The Last Rhinos by Lawrence Anthony

Author:Lawrence Anthony
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Three days later the call came in from Vincent Otti on a satellite phone somewhere deep in the jungles of the Congo.

‘Mr Anthony, the situation is bad. Regrettably, I must advise you that we are pulling out of the talks. We’re going back to the bush. Did you tell your people that this would happen?’

‘I did exactly as you asked,’ I replied, ‘but it was not believed. There is unfortunately still a credibility problem.’

He went silent for a moment or two and I was afraid the connection had been lost. Then his voice came through again.

‘Now you have credibility, your predictions have taken place, and they will believe you,’ he responded. ‘We are out of options; I want you to please continue your work for peace. Goodbye.’

I put a call through to Tokyo right away.

‘Hi, Ben. Otti’s just phoned me. The LRA are pulling out; the army is going back to the bush.’

‘So you were right,’ he said.

‘It’s small comfort that a war has to start up again to prove me right,’ I said. ‘This is a nasty situation.’

‘You have Otti’s ear. This is unique and we must build on it. I will be travelling back to South Africa. We must act.’

A week later Ben was back in South Africa trawling the corridors of power, trying to find solutions. It took a perilously long time before there was a breakthrough and Ben was already back in Japan before we received some positive feedback. It was not what we wanted, but it did offer a solution. The venue could not be changed, that was final, but South Africa would appoint a monitor to the talks, as would Kenya and Mozambique. The monitors would oversee order and security and interact with the delegates on all matters.

‘This proposal is yet to go to the LRA formally,’ said Ben when he called again. ‘But there is concern that it may not be well received. Your role will be to present it to Otti and to get the LRA’s agreement. A lot depends on your success, because if they reject it … well, there just isn’t another plan.’

I put the phone down and got straight on to Martin Ojul.

‘Martin,’ I said, ‘this has taken a lot longer than I thought, but we may have a solution. It is not something we can discuss on the telephone. Are you and Godfrey able to come back to South Africa?’

‘We will need clearance from Kony and Otti,’ he replied, ‘and you will need to get us new visas.’

So I forked out for their airfares, arranged special visas again and they were here within days.

‘Gentlemen,’ I said once they had arrived and settled in. ‘Let me be direct. Despite all our efforts, it has become clear that there is no support for a change of venue from Juba to Kenya or South Africa. Neither government will agree.’

‘We have heard rumours about this,’ said Martin. ‘But Juba remains completely unacceptable to us. Another venue must be found.’

Godfrey nodded in agreement.

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