Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has reassured the leader of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, Joseph Kony, and the other indicted commanders of their safety if a final peace agreement is signed as expected, Daily Monitor on Wednesday.

According to the report, Museveni told the southern Sudanese government which is mediating the talks that he will not let the rebel leadership stand trial, once a comprehensive peace agreement is signed.

The president said once a deal is sealed, he would not turn around and hand Kony and four of his commanders indicted for war crimes to The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).

Meanwhile, the LRA rebels received another guarantee from the United Nations that Kony or LRA second-in-command Vincent Otti would not be arrested if they set foot in Juba, southern Sudan for peace talks.

The UN had no plans to arrest Kony and his commanders, despite an attempt by the rebel leader and Otti to stay away from the Juba peace talks for fear of abduction, said James Ellery, the southern regional coordinator of Sudan's UN Mission.

"The UN is absolutely supportive of the ICC, however, there are no plans to make arrests in Sudan. Therefore that should not be used as an excuse for Kony and Otti not to show up," said Ellery.

Ellery, who praised the South Sudan initiative in brokering the peace talks, said, "The next stage has to be between the Ugandan leadership and LRA leadership. Kony and Otti better get themselves involved, otherwise they will become irrelevant."

The LRA leadership including five commanders has been indicted by the ICC. But the death of Raska Lukwiya, third-in-command, on Saturday left only Kony, Vincent Otti, Okot Odhiambo and Dominic Ongwen as the main ones sought by the court.

The LRA insurgency has left tens of thousands of people dead and more than 1.4 million others displaced in northern Uganda, which was labeled as "one of the world's most neglected humanitarian crisis".

Source: Xinhua