KAMPALA, Uganda, June 28 (UPI) -- The leader of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army claims kidnapping, mutilation and murder were committed by government agents posing as members.
In the first media interview he has granted, Joseph Kony told The Times of London he was offering President Yoweri Museveni peace talks to end the 20-year conflict in northern Uganda.
The 46-year-old Kony was a spiritual healer who launched an uprising after Museveni seized power in 1986, and claims reports his LRA kidnapped children and turned them into brainwashed soldiers who ate their victims were staged by Musaveni.
"It's just propaganda," he said. "Museveni went into the villages and cut off the ears of the people, telling the people that it was the work of the LRA. I cannot cut the ear of my brother."
He told the Times all he has ever sought to do is to protect the Acholi people of northern Uganda from government repression, and said he is guided by spirits.
Kony said his cause was based on the 10 commandments, and that he supported democracy to a point.
"We want our leader to be elected -- but not a movement like the one of Museveni," he said.
