Govt snubs LRA demand

By Henry Mukasa
& Alfred Wasike
THE Government has rejected demands to downsize the UPDF and establish two armies.
The Lord’s Resistance Army (lRA) had proposed that it be left in charge of the north and east.
They demanded that to end the war, the UPDF and the LRA should remain separate armies “during the period preceding the integration of the national army” and that both armies shall be given “equal consideration and treatment as Uganda’s national armies.”
The LRA also demand that after “the integration and formation of new national armed forces, there exists only one armed force with a new name.”
This was in a draft proposal to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.
LRA led by Joseph Kony called for “accommodation of all recognised armed groups in the country, such as Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and Peoples’ Redemption Army (PRA) into the national army.”
ADF which was based in DR Congo between 1996 and 2000 was crushed during UPDF’s Operation Save Haven, although remnants are reported to be trying to regroup in Congo.
“The LRA is not an army. Uganda has one national army which is UPDF. The LRA is a rebel outfit. When they call themselves an army, I shudder. We cannot have two armies in one country. that will mean creating another Somalia,” said Capt Paddy Ankunda, the spokesperson of Uganda’s peace team in Juba, yesterday.
On PRA and ADF, Ankunda said the LRA was confirming that they know of the existence of PRA.
Ends