UGANDA-SUDAN: LRA rebels capture Sudanese village

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

KHARTOUM, 27 Aug 2004 (IRIN) - Ugandan rebels attacked and captured a village in Southern Sudan's Equatoria Region on Monday, a Sudanese militia group reported on Wednesday.

The Equatoria Defence Force (EDF) said in a statement that hundreds of Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels were involved in the attack on Katire village, which its militiamen had been guarding. Three militiamen died in the attack, according to the EDF, which is allied to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), a Sudanese rebel group.

EDF commander Martin Kenyi said that between 25 and 27 June, the LRA had killed hundreds of civilians in Equatoria. Brig Mohammed Habib of the Sudanese army said the LRA had terrorised the people in southern Sudan just as much as in northern Uganda.

The EDF spokesman, Charles Kisanga, said LRA leader Joseph Kony was controlling two battalions in the Imatong Mountains close to the Ugandan border with Sudan, adding: "The LRA are now weakened and we estimate they have no more than one thousand men."

According to Ugandan military sources, 519 former LRA rebels, including 122 senior commanders, have surrendered since January. Another 215 fighters were captured and 800 killed over the same period. Some 1,768 abductees, mainly children, have been rescued.

EDF and SPLA sources told IRIN that the LRA rebels were mostly operating in eastern Equatoria, around Magwi and Torit counties, located close to the LRA operational areas in northern Uganda.

The LRA, which is said to have bases in southern Sudan, has fought the Uganda government since 1988. The insurgents have perpetrated gross atrocities against civilians, abducting children for conscription into their ranks and forcing girls to become "wives" of rebel commanders.

Some 12,000 children have been abducted since June 2002. About 1.6 million people have been displaced by the conflict and live in camps scattered across the north and northeast.

Two weeks ago, a church organisation in northern Uganda said the conflict between the government and the LRA "may come to a quick end" following the surrender of a large number of LRA fighters over the past few weeks.

"Suddenly, there is real hope that the 18-year old war that has afflicted northern Uganda -particularly Acholi - may come to a quick end," the Justice and Peace Commission of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gulu, said in its August situation report. "Many organisations are beginning to talk of the imminence of a 'post-war' situation."

Referring to the surrenders, the commission said: "What started as a trickle soon became a flow and a trend. Every few days whole groups of LRA combatants and abductees report to some military unit with their commanders."

On Wednesday, sources said an advance team from the International Criminal Court (ICC) had arrived in Uganda to prepare the investigation of crimes committed in the war between government troops and the LRA. The Uganda government invited the ICC.

[ENDS]