RI-KWANGBA, Sudan (Reuters) - Uganda's fugitive rebel commander Joseph Kony wants guarantees of his safety and financial security before he signs a peace deal to end one of Africa's longest wars, a spokesman said on Friday.
"Kony wants clarification of his physical and financialsecurity, and once that is cleared up he will sign the peaceagreement," James Obita, a spokesman for the Lord's ResistanceArmy, told Reuters on the remote Sudan-Congo border.
Kony, who is wanted for war crimes by the InternationalCriminal Court, had been due to sign the deal on Thursday. Buthe first asked mediators to clarify part of the text and thenfired his chief negotiator.
Earlier on Friday, Ugandan government officials left thesite of the planned signing ceremony in Ri-Kwangba after Kony'sfailure to appear cast into doubt the fate of nearly two yearsof tortuous negotiations.
The two-decade civil war has killed tens of thousands ofpeople in the coffee-exporting nation of around 30 million,uprooted 2 million more and destabilised neighbouring parts ofoil-rich south Sudan and mineral-rich eastern Congo.
(Reporting by Francis Kwera; Writing by Daniel Wallis;Editing by Caroline Drees)
