By Jack Kimball
Owiny Kibul, Sudan - Surrounded by rebels in mismatched uniforms close to Sudan's border with Uganda, a Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) commander said on Thursday his troops needed more time to assemble for a ceasefire.
A truce deadline between Uganda and the LRA expired on Tuesday but fighters continue to stream into two designated assembly points in neighbouring south Sudan.
"The rebel does not have good means of communication. There are fighters scattered in various areas and really you cannot imagine them assembling in one place in one week or two weeks or three," Major General Acellam Caesar Otto told Reuters.
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'What do you expect a person like me to do?' "If it is extended to three months, I think there will be no one left inside Uganda," the dreadlocked LRA commander said in the Owiny Kibul assembly point.
The LRA are notorious for cutting off the limbs and lips of victims, killing civilians and abducting children to serve in its ranks.
Top LRA commanders including leader Joseph Kony and his deputy Vincent Otti are wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the rebel group has said the arrest warrants are a hindrance to the peace process.
"If it is the voice of the people of Uganda then what do you expect a person like me to do?" Caesar said about the indictments.
"But if the people of Uganda suffering in the IDP (internally displaced persons) camps do wish that the peace process succeeds, well I think the indictments will have no relevance."
Peace talks between the government and the northern rebels in south Sudan's capital of Juba are regarded as the best chance to end the insurgency that has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly two million.
In the rolling grassland hills of Owiny Kibul, LRA fighters sleep in small, disperse camps, but they are fearful and anxious about the peace process.
Caesar said fresh deployments by the Ugandan army, the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF), along the border are causing alarm among the insurgents.
"We've been fighting the UPDF for 20 years so we know where they deploy and where they don't," he said.
"It's a bit scary. The information we're getting from our forces that are coming is that there are fresh deployments by the UPDF along the borders...why?"
There was no independent confirmation of the deployments.
Landmines left over from Sudan's own three-decade civil war encircle the tiny Owiny Kibul trading centre. The LRA has raised objections to the assembly point but rebels come nonetheless.
"We don't know exactly where the landmines are, it's a problem and that's why you see us here some distance from the centre (of Owiny Kibul)," Caesar said.
Estimates place the number of rebels in Owiny Kibul at nearly 800 although the Uganda government has repeatedly said the LRA has only 200 fighters.
Caesar said he could not comment on the specific numbers in Owiny Kibul, saying only: "We are many."
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