LRA has committed gross violations of truce
Nov 07, 2006
SINCE the commencement of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CHA) at 0600hrs on August 29, 2006, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have neither shown any commitment nor willingness to implement their own part of the bargain signed in the document.
By Chris Magezi
SINCE the commencement of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CHA) at 0600hrs on August 29, 2006, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have neither shown any commitment nor willingness to implement their own part of the bargain signed in the document.
UPDF on the other hand has played by the rules to the letter. Whereas the majority LRA moved out of Northern Uganda to Southern Sudan, it’s on record that only 45 LRA turned up at the assembly area of Owiny-Kibul for one day, picked food and moved away. As for Ri-Kwangba, LRA did not bother to make any attempts to assemble at all. They only sent a small group of rebels which moved up to the Western Banks of River Nile and their mission had been to receive the group from the East led by Dominic Ongwen and Caeser Accellam and guide it to Garamba in the DRC. But despite several attempts, the Ongwen/Accellam group failed to cross the Nile south of Juba because of the UPDF deployments there.
They then moved North of Juba but their attempts were again rendered fruitless when they attempted to loot cattle for “dry ration†from the Mondali Militia. The militia fought them off and even dispersed them.
Some LRA, under instructions from Otti and Kony, have deliberately remained in Northern Uganda as a strategy to keep “holding ground†behind “enemy linesâ€. These would act as a springboard for the quick resumption of attacks against civilians in Northern Uganda.
We also have strong information that LRA has effectively used the peace talks in Juba to re-organise. They have now, through their financiers and collaborators, acquired more communication gadgets, especially satellite phones. They also for the first time managed to access their underground armouries and have re-armed themselves with more guns and ammunition which had hitherto been inaccessible because of UPDF pressure.
LRA in Garamba has meanwhile moved deeper into Congo to the Ituri province and have struck alliances with Ugandan rebels there such as NALU, PRA and ADF.
But despite all these blatant and fatal violations, the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) still found it prudent to continue supplying LRA even outside the assembly areas. The Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team (CHMT) is either not adequately empowered, weak to effectively monitor LRA violations or has deliberately chosen to treat LRA with kid gloves.
But the underlying desire of the LRA group in the Eastern Equatorial, which is to cross River Nile and join their masters in DRC, has not faded. That is why LRA have resorted to their usual naked aggression, killing a UPDF Captain without any provocation 115kms North West of Owiny-Kibul, the massacre of over 40 people and destroying 13 civilian vehicles in different road ambushes in Southern Sudan. LRA had hoped these manouvres would distract UPDF from its positions along the Nile and give them a safe passage to Garamba.
Completely ignoring the consequences it might have on the Juba peace talks, LRA will want to cross to DRC at all costs. It’s their only remaining re-organisation plan. After this has been achieved, LRA will embark on expanding their killing fields to include West Nile region and Western Uganda using their newly-found safe haven of Eastern DRC.
LRA, thinking the rest of us have daft brains, have used UPDF positions at Aru junction, Magwi and Palutaka as a “siege†of the assembly area of Owiny-Kibul. Aerially, which is a much shorter distance compared to the ground and not including obstacles, it is 41kms to Aru-Junction, 31kms to Magwi and 30kms to Palutaka, all from the assembly area of Owiny-Kibul. In our negotiations with WNBF II of Maj. Gen. Ali Bamuze in 2002, the WNBF II force assembled within a stone’s throw from UPDF positions. Nobody breached the rules, and a permanent peace settlement was achieved.
It is also important to note that the CHA,which was to last for only three weeks, took long to be reviewed. UPDF, if it was such a distrust force as some LRA apologists want us to believe, would have used these moments to act on our intelligence and strike at LRA still in Uganda or those re-arming in Southern Sudan. But this was not foreseeable in the interest of the Juba peace talks.
The addendum signed on November 1, an extension of the August 26 truce, has instead served to further expose LRA’s trickery and false claims. All the two assembly points have remained the same, including the “heavily-mined†Owiny-Kibul! LRA has also been given a 10km radius from the adminsitrative headquarters of Owiny-Kibul as their “territoryâ€, confirming that they were never at anyone time under siege by the UPDF in the first place. Will the LRA assemble this time round, or are we yet to witness another avalanche of excuses? Of course time will tell.
Let the LRA delegation in Juba be informed that Ugandans, especially the long suffering ones in the North, deserve better. They demand more honesty and transparency. Just like the UPDF has kept its part of the bargain in the Juba peace talks, Ugandans demand more commitment and seriousness from the LRA fighters in Sudan and the DRC to assemble at the given assembly points on time. Total peace is none but an urgent matter.
As for the UPDF, there is nothing more it has to offer to demonstrate its commitment to the Juba talks. But let any terrorist stand warned that UPDF is there and will stand up to them always in defence of our people.
The writer is the UPDF PRO/Spokesman
for Northern Region
SINCE the commencement of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CHA) at 0600hrs on August 29, 2006, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have neither shown any commitment nor willingness to implement their own part of the bargain signed in the document.
UPDF on the other hand has played by the rules to the letter. Whereas the majority LRA moved out of Northern Uganda to Southern Sudan, it’s on record that only 45 LRA turned up at the assembly area of Owiny-Kibul for one day, picked food and moved away. As for Ri-Kwangba, LRA did not bother to make any attempts to assemble at all. They only sent a small group of rebels which moved up to the Western Banks of River Nile and their mission had been to receive the group from the East led by Dominic Ongwen and Caeser Accellam and guide it to Garamba in the DRC. But despite several attempts, the Ongwen/Accellam group failed to cross the Nile south of Juba because of the UPDF deployments there.
They then moved North of Juba but their attempts were again rendered fruitless when they attempted to loot cattle for “dry ration†from the Mondali Militia. The militia fought them off and even dispersed them.
Some LRA, under instructions from Otti and Kony, have deliberately remained in Northern Uganda as a strategy to keep “holding ground†behind “enemy linesâ€. These would act as a springboard for the quick resumption of attacks against civilians in Northern Uganda.
We also have strong information that LRA has effectively used the peace talks in Juba to re-organise. They have now, through their financiers and collaborators, acquired more communication gadgets, especially satellite phones. They also for the first time managed to access their underground armouries and have re-armed themselves with more guns and ammunition which had hitherto been inaccessible because of UPDF pressure.
LRA in Garamba has meanwhile moved deeper into Congo to the Ituri province and have struck alliances with Ugandan rebels there such as NALU, PRA and ADF.
But despite all these blatant and fatal violations, the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) still found it prudent to continue supplying LRA even outside the assembly areas. The Cessation of Hostilities Monitoring Team (CHMT) is either not adequately empowered, weak to effectively monitor LRA violations or has deliberately chosen to treat LRA with kid gloves.
But the underlying desire of the LRA group in the Eastern Equatorial, which is to cross River Nile and join their masters in DRC, has not faded. That is why LRA have resorted to their usual naked aggression, killing a UPDF Captain without any provocation 115kms North West of Owiny-Kibul, the massacre of over 40 people and destroying 13 civilian vehicles in different road ambushes in Southern Sudan. LRA had hoped these manouvres would distract UPDF from its positions along the Nile and give them a safe passage to Garamba.
Completely ignoring the consequences it might have on the Juba peace talks, LRA will want to cross to DRC at all costs. It’s their only remaining re-organisation plan. After this has been achieved, LRA will embark on expanding their killing fields to include West Nile region and Western Uganda using their newly-found safe haven of Eastern DRC.
LRA, thinking the rest of us have daft brains, have used UPDF positions at Aru junction, Magwi and Palutaka as a “siege†of the assembly area of Owiny-Kibul. Aerially, which is a much shorter distance compared to the ground and not including obstacles, it is 41kms to Aru-Junction, 31kms to Magwi and 30kms to Palutaka, all from the assembly area of Owiny-Kibul. In our negotiations with WNBF II of Maj. Gen. Ali Bamuze in 2002, the WNBF II force assembled within a stone’s throw from UPDF positions. Nobody breached the rules, and a permanent peace settlement was achieved.
It is also important to note that the CHA,which was to last for only three weeks, took long to be reviewed. UPDF, if it was such a distrust force as some LRA apologists want us to believe, would have used these moments to act on our intelligence and strike at LRA still in Uganda or those re-arming in Southern Sudan. But this was not foreseeable in the interest of the Juba peace talks.
The addendum signed on November 1, an extension of the August 26 truce, has instead served to further expose LRA’s trickery and false claims. All the two assembly points have remained the same, including the “heavily-mined†Owiny-Kibul! LRA has also been given a 10km radius from the adminsitrative headquarters of Owiny-Kibul as their “territoryâ€, confirming that they were never at anyone time under siege by the UPDF in the first place. Will the LRA assemble this time round, or are we yet to witness another avalanche of excuses? Of course time will tell.
Let the LRA delegation in Juba be informed that Ugandans, especially the long suffering ones in the North, deserve better. They demand more honesty and transparency. Just like the UPDF has kept its part of the bargain in the Juba peace talks, Ugandans demand more commitment and seriousness from the LRA fighters in Sudan and the DRC to assemble at the given assembly points on time. Total peace is none but an urgent matter.
As for the UPDF, there is nothing more it has to offer to demonstrate its commitment to the Juba talks. But let any terrorist stand warned that UPDF is there and will stand up to them always in defence of our people.
The writer is the UPDF PRO/Spokesman
for Northern Region