UN’s Annan encourages pursuit of Uganda LRA in Congo
Oct 5, 2005 (UNITED NATIONS) — U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan encouraged the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday to disarm a brutal Uganda rebel group but warned Uganda not to cross the border and go after them.
A remnant of some 320 fighters from the Sudan-based Lord’s Resistance Army, which has raped, maimed and killed children in northern Uganda, last month came to the northeast Congo and held talks with Congolese officers but did not surrender.
Last week Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who sent troops into the Congo during a five-year civil war, threatened to do something about the LRA if no one else did.
“Inflammatory statements detrimental to the conduct of United Nations operations do not serve the cause of peace and could result in putting the lives of U.N. personnel in danger,” Annan said in a statement in an obvious reference to Uganda.
He said “any recourse to the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the Democratic Republic of Congo, contravenes the United Nations Charter.”
Annan condemned the incursion of the LRA fighters and supported the Congo government for vowing to disarm the group “with the assistance of United Nations” peacekeepers.
William Swing, head of the U.N. Mission in the Congo, known by its French acronym MONUC, told the Security Council last week U.N. peacekeepers were prepared to support the Congolese army against the LRA, “if necessary by force.”
The LRA controversy is not on the political agenda of the United Nations, but it was mentioned in a Security Council statement because of the group’s migration to the Congo. Uganda has objected to the council dealing with the issue.
Nineteen years of warfare by the LRA has devastated northern Uganda and uprooted more than 1.6 million people, causing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. More than 10,000 children have been kidnapped by the rebels and forced to become fighters, porters and sex slaves.
The group received international notoriety in 1996 when it abducted 152 teenage girls at St. Mary’s College in northern Uganda. Nuns running the school pursued 200 armed men and 109 girls were released while “the prettiest” were taken as “wives.” Those who escaped told harrowing tales of torture and maiming.
Uganda, at one point, chased the LRA into the Sudan, with Khartoum’s permission but never found them. Diplomats question whether some factions of the Sudanese army supported LRA leader Joseph Kony, who was allowed to set up bases in the Sudan.
The United Nations is waiting for the imminent announcement that arrest warrants have been issued for Kony by the Hague-based International Criminal Court. The warrants would be handed to the governments of Uganda, Congo and Sudan.
(Reuters)