KAMPALA, Uganda, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- The tide of opinion among Ugandan villagers has tilted toward offering pardons for members of the Lord's Resistance Army to bring about peace.
Many villagers, among them victims of rape, torture and other atrocities in the 20-year conflict, have called for the International Criminal Court to drop charges against the LRA's leader, Joseph Kony, and his four top lieutenants, The Telegraph of Britain reported Monday.
"The ICC should drop its case. It should stop hunting these people and leave us to do things our own way," Wilson Okot, who has lost all 13 of his children in attacks by the LRA, tole The Telegraph.
"This prosecution will not bring them out of the bush; they are our children, the sons of this soil, and they should come and ask us as their fathers for forgiveness."
Thousands of rebels took advantage of an amnesty offered by Uganda in 2002, but the offer excluded the LRA's leaders. Peace talks between the country and the parties resumed Friday in Sudan but analysts have said they could be endangered by Kony's refusal to participate due to fears of being arrested.
The ICC has said it will not drop the charges.
