Salva Kiir warns LRA to leave Sudan

Aug 24, 2005 (Khartoum) — Sudan’s new southern leader Salva Kiir issued a stark warning to the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), urging the Ugandan rebels to reach a rapid peace deal with Kampala or leave Sudan at once.

“The LRA have to reach a settlement to their problem with the Ugandan government, if not, they have to leave the south, otherwise we are going to find other solutions,” the first vice president told reporters in Rumbek late Tuesday.

Tit-for-tat clashes between the Ugandan army and the LRA — which has several bases in southern Sudan — have intensified in recent months.

Uganda last week launched a deadly raid against a group of rebels believed to be commanded by LRA number two Vincent Otti.

Kampala and Khartoum signed a deal in 2002 allowing the Ugandan army to conduct raids in parts of remote Sudan following repeated complaints that Khartoum was harbouring the notoriously brutal LRA.

Salva Kiir succeeded John Garang at the helm of the former southern Sudanese rebel group — the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement — after the historic leader died in a July 30 helicopter crash.

The SPLM signed a peace deal with Khartoum in January and is due to take part in a national unity government that will govern the country during the first part of an interim six-year period that kicked off last month.

Uganda has voiced fears of stepped up activity by the LRA following the death of Garang, who was seen as potent counterbalance to the Ugandan rebels.

AFP/ST