PRA exists â€" Mbabazi
Mar 16, 2005
THE People’s Redemption Army (PRA) is still active, with political networks recruiting in the country, defence minister Amama Mbabazi said yesterday.
By VISION REPORTERS
THE People’s Redemption Army (PRA) is still active, with political networks recruiting in the country, defence minister Amama Mbabazi said yesterday.
Mbabazi, while presenting a report on national security to Parliament, said renegade UPDF officers Lt. Col. Samson Mande and Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale currently in Sweden, were its commander and deputy commander respectively.
“Since 2001, the Reform Agenda continued undertaking various maneuvres in an effort to take over power in Uganda. PRA was launched in June 2001 and officially declared war against the Ugandan government.
“There is no way anyone can question the existence of the PRA as a rebel group fighting to overthrow the government of Uganda.
“PRA declared war against Uganda with the support of a foreign country that recruited, mobilised and trained rebels,†Mbabazi said.
He also named Col. Muzoora, based in South Africa, as one of the PRA commanders who have continued trying to lure UPDF officers into rebellion.
He said the PRA existed internally and externally with a network that sponsored people to various positions during elections, is participating in media talk shows, false media reports and use of civic organisations to spread propaganda against the Government.
Mbabazi told the House that PRA had also tried to establish links with other rebel groups in the country like the Lord’s Resistance Army and to revive the Uganda People’s Army in the east.
He said the war against the LRA was coming to an end, given the turn of events during the last one year.
He said the LRA human strength now stood between 300 and 400 rebels scattered between Sudan and northern Uganda.
He said several senior officers of the LRA had either been captured, killed or surrendered, which had affected the command structure and increased disorganisation among them. “Given the attrition rate against the enemy, we can see that the war is coming to an end,†Mbabazi said.
He said the LRA last week attacked Adjumani and killed seven people and two Local Defence Unit men were killed in another attack last Monday. He said the LRA was now desperate and was staging attacks on SPLA detachments in southern Sudan in search of food and ammunition.
Mbabazi said in the last 14 months, the UPDF had killed over 1,000 LRA.
He said all the girls abducted from Aboke Girls’ school, who had been turned into rebels’ wives, had been rescued.
THE People’s Redemption Army (PRA) is still active, with political networks recruiting in the country, defence minister Amama Mbabazi said yesterday.
Mbabazi, while presenting a report on national security to Parliament, said renegade UPDF officers Lt. Col. Samson Mande and Lt. Col. Anthony Kyakabale currently in Sweden, were its commander and deputy commander respectively.
“Since 2001, the Reform Agenda continued undertaking various maneuvres in an effort to take over power in Uganda. PRA was launched in June 2001 and officially declared war against the Ugandan government.
“There is no way anyone can question the existence of the PRA as a rebel group fighting to overthrow the government of Uganda.
“PRA declared war against Uganda with the support of a foreign country that recruited, mobilised and trained rebels,†Mbabazi said.
He also named Col. Muzoora, based in South Africa, as one of the PRA commanders who have continued trying to lure UPDF officers into rebellion.
He said the PRA existed internally and externally with a network that sponsored people to various positions during elections, is participating in media talk shows, false media reports and use of civic organisations to spread propaganda against the Government.
Mbabazi told the House that PRA had also tried to establish links with other rebel groups in the country like the Lord’s Resistance Army and to revive the Uganda People’s Army in the east.
He said the war against the LRA was coming to an end, given the turn of events during the last one year.
He said the LRA human strength now stood between 300 and 400 rebels scattered between Sudan and northern Uganda.
He said several senior officers of the LRA had either been captured, killed or surrendered, which had affected the command structure and increased disorganisation among them. “Given the attrition rate against the enemy, we can see that the war is coming to an end,†Mbabazi said.
He said the LRA last week attacked Adjumani and killed seven people and two Local Defence Unit men were killed in another attack last Monday. He said the LRA was now desperate and was staging attacks on SPLA detachments in southern Sudan in search of food and ammunition.
Mbabazi said in the last 14 months, the UPDF had killed over 1,000 LRA.
He said all the girls abducted from Aboke Girls’ school, who had been turned into rebels’ wives, had been rescued.