Negotiators from Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) plan to meet President Yoweri Museveni in Kampala this week, to try to revive talks to end one of Africa's most brutal conflicts, the rebels said on Tuesday.
The visit to the Ugandan capital would be the first by LRA representatives since the start of a 20-year insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people and been characterised by extreme brutality against children.
"This Thursday November 1, the leader of the LRA peace delegation, Martin Ojul, and the LRA peace team will pay a courtesy call at state house in Kampala for a meeting with the President of Uganda," LRA spokesman Godfrey Ayoo said in a statement.
Top leader Joseph Kony and other rebels wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes would remain in their forest hideout.
The LRA officials also plan a nationwide tour ending on December 13, during which they will consult with Ugandans about the peace talks taking place in neighbouring south Sudan.
"Our mission into Uganda is to mobilise our stakeholders, the people who have supported LRA in the last 21 years," Ojul told a news conference in Nairobi.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed and 1,7-million uprooted in northern Uganda during the fighting that has also destabilised remote parts of southern Sudan and northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
The LRA is notorious brutal attacks on civilians, killing villagers, slicing body parts off survivors and kidnapping thousands of children to serve as fighters and sex slaves.
The LRA said it fought to bring Biblical Ten Commandment rule to Uganda, but otherwise appeared to be fighting to oppose Museveni and gain a greater share of political power.
A truce signed in August by the government and the LRA raised hopes of an end to the fighting, but both sides violated the agreement.
Museveni met rebel delegates for the first time in south Sudan's capital Juba last year but rebels said the half-hour meeting was one sided and that Museveni was "abusive".
The LRA said the formal talks would resume after their nationwide consultations end in mid December.
They denied Uganda media reports there was a split between Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti, both wanted by the ICC.
"There is no split in the LRA hierarchy and there has been no fight within its leadership. There is a swell, superb and warm relationship between Joseph Kony and Vincent Otti," Ayoo said.
Many Ugandans want Kony and his men to face local courts and traditional reconciliation rituals instead, but the ICC insists it will not drop the case.
