By Milton Olupot

TWELVE UPDF soldiers were killed in the threemonth Operation Lightning Thunder, the army chief said yesterday.

Gen. Aronda Nyakairima said 19 others were wounded, while one MiG 21 aircraft crashed in the jungles of Garamba where a joint force of Ugandan, Congolese and Southern Sudanese forces pursued LRA rebels.

Ninety-eight rebels were killed in the operation that started on December 14.

Fourteen rebels, one of them Col. Thomas Kwoyelo, the fourth in the LRA command, were captured. The

UPDF, however, pulled out of the Congo last week.

A total of 195 abductees, mostly Congolese, were rescued, 85 rifles and documents seized. “These have been useful in enriching our intelligence,” Nyakairima said.

He made the remarks while briefing the heads of missions in Uganda about the pullout at the foreign affairs ministry in Kampala.

The meeting was called by minister Sam Kutesa. Kutesa said the UN Special

Envoy for the LRA-affected areas, Joaquim Chissano, was trying to contact LRA chief Joseph Kony following reports that he was interested in resuming peace talks.

The joint forces attacked the rebels after they thrice failed to sign a peace agreement in Juba, Southern Sudan after negotiations that lasted about two years.

Yesterday, Kutesa ruled out any more talks, saying the process was concluded and all Kony needed to do was sign up. “Nothing has changed from what was agreed in Juba. Chissano has briefed us that he would talk to Kony and find it out from him what has changed,” Kutesa said.

Kutesa said the UPDF withdrawal from Congo was due to politics. He did not elaborate. However, he added that the Congo government had deployed more troops to replace the Ugandans, while the Central African Republic had also been brought on board to seal off its border.

Nyakairima said the chiefs of military intelligence of the UPDF and Congolese armies would soon meet and review the situation.

Ugandan officials had remained at the war front to support the Congolese gather intelligence, he added.

Aronda hoped that the international community would continue supporting the military action until Kony signed up. Otherwise, he will be killed or netted in Garamba, he said.

An officer with MONUC, the UN force in Congo, Lt. Gen. Baba Ka Gai, will next Friday meet Aronda in Kampala to discuss logistical support and the safety of civilians in the Oriental Province of eastern Congo.

The UN plans to increase its force in the area to boost the Congolese troops.