Are they really LRA?
Editorial, The Juba Post
Nov 24, 2005 — We know the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) as Ugandan rebels fighting to change the government in Uganda, but they have no clear political agenda. They claim to want to rule Uganda according to the biblical Ten Commandments that are summarized as, “Love to God and fellow human beings”.
The activities of the LRA in northern Uganda and southern Sudan are so wicked that they are far from God-fearing.
The LRA have killed, amputated, raped, maimed and forced their victims to eat their own dead relatives. The picture shown by the LRA has forced the international community to label them as terrorists. The LRA avoid negotiations with the government of Uganda because they have no programme for the people of Uganda, whose children they killed and abducted to make into child soldiers and sex slaves.
Now a statement claimed to come from “LRA/M Information Bureau”, dated 15 November, calls for negotiations with the SPLM/A for the sake of security and stability in the region (it is not clear which region).
What have the LRA got to do with south Sudan? What is their motive of killing southern Sudanese? It is apparent that the LRA have lost their mission of changing government in Uganda, and have been fighting southerners on behalf of those who wish to have the southern land and disrupt peace.
Another statement, claimed to be from a Brigadier Kapeil of the LRA issues, threatens NGOs, saying that they will kill any “white person” in the region (again, not clear which region), because they are talking badly of the LRA.
The LRA will incite trouble on themselves if they resort to killing members of NGOs who are in southern Sudan to help it develop. The International Criminal Court will definitely take a tougher measure against the LRA it they do that.
But could it really be the LRA who has issued such threats? Many crimes are being committed in southern Sudan in the name of infamous “Tong-Tong” [known as LRA in Sudan, meaning hackers of people].
There are many enemies of peace in Sudan who would like to weaken the government in southern Sudan, halt development in the south and incite tribal conflict among southerners and show to the world that the southern Sudanese cannot govern themselves and therefore do not deserve a separate government.
The purported LRA recently carried out two consecutive attacks on villages on 17 and 19 November without confrontation from the Sudanese army or the previously government-backed militia groups in the area.
It is important for the leadership of the government of south Sudan, in order to maintain security, to organize the SPLA, pay them salaries, train security personnel as soon as possible and evacuate the Sudanese army back to the north. By doing so, the so called LRA will have no support in the area.
Southern leaders should not marginalize their source of security, because the enemies of peace are using money to carry out their insurgency.