaceful settlement within the confines of the 1995 Constitution of the Republic of Uganda. Yoweri K. Museveni
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