The leader of Uganda's rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti have been briefed about the International Criminal Court (ICC), which charged them of committing war crimes in northern Uganda.

The state-owned New Vision reported on Tuesday that Owiny Dollo, a Kampala based lawyer, explained to the rebel leaders the Rome Statute which set up the ICC and the Court's provisions, during a meeting last week in the LRA Garamba camp, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

The rebel leaders have been tense over the ICC indictments and have occasionally threatened not to sign a final peace agreement with government, though Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has promised the rebel leadership a blanket amnesty if a final peace deal is reached.

Observers saw the ICC indictments as a major stumbling block to the peace talks in Juba, southern Sudan, aimed at ending the 20 year LRA insurgency that has left tens of thousands of people dead and over 1.4 million people homeless in northern Uganda.

The Ugandan government believes that it can convince the UN's court to withdraw the indictments after the rebels sign a final peace agreement and go through a traditional justice system as a show of accountability.

Dollo told the rebel leaders that ICC was executing the will of the international community whose resolve was strong and was based on diplomacy. "The only way you can avert the ICC is through its statute."

He also made it clear to the rebels that the ICC can be confronted politically is "wishful thinking" and if the Juba talks between the LRA and the government do not cater for accountability, article 53 of the Rome Statute that may decide the fate of the rebel leaders would not apply.

The lawyer traveled to Garamba with two leaders from northern Uganda on a confidence-building mission funded by government. The rebel leaders appreciated the explanation and invited Dollo and Mao back for another meeting, which will concentrate only on the ICC indictment.

Source: Xinhua