Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, has required a direct telephone conversation with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni as a way to speed up the ongoing peace process.

Col. Walter Ochora, who led a delegation of elders to Kony's camp in the Garamba National Park in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said Kony told him that he wanted " direct talks with Museveni so that the peace process can move faster".

Ochora did not reveal details of Kony's message which he delivered to Museveni.

A source in Uganda's delegation to the Juba talks, quoted by local media Sunday Vision, also confirmed Kony's demand.

"What the LRA leadership should do is to be committed to the Juba talks so that whatever is discussed is documented and then Kony or Vincent Otti should come to endorse the final agreement. Thereafter, Kony will have plenty of time to speak to President Museveni," the source said.

The LRA has repeatedly demanded ceasefire after the peace talks initiated by the southern Sudanese authorities kicked off in Juba on July 14.

Kony, through his deputy commander Vincent Otti, has announced a unilateral ceasefire, which said all LRA field commanders will stop attacks on the Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF) in north Uganda.

Army spokesman Otema Owany responded that over the past six months, there have been no LRA attacks on the UPDF.

Ugandan Internal Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, also head of government delegation, said the cessation of hostilities is the next item on their agenda when the talks resume on Monday in Juba.

"Our position on ceasefire has not changed. We must sit and discuss the modalities of a ceasefire and then declare it after the final agreement has been signed," he said.

The official reiterated that the LRA has used ceasefires to regroup and recruit members before. "We have to learn from the past," he concluded.

Due to the two decades of the LRA rebellion, tens of thousands of people were killed and over 1.4 million others were forced to flee their homes and live in the over-crowded refugee camps in north Uganda.

Source: Xinhua