Unlike most graduates from his conflict resolution course at Britain?s Birmingham University, David Acana has stared into the eyes of killers. The newly-crowned paramount chief of northern Uganda?s Acholi tribe flew back to east Africa to take on the brutal Lord?s Resistance Army (LRA), one of the world?s most feared rebel movements. Analysts say his intervention could be vital.

The LRA began its fight for Acholi rights 18 years ago, but widespread atrocities ? mostly against its own tribe ? including the abduction of tens of thousands of children, have destroyed all but a fraction of its early local support. At a landmark meeting with rebel representatives deep in the bush in December, participants said Acana told the LRA officers to stop slaughtering their own people.

?He told the commanders: ?You must stop the killing. You claim to be fighting for us, but it is the Acholi who are suffering more than anyone else,?? top mediator Betty Bigombe told Reuters in the northern town of Gulu, epicentre of the conflict. ?They were amazed. They said ?No one told us that before?.? Uganda?s government has long offered the rebels amnesty, but analysts say assurances of their safety from Acholi traditional leaders are equally important in convincing LRA commanders to lay down their arms and come out of the bush.

Uganda, formerly a British colony, is a patchwork of tribal kingdoms and chiefdoms. Traditional leaders including the Kabaka, or king, of the central Buganda region and the 12-year-old regent of western Toro, hold varying degrees of political, economic and cultural power. The country?s 1995 constitution re-established the role of traditional leaders in Ugandan society ? which had been scrapped by former president Milton Obote in 1966. Acana, a softly-spoken 37-year-old, was crowned top Acholi chief at a colourful ceremony in January. Unlike his predecessors, his work revolves around his mobile telephone and a modest office on a hill overlooking Gulu, where he surfs the Internet on a laptop computer.

Just weeks before his coronation, he led a group of 18 Acholi elders for a meeting with senior LRA representatives at a secret location in neighbouring Kitgum district. ?I listened to my colleagues, and I didn?t really hear any criticism,? he told Reuters at his office. ?The rebels asked us to tell them if they were doing good, or if they were doing wrong. I thought, if I don?t say this, I might as well have not come at all.? Regarding him as an important future player in the northern conflict, donors paid for Acana to attend the conflict resolution course in 2001.

In 1995, the young chief-in-waiting travelled south to volunteer in Rwanda, tracing the families of children orphaned by the country?s devastating genocide a year earlier. He returned to northern Uganda ? where the war between government troops and the LRA has forced 1.6 million people into squalid refugee camps ? with meagre resources. ?It was tough at the beginning. We had nothing completely. At first, we just used to hold our meetings under mango trees like that one,? he said, gesturing outside where a line of villagers sat in the shade, waiting for an audience with him. Acana hailed recent efforts by Uganda?s President Yoweri Museveni to pursue dialogue with the rebels, and he said former LRA fighters ? including the group?s messianic leader Joseph Kony ? would be forgiven and accepted back into the Acholi community if they abandoned their campaign. ?I am still hopeful. The good thing is that they are talking. Government is committed, but the speed at which they want things done may be too fast for the LRA,? Acana said.

<B>Daniel Wallis</B>