ON THE MOVE: UPDF soldiers patrol southern Sudan in search of LRA rebels

By Emmy Allio THE Sudan government has extended up to end of June, the period for UPDF’s operation “Iron Fist” against Kony rebels in Sudan, the army spokesman, Major Shaban Bantariza, said yesterday. He said, “This extension is subject to changes when defence ministers of both countries meet soon. Under the terms of the March agreement, the ministers were to meet regularly to review the protocol.” The head of the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI), Lt. Col. Noble Mayombo, who was in Khartoum to re-negotiate the protocol, returned yesterday. Sudan, in March agreed to allow Ugandan troops on its soil for 30 days to destroy LRA bases. It then agreed to an extension of 30 days more, which expired on May 19, 2002. The acting army commander, Maj. Gen. James Kazini, told the press yesterday, that the army had flushed rebels out of his camps near Juba, from where they fled to the Imatong mountains in the south east. “His ammunition and food supplies are running out...and this has affected the morale of his fighters who are on the verge of collapse due to hunger and lack of ammunition,” he said. Kazini was quoted as saying the rebels were now surrounded, “This is definitely the last phase,” he said. “Kony will either be killed, die of hunger or surrender in the next 45 days.” A Catholic Church missionary news agency said earlier this month that the LRA had killed more than 470 Sudanese civilians in an orgy of violence between April 27 and May 3. One group of 60 mourners was forced to cook and eat the corpse they were about to bury before being gunned down. Kazini vowed to resign if he fails to wipe out the LRA by December. He was instrumental in defeating Allied Democratic Forces rebels in western Uganda last year and led Ugandan troops in support of a rebellion in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The LRA has been fighting the Uganda army in northern Uganda since 1987. Kony says he wants to found a state based on the biblical 10 Commandments. Operating from bases in Sudan, the rebels have abducted at least 12,000 children many of whom they turned into wives. Ends