Army rules out talks with Kony
Mar 27, 2011
THERE will be no more talks between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the commander of the land forces, Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala, has said.
By Francis Kagolo
THERE will be no more talks between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the commander of the land forces, Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala, has said.
Katumba made the remarks while addressing an African Union (AU) technical team at the army headquarters in Mbuya on Friday.
He said all that was left was for the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, to sign the peace agreement that was drawn in 2008.
“Uganda has never closed the door to peace. Kony can come out and sign the comprehensive peace agreement and if there is someone who thinks he can convince him to come out of the bush, we welcome him,†Katumba said.
He said the UPDF would use force to defeat the rebels.
Lt. Col. Felix Kulaigye, the force’s spokesperson, said the team, led by Col. Mar Mbow, was in the country to discuss ways of ending the LRA conflict.
The AU team comprised the head of the Government of Southern Sudan Secretariat, James Reat Gony and the SPLA deputy chief of staff for operations, Lt. Gen Wilson Deng.
The UPDF team comprised the chief of military intelligence (CMI), Brig James Mugira and the UPDF chief of legal services, Col Ramadhan Kyamulesire.
Katumba said the force appreciates AU’s recognition of LRA as not only a regional problem but an international one.
He informed the visiting team that LRA was breathing its last; although a lot had to be done to deny the rebels any chance of regrouping.
Mugira said the joint operation, Lightening Thunder, which was launched against LRA after the peace talks hit a dead end, had registered enormous achievements, the major one being achieving the regional (joint) approach to the problem.
Mugira said this sent a clear signal that there were possibilities of joint operations against groups which cause chaos in the region.
He said the operation destroyed five LRA permanent bases in Congo. It also broke the rebels’ communication channels.
Mugira said the rebels were communicating by courier, had lost command and that a number of their senior commanders had been killed.
“By March 9, 426 LRA rebels had been killed, while 68 had been captured alive,†said Mugira.
He said another 129 rebels had surrendered due to pressure from the same operation.
The CMI chief also said 738 civilians from Uganda, Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic had been rescued, 107 of whom are children.
It is almost 24 years since Kony started his movement to fight President Yoweri Museveni’s NRM government, basing in northern Uganda.
He began by recruiting former soldiers from around Gulu, but later changed to abducting youth whom he trained into fighters.
Thousands of people from northern Uganda, South Sudan and eastern Congo, have died in the insurgency and hundreds have been displaced.
The talks between Kony and the government of Uganda and mediated by the Government of South Sudan started in June 2006. Kony was supposed to sign the peace deal on April 3, 2008 but did not turn up, asking for April 10 as the signing date, which he also failed to honour.
Consequently, the UPDF, with support from South Sudan and Congo, launched a military offensive through which it bombarded Kony’s camp in eastern Congo.
THERE will be no more talks between the Government and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels, the commander of the land forces, Lt. Gen. Katumba Wamala, has said.
Katumba made the remarks while addressing an African Union (AU) technical team at the army headquarters in Mbuya on Friday.
He said all that was left was for the LRA leader, Joseph Kony, to sign the peace agreement that was drawn in 2008.
“Uganda has never closed the door to peace. Kony can come out and sign the comprehensive peace agreement and if there is someone who thinks he can convince him to come out of the bush, we welcome him,†Katumba said.
He said the UPDF would use force to defeat the rebels.
Lt. Col. Felix Kulaigye, the force’s spokesperson, said the team, led by Col. Mar Mbow, was in the country to discuss ways of ending the LRA conflict.
The AU team comprised the head of the Government of Southern Sudan Secretariat, James Reat Gony and the SPLA deputy chief of staff for operations, Lt. Gen Wilson Deng.
The UPDF team comprised the chief of military intelligence (CMI), Brig James Mugira and the UPDF chief of legal services, Col Ramadhan Kyamulesire.
Katumba said the force appreciates AU’s recognition of LRA as not only a regional problem but an international one.
He informed the visiting team that LRA was breathing its last; although a lot had to be done to deny the rebels any chance of regrouping.
Mugira said the joint operation, Lightening Thunder, which was launched against LRA after the peace talks hit a dead end, had registered enormous achievements, the major one being achieving the regional (joint) approach to the problem.
Mugira said this sent a clear signal that there were possibilities of joint operations against groups which cause chaos in the region.
He said the operation destroyed five LRA permanent bases in Congo. It also broke the rebels’ communication channels.
Mugira said the rebels were communicating by courier, had lost command and that a number of their senior commanders had been killed.
“By March 9, 426 LRA rebels had been killed, while 68 had been captured alive,†said Mugira.
He said another 129 rebels had surrendered due to pressure from the same operation.
The CMI chief also said 738 civilians from Uganda, Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic had been rescued, 107 of whom are children.
It is almost 24 years since Kony started his movement to fight President Yoweri Museveni’s NRM government, basing in northern Uganda.
He began by recruiting former soldiers from around Gulu, but later changed to abducting youth whom he trained into fighters.
Thousands of people from northern Uganda, South Sudan and eastern Congo, have died in the insurgency and hundreds have been displaced.
The talks between Kony and the government of Uganda and mediated by the Government of South Sudan started in June 2006. Kony was supposed to sign the peace deal on April 3, 2008 but did not turn up, asking for April 10 as the signing date, which he also failed to honour.
Consequently, the UPDF, with support from South Sudan and Congo, launched a military offensive through which it bombarded Kony’s camp in eastern Congo.