UPDF Rescues 34 In Katakwi

Jun 26, 2003

THE army has rescued 34 people abducted in Katakwi by Kony rebels recently, reports <b>Alfred Wasike.</b>

THE army has rescued 34 people abducted in Katakwi by Kony rebels recently, reports Alfred Wasike.
At least 183 Lwala Girls Secondary School students are safe in Soroti town and are undergoing medical examination and anti-trauma treatment after the LRA attacked their school.
The army said only 56 girls were abducted. Some 33 were still unaccounted for.
“While we are searching for the rest, we rescued 34 people abducted in Katakwi, recovered 60 submachine guns from the rebels, received two LRA reporters, captured two of them, killed 10 but they had killed three civilians. We lost two soldiers in action,” army spokesman Maj Shaban Bantariza said yesterday.
Addressing the President’s Office weekly media briefing, he said calm had returned to Teso and the army was “merely mopping up” as it pursues the rebels now retreating to Pader.
“I am reliably informed that that school had 216 students. Only 56 were actually abducted while others scattered in the bushes when we pursued those terrorists. But 183 are safe. Parents can go and see them.”
Meanwhile, information minister Nsaba Buturo appealed to the media to be patriotic and issued a statement defending the Government against accusations that it closed Kyoga Varitas FM because of its competitor, Voice of Teso, owned by health state minister Mike Mukula.
He said the Catholic Church-owned radio station broadcast Kony’s advance warning of the recent attack in Teso. “We haven’t closed it. We are just investigating them,” Buturo said.
President Museveni’s special assistant in charge of research and information Frank Tumwebaze and information commissioner Okullu Mura attended.
Buturo, who made his first appearance before the media, said, “I appeal to you to work for your country and deny those bandits the oxygen of publicity. It was a heinous act by that radio station to cause such panic in the population. The security of Uganda is our collective paramount responsibility despite our divergent views in life. This is not infringement on the media freedoms. It is not in government interest to gag the press.”
He said the LRA attacked Teso to destroy UPDF combat helicopters at Soroti airstrip and over stretch its capacity. He said they also attacked Teso due to the “intense pressure mounted by the UPDF in Acholi.”
On the situation in northern Uganda, Bantariza said, “There has been little rebel activity.”
Ends

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