He appeared pensive before the cameras and assembled journalists as he took his seat, but minutes later, ‘Lt. Col.’ Charles Arop, former Director of Operations in Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), managed a smile.

He recounted his experience in the LRA ranks and declared: “I want to be given an opportunity to go back and fight Kony. I have never forgiven him because he has ruined my life and [that of] other abductees.”

Arop who surrendered to the Army on November 3 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, spoke to journalists through an interpreter last Wednesday at Mbuya Army Barracks in Kampala. The Army Spokesman, Felix Kulayigye, said the Army had pardoned Arop and promised to help him apply for amnesty. “It is now up to the Amnesty Commission to grant him amnesty,” Kulayigye said.

As LRA’s director of operations, Arop oversaw the killing of more than 140 civilians on Christmas Day last year in the north-eastern DRC town of Faradje. At least 160 other people were abducted during that attack. Arop, who says he was abducted from Gulu in 1994 and conscripted into the rebel ranks at the age of 17, admitted that he committed several other atrocities in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan in the 14 years he has been Kony’s fighter.

“I apologise on my own behalf and that of my colleagues still in the bush for the atrocities committed,” he said.

He added: “I abducted and ordered the killings but I want amnesty so that the message goes back to the people still fighting. They [rebels] don’t know about amnesty because Kony has brainwashed them by telling them that they’ll be prosecuted if they defected.”

Under the 2000 Amnesty Act, Arop is eligible for pardon. About 9,000 former LRA fighters have already benefited from the amnesty. They include former commanders: Sam Kolo, Kenneth Banya and Opiyo Makasi. Going by Arop’s account, the LRA has been weakened following a combined attack by the UPDF, Congolese army and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army on their hideout in Garamba Forest, East of DRC, on December 14 last year.

According to Arop, before the attack, Kony had about 500 armed fighters but the number has since fallen to between 250 and 300. Arop added that on August 15 this year, Kony sent out orders to his troops now scattered in the expansive Garamba Forest and other parts of Eastern DRC, to move northwards. The move is intended to enable the LRA regroup in the lawless Darfur region of Sudan. Arop disobeyed the orders and instead led 60 LRA fighters to surrender.

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