Press Release – Uganda’s LRA denies attacks in South Sudan

The Lord’s Resistance Army/Movement (LRA/M)

The Lord’s Resistance Army / Movement (LRA/M) would like to categorically deny the alleged reports that its forces was responsible for the attack on the recently opened Yei -Juba Road in Western Equatoria, in South Sudan which was carried on BBC World Service of 14th September, 2005. For those who know the terrain in question, it is technically and logistically impossible for the LRA/M to mount such an attack, as it was quite rightly reported as being the first time ever for such a crossing and an attack of this kind to take place.

For the LRA to have carried out such an attack, they had to cross the Nile in any of these three clearly known places -(1) through densely populated Juba, move south without being noticed by the heavy presence of the UPDF, SPLA and Sudan Army in the town and all the way to about 30 miles north of Yei and then retrace the same route back through Juba to Eastern Equatoria. It would not just be impossible, but also suicidal.

(2) Another possible point for crossing the Nile is through Moyo inside Ugandan and moreover using government ferry operators. The massive deployment of UPDF in the whole of West Nile region and Yei and beyond in western Equatoria however, makes passing and returning through such a narrow and dangerous route impossible. Note that Museveni has been traveling many times to southern Sudan without notifying the central authorities in Khartoum thanks to UPDF presence.

(3) The only other possible point for crossing the Nile is near Kajo Kajo. For such a crossing to have taken place, the LRA would have to solicit the help of hired local swimmers to carry them across the Nile and then back, an impossible mission to make considering that they would be heavily loaded with weapons and other items of food moreover in an unfamiliar territory of mountainous and swampy terrains.

Considering the massive SPLA and UPDF deployments in the West Bank and especially around Yei and along the Yei-Juba road, the entire LRA group would have been netted in one piece. Mind you, even the invincible SPLA, never used these crossing points in the many bids they made to take control of the West Bank. They (SPLA) had to pass through Uganda in order for them to capture territories in the West Bank. The LRA therefore does not have the capacity to emulate the SPLA.

We would like to tell our fellow Sudanese and Uganda brothers and sisters that this is and has been Museveni’s many methods and tactics of fighting the insurgency in northern and eastern Uganda. This, like many other incidents you have heard before in places in Uganda, are the cowardly acts of Uganda government troops and the many local militia groups meant to tarnish the image of the LRA, forcing public opinion and that of the new leadership in southern Sudan against the LRA/M.

If it is true that the perpetrators of this act have been cornered, as we hear, their surrender would provide undisputable evidence as to their identities. However, before jumping to quick conclusions, we need to take note that there are former LRA who have been absorbed in the UPDF and have been turned into LRA hunters and well known for committing such gruesome acts that the Ugandan government is always quick to blame on the LRA. Some have been re-packaged by the UPDF and turned into more deadly Brigades and killing machines of the Ugandan government.

We would like therefore to call on the Sudanese authorities to act with caution and under international law to facilitate the peaceful surrender of these people, taking into consideration the fact that they have abducted children, women and elderly men. We would further call on the Sudanese authorities to transport these culprits when they surrender to the Red Cross or UNHCR away from the borders of Uganda and DRC to enable their true identities to be established beyond any reasonable doubts.

– LRA/M Information Bureau: 15th Sept 2005